Landowner Guides

The Conservancy’s most common method of land protection is the conservation easement, where alandowner gives up (donates or sells) certain property rights to the land trust in order to protect specific resources. All of LPOSC’s conservation easements have been donated, and most haveresulted in significant tax benefits for the donors.

An introduction to the tax benefits associated with conservation easements

This is one of a series of resource papers on proactive strategies for a healthy environment published by the Georgia Environmental Policy Institute and the Georgia Land Trust Service Center. Funding for the first edition of this resource paper was provided by the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Broad River Action Group, the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund and the Sonoran Institute. Funding for the second edition was provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

This is a comprehensive book on the tax benefits of the charitable contribution, or bargain sale, of a conservation easement. It provides a detailed explanation of the complex and extensive requirements of the federal tax code and related concepts, including the rules governing the operation of tax-exempt organizations such as land trusts.

Whether you have rural acreage, a suburban yard, or a city lot, you can help protect the environment and add beauty and interest to your surroundings. “Backyard Conservation" shows how conservation practices that help conserve and improve natural resources on agricultural land across the country can be adapted for use around the home. Most backyard conservation practices are easy to use and these 10 conservation practices help the environment and can make your yard more attractive and enjoyable.

A Landowners Guide to Conservation Management - The purpose of this guidebook is to give you—the private landholders of Minnesota—a tool for a better understanding of conservation management.

In simple terms, this book connects the dots and makes it clear that increasing native insect biomass with native plants is the glue that holds together the web of life in the homemade habitat. Available at most book retail sources.

Short guide for landowners that explains the advantages of bargain sales and offers information about tax benefits and documentation.

This reference guide was written for landowners who are either considering a conservation easement, or who would like to know more about the conservation easement process. This document neither provides nor replaces legal advice, does share experience with land protection at a national and a state-wide level and includes a summary of many conservation easement studies that specifically focus on landowner perspectives about land protection.

A conservation easement limits certain uses of the land in order to advance one or more conservation objectives while keeping the land in the owner’s control. It is established by mutual agreement of a landowner and a private land trust or government. (WeConservePA guide; 5 pages)

Guide outlines various conservation options for landowners, including conservation easements, donating land, and more.

fact sheet on environmentally friendly lawn

Fifty-eight Pennsylvania counties have agricultural land preservation boards that purchase agricultural conservation easements. Sixty-eight private, charitable land trusts accept donations of conservation easements or, less commonly, purchase them. These two paths to farmland preservation differ in many ways. WeConservePA guide. 4 pages.

Two PowerPoint presentations talking about Sustainable Forest Management and Private Forest Landowner Objectives

Converting areas covered by turf grass to meadows can be financially rewarding and relatively simple on both public and private land. It can also deliver substantial environmental and aesthetic benefits. WeConservePA guide. 5 pages.

<p>In accepting a conservation easement from you, the land trust takes on the responsibility of ensuring that your land is forever conserved. Fulfilling this duty requires money. This is why the land trust seeks financial support from you or subsequent owners of the land. WeConservePA guide. 2 pages.</p>

This publication is a guide to aid large property owners with innovative green projects to reduce stormwater pollution. It contains stormwater management practices and site examples.

An overview of options landowners have to protect their land, the potential financial benefits of doing so, how protecting land will impact the community and the landowners children, and the tax implications of land protection.

The purpose of this guide is to to assist landowners in developing a forest buffer that will provide benefits to the landowner, wildlife, stream and the environment as a whole.

Detailed guide explains the ins and outs of pipeline easements and helps landowners navigate the process of dealing with a pipeline proposed for their property.

This publication provides basic information for PA landowners regarding their rights to control nuisance wildlife.

Manual for gardening with native plants for the Middle-Atlantic region.

This document is one of a series of fact sheets and reference materials produced by the Land Trust Alliance. Please contact us for additional information or to order materials.

Two-page deer management guide for landowners including information on predator-prey balance and tools and options available to private landholders.

This handy book is full of great information geared to landowners with large acreage and/or working land (agricultural or ranch) who would like to provide for and protect wildlife.

A beautifully written examination of why restoring habitat on our properties is so important and how it can replace traditional landscaping practices which create a disconnect. If nothing else, read the first 100 pages and you will have a new perspective on your yard. Available on retail book websites, some retail book locations, and at some nature centers.

The booklet informs citizens on issues related to water conservation, ensuring that private water supply systems produce safe drinking water for your family, protecting the long-term quality of our streams and drinking water sources, and helping you to understand the potential sources of pollution to our water resources. The booklet provides general information explaining certified water testing, chain-of-custody, and drinking water regulations and standards. It provides information related to the health (primary standards) or aesthetic (secondary standards) concerns for each parameter and provides information on water quality parameters that do not specifically have a drinking water limit. This reference is intended as a guide to understand water quality by providing guidance on selecting water quality testing parameters for baseline testing from a citizen's perspective and by serving as a tool to help interpret water quality data. In some cases, this document provides guidance on what actions you may want to consider. The booklet can be accessed at http://www.slideshare.net/interpro63/pennsylvania-private-well-owners-manual or http://www.private-well-owner.org.

Two-page fact sheet for landowners, planners, and others to maintain grassland birds, which have declined in recent years. Information covers causes of decline, importance of agricultural lands, amount of land needed for nesting, and what landowners and planners can do to help.

The follow-up to Noah’s Garden, the how-to’s on welcoming life back into the yard. Available on retail book websites, some retail book locations, and at some nature centers.

Two-page fact sheet on this aphid-like creature that feeds on hemlock trees. Information includes a description of the pest, its life history, and what landowners can do to help control and eliminate the woolly hemlock adelgid.

In Pennsylvania, death triggers a state inheritance tax on the distribution of the deceased person’s assets (the “estate”) to the beneficiaries of the estate. Conservation restrictions in support of agriculture on land included in the estate can reduce the inheritance tax owed. WeConservePA guide. 4 pages.

Two-page fact sheet about sustainable forestry for the benefit of birds and other wildlife. Information covers selective cutting, stewardship practices, composition of forest for nesting birds and forest health, and implementation tips.

At times, it may seem like landowners have no choice but to surrender to the sprawling development engulfing many rural areas, but this simply is not true. This guide highlights the numerous options that are available for either protecting large properties from development, or developing them in a way that is sensitive to and compatible with the landscape.

The definitive guide to attracting birds includes plant profiles (across five regions of U.S.), bird diets, and planting recommendations.

In a book long awaited by landscapers, birders, gardeners, and naturalists, Stephen W. Kress provides a practical, comprehensive, and thoroughly illustrated guide to attracting birds to any property, be it a small patch of land in the city or a showplace countryside garden, a median strip or an expansive woodlot, a commercial building or a community park.

A publication of the Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service of the Cooperative Extension, Ithaca, NY. An excellent spiral bound workbook with reader-friendly information on land management, worksheets, and checklists including breakdown of trees and their relative wildlife value. Available here: http://www.nraes.org/

A family or group of neighbors may want to limit future use of a property, but that desire may not be shared as a priority by conservation organizations or government. In this case, a deed restriction may a sensible—albeit imperfect—tool that the private individuals can use on their own to achieve limited protection of the land. A 2-page guide.

This publication gives information for landowners on how to understand the results of tests of their drinking water.

This handbook provides you with detailed information about the tools and techniques available for controlling invasive plants, or weeds, in natural areas. Whenever possible, language familiar to natural area managers is used, and unfamiliar terms and jargon borrowed from other fields are defined.

If forest landowners want to ensure that their forest stewardship efforts extend beyond their tenure and are available for future generations to use and cherish, they must act responsibly and take charge of the direction and long-term future of their land. The question is how to assure that their property is managed responsibly? There are a variety of estate planning tools available to accomplish this task. A Working Forest Conservation Easement (WFCE) may be the answer.

Making decisions about the future of your land may seem overwhelming. It can be difficult to initiate conversations with your family, to sort out the different professionals involved in estate planning, and to know how to take the first step. This publication can help you get started, and discusses the types of professionals who will help make it happen. - A publication of the University of Massechusets, Amherst, 2017