Conserving your Land
Conservation Easements - Summary
NRLT works with Northern Rivers landowners who love their
land and want to see it conserved. We buy and accept gifts
of development rights. Using legal tools
called "conservation easements" or "grants of development
rights," land trusts help landowners to voluntarily limit
development while keeping the land open for forestry, farming
and recreation. The property remains in private ownership
with the peace of mind that it is protected now and forever.
Tax Status
Donations of easements, as valued by certified appraisers, currently
qualify as charitable contributions for federal income and estate
tax purposes, but do not necessarily reduce property taxes.
Agreements for Purchase and Sale,
and Grant of Development Rights
The first step in NRLT acquisition of development rights
is negotiation of a purchase and sale (P&S) agreement between NRLT
and the landowner. This is followed by negotiation of a grant of
development rights, leading to a contract entered in your town's
Land Records.
Stewardship endowment fund
NRLT's current policy is to raise or transfer $3000 to its
Stewardship Endowment Fund for each new easement, in order
to cover monitoring and enforcement costs. Easement donors
are invited to contribute to this fund in recognition that
NRLT is assuming a perpetual responsibility to preserve
their land.
Standard terms of NRLT conservation
easements
Several of these are listed below, although it should be noted
that NRLT approaches each project flexibly out of a desire to
accommodate as far as possible specific needs and goals of the
landowner.
- Fragmentation of a property under
different owners is normally excluded, although an easement may
permit subdivision of one or a small number of specific parcels.
- Easements provide for homesteads of specific
acreage where an owner may remodel an existing house or add certain
types of ancillary structures.
- Some agreements authorize present or future
owners to establish up to a specified number of additional single-family
residences on certain portions of the property.
- Normally there is no limit on structures associated
with agriculture or forestry.
- Where holdings include woodland, easements
provide that any harvesting of timber must follow a state-approaved
forest management plan.
- If NRLT and the landowner agree that it is
desirable to maintain open spaces, such as hayfields, the easement
authorizes NRLT to arrange for haying or bushhogging the land
if owners fail to do so.
- the landowner is committed to grant
NRLT reasonable access for the purpose of monitoring adherence
to the easement.
- Unless an easement stipulates public access
for recreation, it is up to the current landowner to decide whether
or not to grant such access.
VLT guidelines
NLRT normally follows guidelines issued by the Vermont Land Trust.
VLT templates comprise our point of departure for negotiating P&S agreements
and grants of development rights. These are summarized on VLT's website:
see in particular the page Conservation Easement: Guide to Legal Document.
Other relevant pages on the VLT website:
- VLT Conservation Easement Donation
Guidelines
- VLT Small Parcel Conservation Easement Donation Guidelines
- Tax Benefits of Donating Conservation Easements
- Commonly asked Questions
- News of some recent family lands conservation projects
- VLT Productive Timberlands Conservation Easement Guide
- Farmland Protection: How to Conserve your Farm
