Baseline documentation is developed in advance of a conservation easement’s establishment to document the condition of the property to be eased. The documentation identifies the conservation values to be protected and provides a baseline against which subsequent changes to the land may be recognized. This guide explores the baseline’s purposes, the content needed to support these purposes, and considerations for implementation.
A grant of conservation easement may provide one or more rights to a party other than the landowner and holder of the easement, in accordance with the needs and wishes of those involved with the easement transaction. Unlike for the easement holder, such rights received by the “beneficiary” do not come with obligations.
A conservation easement may be granted to multiple entities. These holders of the easement are then each responsible for upholding the easement’s conservation objectives. The respective roles of the holders and their relationship to one another must be carefully delineated to achieve effective easement management and minimize potential conflict.
Properly delineating the boundaries of conservation easements and their different protection areas is crucial to easement stewardship and enforcement. Conservation restrictions are difficult, if not impossible, to enforce unless tied to physical locations on the ground. This guide discusses the delineation of boundaries and protection areas using physical markers, verbal descriptions, and visual depictions.
When a mortgage predates an easement on a property, the easement could be extinguished in a foreclosure if the owners default on their mortgage payments. And if the easement is to be donated and the donors wish to obtain tax benefits, additional complications arise. These problems can be avoided by obtaining an agreement from the mortgage holder appropriate to the circumstances.
Most grants of conservation easement sharply limit the ability of current and future landowners to subdivide or transfer less than the entirety of eased land. This guide explains the substantial conservation value of these restrictions and reviews some considerations for planning exceptions to full prohibitions.
The Model Grant of Conservation Easement and Declaration of Covenants provides users with a state-of-the-art legal document. Built on a foundation of research that identified working (and failing) easement practices around the country and fine-tuned in response to user experiences and feedback over many years, no easement document has received more peer review. The expansive commentary explains the reasoning behind every provision, instructs on use of the model, and provides a wealth of alternative and optional provisions.