Trends in Working Forest Conservation Easements

By: Brenda Lind

The increasing use of conservation easements to protect private, productive forestland and recent large-scale projects protecting tens or hundreds of thousands of acres are bringing out challenges and questions related to working forest conservation easements (WFCEs). WFCEs are easements developed specifically for working forests that are actively managed for timber or other marketable goods. In April 2001, a Land Trust Alliance (LTA) advisory panel of conservation easement and forest management practitioners from across the country discussed emerging WFCE trends and ongoing challenges, including forming complex partnerships with multiple parties in easement transactions, documenting and monitoring a forest’s multiple resources and managing public access on some working forestlands.

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