CONSERVATION EASEMENTS
Retain ownership of your land while protecting its conservation value in perpetuity
Conservation easements allow donors to retain ownership and use of their land while protecting its conservation value in perpetuity. A conservation easement is a powerful way for a private landowner to ensure the permanent protection of a special natural place with financial benefits that could make the difference to enable you to keep your land in the family.
For Winnakee, conservation easement can be a valuable way to further our Conservation Strategy impact, when:
- Fee acquisition is desirable but currently not possible
- To protect core ownerships and interior forest blocks
- To buffer and connect fee properties across the landscapes
Easement Stewardship
A conservation easement is a legally binding agreement, voluntarily entered into between a landowner and the Winnakee Land Trust. Conservation easements are intended to protect a property’s forest, scenic, recreational, wildlife and/or ecological values by permanently restricting certain uses and the future development of the land. The majority of easements that the Winnakee Land Trust seeks to hold protect woodlands and the values tied to their stewardship as sustainably managed forests.
Each conservation easement is individually tailored to fit the particular tract of land and the conservation values of that property. It is the responsibility of the land trust, as the holder of the conservation easement, to ensure that the terms of the conservation easement are complied with and that purposes of the conservation easement are honored in perpetuity.
Since the acceptance of its first conservation easement in 1989, the Winnakee Land Trust (WLT) has used conservation easements as a tool to protect over 2,500 acres of privately owned lands across the Hudson Valley. With every easement WLT accepts, we make a commitment to landowners to protect the conservation values of their property forever. This commitment is honored through the work of WLT’s Conservation Easement Stewardship Program. WLT’s Easement Stewardship staff work alongside landowners to achieve two important goals: to safeguard the conservation values identified in the conservation easement, and to connect landowners to resources to help achieve their land stewardship goals.
Questions? Visit our CONSERVATION EASEMENTS FAQ page.
Or contact, Laura O’Brien, Conservation Project Manager, at laura@winnakee.org or call 845-217-0609.
Helping Landowners Achieve their Land Management Goals
Landowners often have multiple goals for their land. WLT aims to make sure that each and every landowner can achieve these goals within the context of the conservation easement. As a land trust with a particular interest in the conservation of working woodlands, WLT encourages sustainable forest management and believes that one of the best ways for landowners to meet their forest management goals is to learn as take advantage of the Landowner Resources. Landowners can also benefit from WLT’s professional network of certified forest consultants, estate planners, wildlife managers, and other conservation groups throughout New York to access professionals who will help landowners meet their land stewardship objectives. We hope landowners will utilize WLT as a facilitator to access these professionals who can help landowners in activities such as preparing a woodland management plan or acquiring financial assistance for specific management activities. We encourage landowners to contact WLT’s Easement Stewardship staff with any questions or to request more information.
LANDOWNER RESOURCES
Stewarding lands to reach their optimal ecological potential is essential to Winnakee’s long term conservation strategy. Winnkaee is here to help provide landowners with resources to maximize the resiliency of their land, increase biodiversity by restoring rare species habitats, control harmful invasives, and become part of globally important connective land corridors that secure pathways for many species survival. View Landowner Resources.