Conservation & Agricultural Easements
Conservation Easements and Agricultural Conservation Easements protect the land while allowing the landowner to keep title and use of the land - a true "win-win" for everyone.
Fee title ownership is not ideal for all lands, especially lands that require involved management or in cases where the landowner desires to continue to live on the land. As always, Placer Land Trust only works with willing landowners.
Conservation and agricultural easements are legal agreements between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limits a property’s uses in order to preserve its “conservation values”. An “agricultural conservation easement” is very similar to a “conservation easement” except that an agricultural easement includes as part of its main purpose the conservation of agricultural land. Easements can be characterized as the “rights to develop and/or subdivide land” and are usually designed to preserve specific conservation values (such as open space, habitat, recreation, agriculture, etc.). For the purposes of this website, we often use the term “conservation easement” for both types of easement.
Conservation and agricultural easements are permanent agreements, recorded by the County as an easement on the land, and apply to any subsequent land ownership.
Placer Land Trust currently holds thirteen conservation easements and four agricultural easements. Conservation and agricultural easements keep land in private ownership. When you own land you also own many rights associated with it, such as the rights to farm, graze, harvest timber, and build structures. When you donate or sell a conservation easement to a land trust, you voluntarily give up some of those rights. For example, you might give up the right to build additional residences while retaining the right to grow crops.
These easements are negotiated documents and are designed to meet the specific needs and desires of both the landowner and the land trust. In some cases, a conservation easement may apply to just a portion of the property leaving the option of development open for the remaining part. It may allow limited building within the area under the easement. (Note: The type of conservation easement depends on what type of land values are being preserved. Typically, conservation easements that preserve working landscapes such as farms or ranches are called “agricultural easements” to differentiate them from the standard “conservation easement” that preserves land for wildlife, recreation, cultural, historical, scenic, or other natural values.)
Placer Land Trust relies heavily on the research and advice of the Land Trust Alliance in the drafting of conservation easements, as well as our own experience and the advice of our legal counsel. We can be flexible about some terms of each conservation easement and our staff can assist landowners by preparing a document that meets each landowner’s specific needs. Before donating or selling an easement, each landowner must be familiar with the terms of the legal document itself and should seek the advice of an attorney.
For more information about conservation easements, contact us at (530) 887-9222.