Drafting Conservation Easements

Drafting the conservation easement influences everything about the protected property after the easement’s grant: it guides the landowner’s use of the protected property, it guides Land Trust’s monitoring and stewardship of the property, and it guides Land Trusts enforcement of the conservation easement against the original landowner and all future landowners, forever. Land Trust’ s policies will complement drafting, stewardship, and enforcement of the conservation easements it holds, but details and requirements specific to that property achieved through the easement s drafting are contained in the final, recorded deed of conservation easement. The challenge of drafting conservation easements lies in creating documents that endure and are enforceable for perpetuity, and this requires creating both flexibility and fortitude in the document.

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