Conservation Tools

Acquiring Land and Conservation Easements overviews the laws on property title, steps to take in acquiring land, working with attorneys to ensure sound transactions and completing title work to ensure conservation efforts stand the test of time. The book includes information and case studies on conducting effective and principled negotiations.

This report presents an analysis of months of research and dialogue among leading attorneys, practitioners and academics on the issues of how, when and if conservation easements should be amended.

This publication is designed to complement the 2004 Land Trust Standards and Practices. General information on Land Trust Standards and Practices and on Land Trust Alliance publications and training programs related to the standards and practices can be found at www. landtrustalliance.org. The two-volume Land Trust Standards and Practices Guidebook contains more detailed information about each practice and how land trusts can meet them. Alliance member land trusts and partners can find this informa- tion, sample documents and more online at The Learning Center (http://learningcenter.lta.org).

It is vital that every land trust consider what will happen to its assets if the organization ceases to exist or can no longer steward or administer its easements and land trusts should have a contingency plan for all of their easements in case of such events. One strategy is to include backup or contingency provisions in the easement. While there are variations on this practice, a backup or “executory” interest grantee is usually empowered to enforce an easement if the original grantee fails to do so, or to take over an easement if the original grantee can no longer manage it.

How well are you meeting your commitment to protect in perpetuity the conservation values of your fee lands and easement holdings? Is your stewardship fund adequate? What should you be doing regarding enforcement funds? Download LTA’s newest report.

The 15 courses that make up the Standards and Practices Curriculum are written by top conservation experts. In addition, each course goes through a rigorous review and pilot process to ensure land trusts have an authoritative resource on private land conservation.

The goal of the Conservation Defense Insurance is to create favorable case law, avoid unfavorable case law, defend and enforce conservation easements, protect fee-owned land, encourage practices that will help prevent violations and unnecessary litigation, support good practices, and provide the confidence and capability to uphold conservation obligations forever.

In 1999, the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) conducted a Conservation Easement Study, a survey of land trusts that indicated in LTA’s 1998 National Land Trust Census that they either had experienced one or more easement violations or had amended a conservation easement. A follow up survey was sent to land trusts that LTA either knew or suspected had experienced major, litigated violations. The results of the study are presented in this article: types of violations, manners of resolving them, who they were committed by, and costs of resolution. The article is from LTA's journal "Exchange" can be obtained at LTA's Learning Center.

Part of the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Curriculum, this course covers the costs and funding of land and conservation easement stewardship, and presents best practices in managing a land trust's financial assets and dedicated funds. The tools provided in this course will also help you establish or revise your land trust's financial and stewardship funding policies. It provides guidance and tools to implement practices 6F, 11A and 12A. .

This user-friendly guide bridges the gap between conservation biology and its application to typical land trust projects. Intended for land trusts, landowners, biologists, planers, and students, the handbook explains biodiversity and how it's conserved, what types of biological information are most useful, and how to gather such information through reviews of freely-available data sources and on-the-ground biological inventories. The book also explains how to apply biological information to standard land protection tasks, such as project selection, fundraising, drafting conservation easement language, compiling baseline documentation, writing management plans, and how the information helps land trust projects conform to IRS Treasury regulations and Land Trust Standards and Practices.

Lessons learned by the Colarado Coalition of Land Trusts when dealing with the IRS in terms of their auditing procedures.

fact sheet on specific proposed terms and conditions of LTA's conservation defense insurance program

Land Trust Alliance Standards & Practices Fact Sheet, 2004

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.

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.

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.

It is vital that every land trust consider what will happen to its assets if the organization ceases to exist or can no longer steward or administer its easements. Land trusts should have a contingency plan for all of their easements in case of such events. One strategy is to include backup or contingency provisions in the easement. While there are variations on this practice, a backup or “executory” interest grantee is usually empowered to enforce an easement if the original grantee fails to do so, or to take over an easement if the original grantee can no longer manage it.

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.

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.

This student guide is part of the Land Trust Alliance's Standards & Practices Curriculum and is designed to provided guidance and tools to implement practices 2B, 3B, 3C and 3F.

Land Trust Standards & Practices that specifically relate to appraisals.

Land Trust Standards and Practices are the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust. This is a living document and was revised in 1993, 2001 and 2004 to reflect changes in land trust practices and regulations governing nonprofit organizations. The 2004 revisions were prepared by a team of land trust leaders and reviewed by hundreds of conservationists to capture and share the experience of land trusts from throughout the country.

Sample resolution for land trusts adopting standards and practices.

The title says it all.

Investing in parks and natural areas yields fiscal relief, improved public health, strengthened neighborhoods, environmental protection, and the preservation of natural beauty, all of which makes communities more livable. Open space protection does not “cost”; rather, it “pays”. Examples include San Antonio, Texas’ Riverwalk Park, which was created for $425,000 and is now the most popular attraction of the city’s $3.5 billion tourism industry, and New Jersey, where the $65 million protection of the Sterling Forest from a proposed development avoided the construction of a $160 million water treatment plant.

Gas extraction lease provisions to be addressed to preserve conservation values and ensure fair payment.

Early lessons from the pilot program