Conservation Easement Donation AgreementConservation Easement Donation Agreement • January 26th, 2018
Most conservation projects begin with a series of communications, often face-to-face conversations, between the interested landowners and representatives of the land trust—everyone exploring what the project might look like and trying to ascertain whether their respective needs and goals can be met. The time and resources spent by landowners and land trusts in these initial explorations tend to be modest. However, there comes a point—if the parties have a serious interest in proceeding and have essentially finished conceptualizing and determining the feasibility of the project—that the next easement planning steps will require substantial investments of time and money. At this stage, a land trust may want assurance that it won’t get stuck covering the expenses of going forward on the project if the landowners decide later not to complete the easement. And landowners may want assurance that the land trust is truly committed to the project before they incur further expense.
