Conservation Easements -
A Short
Explanation of Terms
By Carol W. LaGrasse
(July 2002)
“Connecticut Farmland Protected by State Agricultural
Conservation Easement Cannot Be Converted to A Golf Course” - News Brief, PRFA, August 2007
“The Environmental Trust Bankruptcy” - by Darrel Beck (Reprinted by permission from newsletter
of Citizens for Private Property Rights, Santa Ysabel, California,
Sept. 2005)
The San Diego-based land trust called The Environmental Trust
filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy last spring, leaving behind debt
exceeding #13 million, many unrecorded conservation easements,
incompletely deposited endowment funds, and inadequate financial
ability to protect “critical habitat”
on lands it was obligated to manage.
“Conservation Easements — The Hidden Inevitable
Truths”
- OpEd by Clarice Ryan, Big Fork, Montana, July 4, 2004
Down-to-earth reflections on the perpetuity of conservation
easements.
“LAND
Responds to Minnesota Governor’s Plan” - By Chuck Damschen, LAND Past President (Reprinted
by permission from Landowners Association of North Dakota, January
2004, p. 3)
LAND expresses concern over Minnesota Governor Pawlenty’s
expanded Conservation Reserve Enhancement Plan. Landowners are
having negative experiences with perpetual easements. LAND favors
short-term easements that can be renegotiated on a regular basis.
“Land Trust Bonanza in ‘Faith Based Initiative’
Blocked Again in Congress”
- PRFA, September 2003
The House Ways and Means Committee approved HR 7, Pres. Bush’s
Faith Based Initiative, but
struck out a land acquisition/conservation easement provision
for a capitol gains break that would
benefit the land trusts to the tune of a billion dollars.
“Farm Bureau seeks limits for conservation easements” - by Steve Miller, West River Editor, Rapid City
Journal, August 26, 2003 (Reprinted by permission of the
Rapid City Journal)
The South Dakota Farm Bureau began a petition drive to limit
perpetual conservation easements. “Unseen changes
in the future can place unintended hardships on future property
owners,” said Dick Kjerstad, president.
“Senate Drops Stealth Measure for Capital Gains
Tax Relief”
— By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 24, 2002)
A capital gains tax credit of 25 percent was to favor landowners
who sell land or conservation easements to land trusts or government.
This “conservation” provision was hidden
in Bush’s “Faith-based Initiative.”
Asst. Sec. of U.S. Dept. of Interior responds to LaGrasse
(DOI Letter, June 18, 2002)
Commenting specifically on LaGrasse’s March 10,
2002 letter to DOI, Lynn Scarlet, Asst. Secretary, Policy, Management
and Budget, responded, “With respect to your recommendation
that endangered, threatened and rare species restoration should
be contracted out, the President’s Management Agenda
does call for a greater focus on competitive sourcing...We share
your desire for transparency and a wide range of partnerships
for conservation.”
“Congress Holds Stacked Hearing on Conservation
Tax Credits”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, May 4, 2002)
Fifty percent capital gains tax break would shift title to
private land and conservation easements to land trusts and government.
Land trusts, members of Congress, and big industry testify exclusively.
However, articles give visibility to property rights activists’
objections to Administration proposal.
July 2001:
“Pennsylvania
Passes Conservation Easement Legislation”
- Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, July 2001)
Uniform Conservation Easement Act passes with modifications to
third party enforcement provisions, plus clauses intended to
protect forestry and coal interests
Update - June 2001:
“Conservation
Easement Bill in Pennsylvania Legislature-H.R. 975 Would Cancel
Protections for Private Property, Allow Third Parties to Enforce
Conservation Easements”
- Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, June 2001)
See Also
Essential Books
& Publications
“Uniform Conservation
Easement Act”
Drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform
State Law
(complete text of model law)
link
Now in its third
reprint: For a copy of the complete text of “Conservation
Easements,” explaining why they are a “wolf in sheep’s
clothing”:
Send $3.00 (incl. p&h) to PRFA for Positions on Property,
Vol. 5, No. 1 (July 2000). Includes “Informed Consent.”
N.Y. State residents please add 7% sales tax.
Additional Helpful
Organizations
Attention Virginia Residents—June
2001:
The Virginia Land Rights Coalition has just published an attention-grabbing
little booklet to help fight conservation easements. It is entitled
“Return of the Dead Hand” and is available upon request.
(A small donation to cover
postage and handling is appreciated.)
address
Additional Resources
Testimony
to National Parks Subcommittee
Hearing on the National Historic Register, April
21, 2005
By Peter F. Blackman
The National Register is supposed to be elective and an honor.
The National Park Service literature trumpets time and again
that you can do anything you wish with your house without penalty.
The “National Park Service and others will use the National
Register as a bludgeon against the property owner and trample
his property rights, if they can.”
“Supplemental Statement to Testimony”
Subcommittee on National Parks
Hearing on the National Historic Register, April 21, 2005
By Peter F. Blackman
Owner of house in the Historic Green Springs District located
in Louisa County, Virginia, cannot repair his unexceptional,
decrepit house because of National Park Service’s purported
conservation easement on his house. The dispute is in litigation.
“The Cost of Open Space”
-By Pat Taylor, Realtor
Magazine Online, October, 2004
Efforts to conserve land raise property rights, affordability
and tax concerns — into the future with hands tied,
under new scrutiny, know conservation easement value.
Michigan Model Conservation Easement
(March 2003)
This model document, which was provided by Rachel Thomas as
a form used by the State of Michigan, contains typical clauses
demonstrating the danger of conservation easements.
Websites
A
Review of the Law of Easements
Continuing education course available,
document covers fundamentals of easement law and more. Concepts
discussed enable an understanding of many principles of easement
law in this country.
By Schroeder Law Offices,
P.C.
Serving Oregon, Washington, Idaho & Nevada since 1991
New York Blue Line Council
www.nybluelinecouncil.org
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- “New
York’s Top Court Upholds Town’s Right to Impose Conservation
Easement” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, PRFA, January 2005
Paul and Janet Smith lost their challenge in the New York
State Court of Appeals to the conservation easement imposed by
the Town of Mendon. But the scathing dissents in the 4-3 decision
reasoned that the imposition was arbitrary and capricious, and
that it was an unconstitutional “taking.”
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In-Depth Information
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- “Conservation
Easements in Perpetuity are for a Long, Long Time” -
By Clarice Ryan, Big Fork, Montana - Op Ed, February 21, 2008
The perpetuity of conservation easements locks in the vision
that a property owner has for his land to narrow decisions that
were made in the past. Conservation easements disguised as “saving”
the environment are placing private land under government control.
The “let it burn” policies and the tax
burdens to the diminishing property owners are having a profound
impact on rural communities faced with Open Space protection.
Buyers become scarce for conservation easement land, and tax
liens and litigation to try to terminate the covenant lie ahead.
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 “New
York Property Rights Directions”-Speech by Carol W.
LaGrasse, Cato Institute Conference-“Property Rights on
the March: Where from Here,” December 1, 2006, Washington,
D. C.
An overview of where property rights stand in New York, what
the directions are, and where the work for our cause has been
effective: focusing on the battle to keep land in private hands,
holding off extreme land-use regulation, the issue of conservation
easements, regional preservationist land-use battles, ubiquitous
zoning conflicts; and eminent domain.
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- “Adirondack
Agency Puts Final Stranglehold on 18,896 Acres”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, January 2005)
The Adirondack Park Agency’s September 2004 permit
for a final division of the Long Pond property in St. Lawrence
County, N.Y., tightened the noose on the already desiccated future
of a tract that was once the site, in 1972, of the “Horizon”
development proposal, which environmentalists had then exploited
to rush the APA act into law.
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- “Conservation
Easements-Perpetual Problems” - By Julia D. Mahoney,
Ph. D., Professor, University of Virginia School of Law, Speech
to the Seventh Annual NY Conference on Private Property Rights
(PRFA, October 18, 2003)
Conservation servitudes have been used to protect millions
of acres of lands. Is it feasible or desirable to bind future
generations? Conservation easements are designed “to
prevent the reunification of the interest to the property owner.”
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Julia D. Mahoney, Ph.D. |
- “Wyoming
Conservation Easement Bill Defeated”
— By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, March 15 2003)
In a victory for private property rights, legislation that
would have enacted the Uniform Conservation Easement Act into
law in Wyoming was defeated on March 4, the final day of the
session, with a Senate tie vote.
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- “Conservation
Easement Reform Bill introduced into the Montana House of Representatives”
(Full Text of HR 725, Feb. 24, 2003)
Representative Rick Maedje introduced legislation into the
Montana Legislature in February that would regulate conservation
easements. Among the many important proposed reforms, the bill
would protect the seller with a two-year cooling off period and
prohibit conservation easements from preventing natural resource
uses.
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- “Town-Imposed
Conservation Easement is an ‘Exaction’ but not a ‘Taking’
” — By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, January 2003)
Justice Robert J. Lunn of Monroe County Supreme Court ruled
on January 16, 2002 that a “Conservation Restriction”
to be filed like a deed, imposed by the Town of Mendon on property
of Paul Smith was a “negative easement”
and an “exaction,” but did not grant
compensation for an unconstitutional taking. Attorney James E.
Morgan announced that Smith will appeal.
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- “Conservation
Easements” - By Richard Hitchcock
(PRFA, August 2002)
A short, non-technical explanation of the nature of conservation
easements and recent laws, including the Uniform Conservation
Easement Act, that modify traditional easement law.
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- “Conservation
Easements-A Second Look”-By Carol W. LaGrasse, Speech
to the Boone and Crockett Club Annual Meeting, Hilton Rye Town,
Rye Brook, N.Y., November 30, 2001 (PRFA, Dec. 2001)
This speech to the Boone and Crockett Club, a nationwide hunting
and conservation association founded by Theodore Roosevelt in
1887, addresses why conservation easements are hostile to hunting
and ranching, as well as touching on the common dangers to farming
and timber production.
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- “Conservation Easements-One
Rancher to Another”-By Joe Mehrten, Mehrten’s Ranch,
Clements, California.
An exchange of letters bringing out the many interrelated
issues, especially conservation easements, infringing on the
future of the rural West. (Click to select from three full letters.)
- Letter by Joe Mehrten
(Jan. 6, 2002) points out, “Conservation easements
with private land trusts are so intertwined with government regulations
and controls as to be little different from easements sold to
public agencies.”
- Response
from Bev Sparrowk, Sparrowk Livestock (Jan. 8, 2002)
states, “Jack and I have discovered in our exposure to
and dealings with government agencies conversation and a spirit
of cooperation usually reaps the results we had hoped for.”
- Joe Mehrten’s
reply (Jan. 29, 2002), after he learned that a government
grant, rather than conservation easements, is involved: “[T]he
grant application makes it abundantly clear that this project
invites destruction of our property rights.”
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- A Trio of Articles on Wildlands and Conservation Easements
- “Pew took
a public misstep” - by Carol W. LaGrasse, “President’s
Corner,” Agri-News, May 25, 2001
A refutation of the denials by Pew Charitable Trust of its
connection to the radical Wildlands Project and of the connection
of conservation easements to The Wildlands Project.
- “Innuendo
and misstatement...” - Letter to the editor by the Pew
Charitable Trusts’ Director of Environmental Programs, Joshua Reichert,
which was published in Agri-News, May 11, 2001.
Attacks the reprint of the John Elvin article asserting the
connection between wildlands and conservation easements.
- “Wildlands
and Conservation Easements-The Connection Between ‘Em”
A brief summary of a reprinted version in Agri-News, April 13, 2001,
of an article by columnist John Elvin in Insight magazine.
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- “Horse Tale”—By
Kit Shy (Reprinted by permission, 2001)
The rancher’s story, “Hoss Tale,”
by surveyor Kit Shy of Westcliffe, Colorado, uses allegory to
show how the bundle of rights attached to private property will
be desiccated under conservation easements. You don’t
know whether to laugh or cry.
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- “A Critical
Look at Conservation Easements” - By Carol W. LaGrasse
(Speech to Tompkins County Farm Bureau, Dryden Veterans of Foreign
Wars Hall, Dryden, N.Y., October 26, 2000)
Benefits for farmers that are attributed to conservation easements
are inaccurate, exaggerated and inequitable. The results of conservation
easements are the loss of equity and the rights to use the land.
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- Informed Consent
PRFA’s “Informed Consent”
checklist is designed to help the private property owner and
his legal counsel to level the playing field in dealing with
the slick experts who negotiate for the land trusts.
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- “Forest
Land Easements—Freezing the Future” - William R.
Sayre, Chairman, Forest Policy Task Force, Associated Industries
of Vermont, Montpelier, Vt., from Proceedings of the Fourth
Annual N.Y. Conf. on Private Property Rights (1999)
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- Letter to
Honorable Pat Roberts, Chairman, House Agriculture Committee,
from W. L. Harris, Holcomb, Mississippi, September 22, 1995.
This letter describes how rice farmer W. L. Harris, after
recovering from severe financial problems common during the 1980’s,
tried to exert his lease back - buyback rights, but the Farmer’s
Home Administration (now the Farm Services Agency) placed wetlands
easements on the 1004 best acres, prohibiting him from doing
anything but paying taxes on the land.
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