Stewardship of Conserved Land

Federal tax law requires that organizations holding conservation easements have a commitment to protect the conservation purposes of the donation and have the resources to enforce the restrictions.  To meet this obligation a land trust assumes responsibility for enforcing the terms of each easement it holds whether they are from private citizens or government entities.

Stewardship of Lands Protected through Conservation Easements

As the holder of a conservation easement on your property a land trust is obligated to monitor the easement area on a regular basis to ensure that conservation values of the land are being preserved and to determine if the terms of the easement are being upheld.  This ensures that the land is preserved over time.

To fulfill its stewardship responsibilities, LPLC has established a stewardship program which is partially supported by a stewardship fund.  The primary role of the stewardship program is to ensure that the conservation values of protected properties are preserved.  This is achieved through monitoring and record keeping, but more importantly by fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with the owners of lands for which we hold conservation easements.

Elements of LPLC's stewardship program include:

• annual monitoring of protected properties
• documenting changes to properties periodically
• tracking changes in ownership
• providing easement education to new landowners
• reviewing and granting approval requests for permitted activities
• maintaining property records
• serving as a resource for landowners regarding property management issues
• correcting violations through voluntary compliance or, if necessary, legal proceedings.

The most important part of our stewardship responsibility is the annual monitoring of properties. Consistent, regular monitoring can produce several beneficial outcomes for everyone involved.

Although we are the stewards of the easement, the landowner continues to be the steward of the land.  Day-to-day management of the property is still the landowner's responsibility.  We can and do advise landowners on aspects of property management or try to refer them to someone who specializes in that area, but the landowner is ultimately responsible for the decisions regarding the property and its use.

Stewardship Donations

LPLC seeks to obtain stewardship donations (cash donations) to assist with meeting our stewardship obligation from each landowner at the time we accept an easement.  A stewardship donation is a suggested charitable donation and is not a prerequisite for acceptance of a donated conservation easement.  In some cases, we may raise the stewardship donation through private donations rather than request it from the easement donor.  If LPLC and the landowner are unable to raise sufficient funds to fulfill LPLC's stewardship responsibility LPLC may not be able to accept the easement.

LPLC's Stewardship Endowment Fund

LPLC has established a stewardship fund to ensure our ability to fulfill our stewardship obligations 10, 50, or even 250 years from now.  Specifically the stewardship fund:

• generates investment income to cover annual stewardship and monitoring expenses
• builds our legal defense capabilities in the event easement conditions are violated, the landowner does not remedy the violations once they are discovered, and we must pursue litigation to meet our stewardship obligation

Landowners are the primary source of the donations used to build the stewardship fund.  The fund is supplemented by a portion of the donations LPLC raises annually and any donations specifically designated for stewardship by donors.
Stewardship donations are invested to protect them from inflation, as well as to provide a small annual return to help fund monitoring activities.  The principal is kept intact to be used in the event an easement needs to be defended in the future.