Conservation Easements

A Conservation Easement is a tool that can be used to protect your family’s legacy of land. A Conservation Easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and ACT or a government agency that permanently limits development of the land to protect its conservation values. Conservation easements are negotiated agreements and can be customized to fit the landowner’s goals for the property. The landowner will still own and continue to live on the land, and can sell it or pass it on to their heirs. The landowner can also reserve some limited building rights on the property with ACT’s approval. There are several different types of conservation easements that ACT works with:

• Donated Conservation Easements

• Purchased Conservation Easements or Agricultural Land Easements (ALE)

• Coastal Conservation Easements

Explore below to learn more about these different types of easements.

Donated Conservation Easements

If a property meets specific criteria defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), donating a Conservation Easement can result in reduced estate and income taxes. ACT will work with you and your family to create a Conservation Easement agreement that allows you to continue to live on and use your property, while protecting the conservation value and preventing future subdivision or intensive development.

The Conservation Easement process is similar to a real estate transaction, which requires certain due diligence such as a title search and boundary survey. There are also tasks specific to Conservation Easements, such as developing a Baseline Documentation Report (BDR). This report provides a snapshot of the property at the time of closing of the Conservation Easement and includes photos and maps of the property.

While a donated Conservation Easement may qualify for a tax deduction, there are costs associated with the donation of a conservation interest in the land to a qualified non-profit land trust like ACT. These costs include an endowment to assist with annual monitoring of the Conservation Easement as well as the due diligence costs mentioned above.

As an accredited land trust, ACT works to meet the highest standards for Conservation Easements set by the Land Trust Alliance. Click on the resources below to learn more about the easement process and how ACT can help in creating a legacy of land for you and your family.

Below you will find two examples of landowners who have placed conservation easements on their land with assistance from ACT. Click on the video links to hear their conservation stories.

Purchased Conservation Easements or Agricultural Land Easements (ALE)

More often than not, landowners want to protect their land, but they are not in a position to donate a conservation interest in the land. Rather, they seek funding for the purchase of a conservation easement. Landowners have many reasons for wanting to sell: A purchased conservation easement may provide funding for future management of the land or provide a means to pay off long-term property debt as part of estate planning. In most cases, these situations require funding from state or federal conservation programs.    

ACT works alongside landowners to identify conservation funding opportunities, assists with applications for different competitive funding programs, helps to facilitate the land transaction, and represents the landowner until the project is completed and the land is protected.

Several federal and state conservation programs fund the purchase of conservation easements. ACT works with state-level programs such as Florida Forever, the State’s premier conservation and recreation lands acquisition program, and the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, which funds conservation easements to protect agricultural or working lands. On the federal level, ACT works with many different agencies, the largest of which is the Natural Resources Conservation Service as the administrator of conservation programs under the Farm Bill. Farm Bill conservation programs are the largest single federal source of funding for private land conservation, including Florida’s forests, grasslands and wetlands.  

Click on the links below to learn more about each funding program or contact us today to speak to someone about your potential conservation options.

State Conservation Easement Programs

Federal Conservation Easement Programs

Coastal Conservation Easements

Florida’s beaches attract more sea turtle nesting than anywhere in the country and annually the five species of sea turtles found in Florida lay a combined 40,000-84,000 nests each year. Each of these nests can contain over 100 individual eggs. Under Florida law, the area landward of the Mean High Water Line is privately owned. Sea turtles along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of Florida use this dry, sandy beach to lay their nests each year. Protecting this section of beach is crucial to the survival of the species. 

In 2015, ACT received grant funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to create a pilot program using conservation easements to protect sea turtle nesting habitat. ACT, the UF Law Conservation Clinic, and some of the country’s leading sea turtle experts teamed together to draft the first model conservation easement designed specifically to protect sea turtle nesting habitat on private property.

This easement limits the ability for a future landowner to engage in activities that are detrimental to sea turtle nesting such as installing a sea wall or having bright lights facing the beach. ACT surveyed 1,274 beachfront landowners across the state about their interest in putting a conservation easement on their property. This survey has allowed us to work with landowners who are interested in forever protecting their property from activities that would harm sea turtles.  

In August of 2017, ACT recorded the first ever sea turtle focused conservation easement. Located in St. Johns County, Florida, this land will be forever protected to ensure that it remains viable sea turtle nesting habitat. Within a month of finalizing the easement, a sea turtle had chosen to nest on this protected area. The property survived Hurricane Irma and two sea turtles nested on the property in 2018. 

ACT is currently working with landowners from the Keys to the Panhandle who are interested in selling or donating a Coastal Conservation Easement to protect sea turtles on their property. Click below to read several helpful resources:

• The model conservation easement

• A white paper about the program

• A drafting worksheet for landowners

• Academic Journal on Coastal Armoring Intent

• Academic Journal on Coastal Conservation Easements

• Deeds of Restrictive Covenants White Paper

Program Partners

This program is a cooperative effort between ACT and the University of Florida Levin College of Law Conservation Clinic that has been funded through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, the Sea Turtle Conservancy, the Sea Turtle License Plate Program, and the UF School of Natural Resources and Environment.

If you are interested in learning more about this program or putting a Coastal Conservation Easement on your beachfront property to protect sea turtles, please contact us.

Interested in learning more about conservation easements and how an easement can work to fit your needs?

Contact us today to learn more about how a conservation easement can be used as a tool to permanently protect your land. ACT’s webinar on conservation easements can also be viewed by clicking on the button below.

Banner image: Conservation easement along the Santa Fe River by Alison Blakeslee

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