The Opportunities

Voluntary, Market-Based Conservation Preserves Private Land More Effectively Than Government Regulation or Public Ownership: In general, three means of land protection exist in the United States today. Local land use regulations such as zoning and subdivision control, public ownership and voluntary conservation through conservation easements. Though important, local land use regulations cannot conserve private land as effectively as voluntary measures. First, land use regulation is subject to the prohibition against uncompensated “takings” imposed by the U.S. and most state constitutions and the type of restrictions that conservation easements often require would likely be found unconstitutional if imposed through regulation. Second, government regulation of land is not politically popular.

Finally, land use regulations often face the vagaries of local politics and often are only good until the next local election. Public land ownership faces similar problems. A vast amount of land in the United States, particularly in the west, is already owned by the public. This land represents one of the nation’s most valuable and enduring assets. However, in the west, and throughout much of the rest of the nation, further extending public ownership faces stringent opposition. In addition, public acquisition is extremely costly. It is costly in terms of purchase price, costly in terms of maintenance of the land itself once in public ownership, costly in terms of administration, and it takes land off from local tax rolls. Voluntary, market-based tools like conservation easements avoid all of the pitfalls of the other two methods of land conservation described above: they are private and therefore their terms are up to the landowner, unrestricted by the complex and extensive constitutional and statutory constraints on land use regulation. Conservation easements transcend the tortuous political cycles that prevent consistent conservation by local government. Conservation easements do not involve the costs of public acquisition; and however costly the tax benefits provided to conservation easement donors, this cost will never be more than a fraction of the cost of public acquisition and ownership. Most importantly, conservation easements leave the management of the land up to the owner and, typically, local private conservation organizations.

Conservation Easements Offer Private Landowners a Flexible Tool to Conserve the Things They Love About Their Land Without Sacrificing Their Private Property Rights: Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that permanently protect a property’s conservation values. “Conservation values” include the protection of open space (including ranchland), wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and scenic land. Conservation easements protect these values by defining how the landowner can use the land. They are essentially “conservation partnerships” between a landowner and land trust. Like the properties they conserve, each conservation easement is unique. Land trusts like the Green River Valley Land Trust work with every landowner to ensure that the conservation easement meets the landowner’s needs and goals and conserves the property’s distinctive character. Conservation easements typically permit and prohibit the following uses of a landowner’s property:

Typical Permitted Uses	Typical Prohibited Uses
Continued agricultural use	Subdivision for residential or commercial activities
Construction of buildings, fences, water improvements, etc. necessary for agriculture and compatible with conservation objectives	Construction of non-residential or non-agricultural buildings
Sale, devise, gifting or other method of transferring land, subject to the terms of the conservation easement	Nonagricultural commercial activities
Landowner control of access	Dumping of non-compostable or toxic waste
Additional family and employee residences compatible with conservation objectives	Surface mining
Wildlife and fisheries protection, restoration and enhancement projects
Use of land as collateral for loans
Any and all uses not specifically prohibited

Private Landowners Can Realize Significant Benefits From Placing Their Land Under Conservation Easement: If you think of property ownership as a bundle of rights—including the right to harvest crops, construct buildings, limit access, or subdivide—conservation easements provide a way for landowners to exchange certain rights for cash or tax benefits. Federal tax law treats conservation easement donations as charitable gifts and allows donors to deduct the easement’s value on their federal income tax returns, subject to certain percentage limitations. The restrictions imposed by a conservation easement also reduce the value of the property in the donor’s estate, resulting in estate tax savings. In addition, the executor of a decedent’s estate can elect to exclude an additional 40 percent of the value of the land subject to a qualified conservation easement up to a maximum of $500,000. These potential estate tax savings offer a powerful planning tool to help keep ranches in the family. Landowners can also sell conservation easements to land trusts and other qualified organizations. Landowners can use the proceeds from these sales to improve the viability of their operations, generate investment income or provide for their families through life insurance benefits. These landowners also become eligible for the estate tax benefits described above.

Communities Benefit From Private Land Conservation: Private land preserved with conservation easements provide a way for communities to preserve their agricultural heritage, sustain working ranches, ensure their fiscal integrity, support local businesses, and maintain their quality of life. Public benefits of conservation easements:

• Protect water quality
• Conserve wildlife habitat
• Preserve farmland, ranchland, timberland
• Maintain character of rural communities
• Buffer public lands
• Maintain landscapes for tourism
• Require less in public services, generate more in local revenues
• Keep land in private hands and on the tax rolls

We are currently in various stages of negotiation on projects covering more than 50,000 acres. But we need your help.

Contributions to our Operating Fund enable the GRVLT to “keep the lights on” and are applied directly to the organization’s day-to-day costs. The GRVLT spends this money wisely as dictated by the governance of the Board of Directors pursuant to Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices.

Contributions to our Protection Fund enable the GRVLT to work with ranching families interested in selling conservation easements. This enables the GRVLT to:

• Add more acres to the critical mass of permanently protected Sublette County ranchland;
• Match state, federal, and other sources of public conservation funding;
• Help preserve Sublette County’s nearly 200-year old heritage of family ranching.

Contributions to our Stewardship Fund enable the GRVLT to meet its perpetual responsibility to uphold the conservation easements and work with landowners to steward the protected properties. These contributions enable the GRVLT to:

• Purchase conservation easements on the most threatened properties;
• Add more acres to the critical mass of permanently protected Sublette County farmland;
• Match state, federal, and other sources of public conservation funding;
• Help preserve Sublette County's nearly 150-year old heritage of family ranching.

For further information, contact us.