What Are Conservation Easements?

Conservation easements are deed restrictions landowners voluntarily place on their properties to protect environmental resources, such as fish and wildlife habitat, water quality or scenic views. These restrictions stay with the property even if it changes hands, ensuring permanent protection while allowing private ownership and productive use to continue.

The Pacific Forest Trust helps forest owners use conservation easements to ensure good forest management, and prevent future development and damaging land uses. Conservation easements help forests to remain forests -- and avoid being sold for farms, golf courses, malls and subdivisions.

Good forestry is a long-term proposition. Management decisions made today shape the forests of tomorrow. Plenty of faith, as well as a long investment horizon, is needed to manage forests well. Often the greatest benefits of good forest stewardship are reaped by future generations. Conservation easements are useful tools to reinforce forestry goals; using these voluntary, enforceable deed restrictions, landowners can protect the stewardship investments they've made in their properties.

Conservation easements are the best legal means to permanently protect the important natural values of a forest property and provide consistency in management — while keeping the land in private ownership and use. Land trusts like PFT, selected by the landowner, become responsible for monitoring compliance with the easement and ensuring its provisions are being honored.

For more about conservation easements, see frequently asked questions.

When landowners make this commitment to conservation, they can be compensated for protecting public benefits -- such as open space, habitat and watershed quality — on their private property. The value of the conservation easement is readily appraised. Based on this valuation, a landowner can garner potentially significant income and estate tax benefits by donating the easement to a land trust like the Pacific Forest Trust. Or an owner may be paid for the conservation easement, usually from funds available through local, state or federal conservation programs.

PFT is a national leader in the use of conservation easements that help landowners meet their twin goals of economic production and resource protection. Since its founding in 1993, PFT has established conservation easements on about 35,000 acres of forest in California, Oregon and Washington. (Read about some of these properties.)

Interested in the tax savings possible from gifts of conservation easements? Download these articles from PFT's newsletter:

Pacific Forests, Spring 1999: [DOWNLOAD PDF]
"Saving the Forest for the Next Generation:
Conservation Easements Can be an Antidote to Estate Taxes"

Pacific Forests, Fall 1999: [DOWNLOAD PDF]
"Cutting Income Taxes While Protecting Your Forest"

Pacific Forests, Spring 2000: [DOWNLOAD PDF]
"New Estate Tax Benefits for Conservation Easements"

Pacific Forests, Fall 2000: [DOWNLOAD PDF]
"Tax-Saving Conservation Options for Family Forestlands"

Pacific Forests, Spring 2001: [DOWNLOAD PDF]
"Tax-Advantaged Revenue from Conservation"