What is a Conservation Easement?

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust (like Heritage Conservancy) or government agency that permanently restricts certain uses and activities in order to protect the conservation values associated with the property’s natural resources and wildlife habitat.

Safeguarding resources like water quality, farmland, scenic views, and habitat benefits both the landowner and the public. The conservation easement between a private landowner and a qualified holding organization, like Heritage Conservancy, allows the landowner to continue to own and enjoy their land while creating restrictions on use of the property to help protect the conservation values of the land. The easement is a legally binding agreement that ensures the land is permanently protected through all future changes in ownership.

Conservation easement can also be placed on public lands, like a local park, to ensure that recreational lands remain open to the community.

How does the Conservation Easement process work?

• A property owner with the desire to preserve their land works with a land trust like Heritage Conservancy to determine if their property merits protection by a conservation easement. Land trust staff will visit the property and look for special features and significant conservation values: habitat, native trees and plants, wetland features, buffer value for nearby natural land, and more.
• If the property holds significant conservation value, the landowner and land trust will formulate a protection. Together, the landowner and land trust determine the appropriate levels of permitted future uses that won’t harm or threaten the conservation values. Both the conservation values and restrictions are included in the conservation easement. Heritage Conservancy uses a model easement crafted by We Conserve PA, a collective of conservation organizations and professionals throughout Pennsylvania. This model easement is also used by many counties as well as the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
• Each Conservation Easement identifies certain rights that a property owner is giving up in order to protect the conservation values. For example, a landowner may desire to forfeit the ability to subdivide land and sell as individual lots, in order to protect a high-value stream that runs through the property.
• These forfeited rights often have an associated financial value, which can be evaluated by professional qualified appraisal.
• Depending on a landowner’s goals, in addition to available sources of funding, an easement may be donated or purchased. The property owner may choose to donate the easement and possibly take a tax break for the charitable contribution. If an easement is purchased, the landowner receives financial consideration for either a portion or all of the appraised easement value.
• Heritage Conservancy will work on behalf of landowners to identify and secure funding for conservation easements. Project funding including the easement purchase price can come from public and municipal land conservation funds, private contributions, and support from foundations and conservation organizations.
• Once the conservation easement document is finalized and agreed upon by all parties, it is signed and recorded with the property’s deed. At that time, the property owner is paid.
• At the time the easement is recorded, the land trust will prepare a baseline report to inventory the existing conditions through maps and photography accompanied by written narrative. All parties sign this document as well to show agreement on the existing conditions.
• For each conservation easement that it accepts, Heritage Conservancy requires a stewardship fee to help offset the ongoing costs of administering and upholding the easement in perpetuity.
• As the holder of a conservation easement, Heritage Conservancy will conduct annual reviews of the protected property to observe any changes and ensure that the terms of the easement are being followed.
• Landowners considering preserving their properties are strongly encouraged to professional guidance for advice on individual legal and financial implications of conveying a conservation easement on their property.

Conservation Easement FAQs

Q: What makes a property eligible for a conservation easement?

A: Many factors are considered in the process of determining eligibility and will vary among entities that hold easements. Certain criteria may include size, connectivity with other preserved lands, and the quality of the land’s natural resources and habitats such as the presence of high-quality waterways or wetlands, high-quality agricultural soils, known or suspected rare, sensitive, and threatened or endangered species and their habitat. Heritage Conservancy scores a given property according to these criteria and pursues those that meet or exceed our minimum score.

Q: Why do people seek Land Conservation?

A: There are many reasons an owner may seek to protect their property, but normally people are motivated by their love for the land and desire for it to endure in its natural, agricultural, or historic state.

Q: What happens when preserved land is sold to a new owner?

A: Sellers or their representatives should disclose that the property is protected by a conservation easement that limits the types and intensity of uses and improvements that can be conducted on the land. Buyers may even be attracted to a property because of its ecological value and preservation status. As conservation easements protect land legally in perpetuity, new owners are bound by the easement put in place by the grantor of the easement.

Heritage Conservancy’s land conservation work

Heritage Conservancy is a nationally accredited land trust based in Doylestown, PA. We hold Conservation Easements in Bucks, Montgomery, and Northampton Counties. We partner with municipalities to help administer local land conservation programs.

Once a property is protected with a conservation easement, we work with landowners to help them steward their property, to improve and protect its habitats for wildlife. We offer regular events and educational opportunities for landowners and remain a resource for them throughout their ownership of a protected property.