Land Trusts

A land trust is a nonprofit organization that, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition, or by its stewardship of such land or easements.

Land trusts and conservation easements often help families keep their family farms

Land trusts work with landowners and the community to conserve land by accepting donations of land, purchasing land, negotiating private, voluntary conservation agreements on land, and stewarding conserved land through the generations to come.

Most land trusts are community, state or region-based and deeply connected to local needs, so they are well-equipped to identify land that offers critical natural habitat as well as land offering recreational, agricultural and other conservation value.

Georgia Land Trust, Inc., Alabama Land Trust, Inc., and founding organization The Chattowah Open Land Trust, Inc. are members of The Land Trust Alliance, a national land trust organization with a mission to “save the places people love by strengthening land conservation across America.”

Read more about the Land Trust Alliance at: http://www.landtrustalliance.org/

The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary private land conservation to benefit communities and natural systems and is the national convener, strategist and representative of more than 1,700 land trusts across America.

Standards And Practices:

Georgia Land Trust, Inc., Alabama Land Trust, Inc., and founding organization The Chattowah Open Land Trust, Inc., operate in accordance with Standards and Practices promulgated by the Land Trust Alliance (LTA). Our adherence to the Standards and Practices ensures that landowners receive ethical, professional advisement and that our operations are undertaken in accordance with the most recent best management practices from LTA and the various governmental entities that have a say in the rules governing conservation easements.

To learn more about Land Trust Alliance standards and practices:

http://www.landtrustalliance.org/learning/sp

Conservation Easement Defined:

A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner (easement donor) and a qualified conservation organization or public entity (easement holder) in which the owner voluntarily agrees to restrict the type and amount of development that can occur on the land. A conservation easement allows the landowner to preserve the property’s conservation and historic values by keeping it in an undeveloped state and allowing for preservation of traditional land use patterns. At the same time, the landowner continues to maintain ownership of the property, retains the right to use the property for profit and recreation and retains the right to convey (sell, deed, gift) the property to another. The conservation easement donation can reduce estate, income and property taxes for the landowner.

How Conservation Easements Work To Protect Land

Every conservation easement (CE) must have certain elements to reach fruition. First, the land has to have conservation values (CVs). There are basic CVs set forth in IRS code section 170(h) (see conservation values, below). Conservation Values set forth in 170(h) include such things as relatively natural habitat for native animals and plants, productive forest and agricultural lands and protection of water quality.

Unless a property provides at least one of these benefits, any charitable deductions claimed on the CE may be deemed invalid. All CEs must have a baseline documentation report (BDR), a snapshot in time of the property at the time of donation that documents the property’s CVs and maps out areas on the property to be preserved inviolate and areas where reserved activities and uses may be undertaken.

All CEs must have a conservation purpose. The easement must demonstrate that it will allow no activities detrimental to the conservation values the Conservation Easement sets out to protect. The rights reserved within the CE, such as agriculture, timber management, construction of barns, sheds, houses, and ponds, must be compatible with and allow for the protection of the CVs. For example, if the purpose of the Easement is to protect prime agricultural soils, the landowner would typically reserve the “farmstead area” (repair shop, equipment shed, etc.) on the area with the poorest quality soil or near a road so as to maximize the productivity of the soil while minimizing disturbance of the land. If the landowner sets out to protect a rare plant, the area with the rare plant will be afforded special protection (perhaps no or limited harvesting and no agriculture or food plots).

The landowners typically provide that their activities will be conducted in accordance with plans and best management practices to ensure the property will remain productive and indeed have its productivity enhanced by the uses and that these operations.

There must be an endowment on the property, to ensure its perpetual monitoring and the defense of the CE’s terms and conditions. There must be clear title-you can’t donate what don’t own outright. At the end of the process of negotiating and defining all of the above, there must a recorded deed of conservation easement-the terms and conditions of the CE run with the land in perpetuity and the deed will provide evidence of this for future titles.

Landowners Intent on Protecting Land: The Most Important Ingredient

But for any of the above to matter at all, the land must have a property owner willing to take the extraordinary step of saying “the value that the commonwealth and I place on the qualities and uses inherent in this land are so important that I will ensure their perpetual protection.” Our land trust understands this and works diligently to make sure that we are readily available to help the landowner protect the property’s conservation values in an efficient and professional manner.

We work with the landowner to create a Conservation Easement that reflects the Conservation Values the landowner desires to protect. The easement is also constructed to ensure that the landowners’ commitment to protecting the land does not constrain them from traditional uses of the property that provide value to them. This is critical to the success of a CE.

We’ve now helped put in place more than 450 CEs protecting more than 160,000 acres. We have a significant body of practice that we bring to bear to ensure that our CEs are as up to the minute in meeting (and we hope exceeding) the evolving standards involved in putting a CE in place. Our baseline documentation is always being refined to ensure that it clearly demonstrates the conservation values associated with the property and clearly shows how the property will be used in the future. We work with landowners to put in place an endowment program that is feasible and yet ensures that their wishes for the property will be observed in perpetuity.

Forever is a mighty long time. As the landowners land trust, we think our experience, our sensitivity to what landowners are trying to accomplish, and our attention to ensuring the proper legal form of our easements will help the time pass meaningfully and productively for all concerned.

Protecting watersheds and land through conservation easements help safeguard water and soil quality and wildlife habitat

Conservation Values

IRS Code Section 170(h)–the rules governing non-cash charitable donations–stipulates CEs
must be donated:
1. In perpetuity;
2. To a qualified charitable organization, that has the commitment and resources to enforce the CE
3. exclusively for conservation purposes.

170(h) generally defines
“conservation purposes” as:
1. The preservation of land areas for outdoor recreation by, or the education of the general public;
(With CEs given for recreation or educational purposes, public access is required to claim an income tax deduction)
2) The protection of relatively natural habitat for fish, wildlife, plants, or similar ecosystems;
3) The preservation of open space where such preservation will yield a significant public benefit
and is either
       a) For the scenic enjoyment of the general public, (For scenic easements, much of the property must be visible to the public; physical access is not required); or
       b) Pursuant to a clearly delineated federal, state, or local governmental conservation policy;
4) The preservation of a historically important land area or certified historic structure.
        a) Visual or physical access is required, depending on the nature of the property or building to be preserved.