Landowners who wish to preserve privately owned farmland, woodlot, wetland or open land can work with the Centre County Farmland Trust to achieve their goals by placing a legally binding conservation easement on their land.
Read on to learn what conservation easements do and how they work.
What a Conservation Easement Does
A conservation easement legally binds a landowner and a qualified organization, like the Centre County Farmland Trust, to perpetually protect the natural, cultural, and/or historic resources of a property. The easement permanently restricts uses of the land for purposes not consistent with agriculture or conservation.
Easements can be tailored to a landowner’s conservation goals and needs. Each easement refers to the characteristics of that particular property. This legal document is attached to the property deed for current and future owners.
How Conservation Easements Work
Conservation easements restrict development, which typically means a lower market value for the land than if houses or commercial buildings could be built on it. Essentially, landowners donate the development rights of their land to benefit the greater good and often qualify for a tax credit. Learn more about How Farmland Benefits Us All.
The Trust pays for a portion of the cost of securing the easement, then the future costs of holding, monitoring and — if necessary — enforcing the easement into the future. That all happens within the CCFT stewardship program.
CCFT partners with the initial landowner and as the property changes hands, all future landowners.
An easement can be tailored to the landowner’s goals. It documents the land’s conservation values and goals, and the necessary actions to maintain or enhance those natural resources.
An easement, for example, might protect woodlands from clearcutting but allow selective timber harvesting. Or, a cropfield could return to forest or a “silvopasture” — a combination of trees and forage plants that can be grazed by livestock — but not bulldozed for a new housing development.
An easement specifies the donating landowners’ objectives for protecting a property, and specific land uses might be protected, depending on the owner’s wishes.
Learn more
Explore placing a conservation easement on your land.
Help protect farmland and open land in Central Pennsylvania.
