Green River Valley Land Trust: Our Work

Our Work Easement Steps Easement FAQs Strategic Plan Simplified Tax Guide Federal Tax Reform New Tax Incentives Agricultural Lands Open Spaces Wildlife Habitat Watersheds Profiles in Preservation

Our Work

Conservation easements are one of the most powerful and effective tools available for the conservation of private lands. Their use has successfully protected millions of acres of wildlife habitat and open space, and hundreds of miles of rivers, all while keeping property in private hands and generating significant public benefits.

Often, some of the most ecologically significant lands and waters in the country are those found in rural and agricultural landscapes. Conservation easements have been instrumental in preserving these landscapes, from family farms to working ranches and timberlands. Between 1992 and 1997, more than 11 million acres of rural land in the United States were converted to developed use – an area five times the size of Yellowstone National Park.

As people struggle to keep family farms and ranches together in the face of steep taxes and unpredictable markets, conservation easements are often the tool of choice. In Wyoming, conservation easements protect some of the state’s most important wildlife habitat—those private lands that buffer national parks and forests and lie along rivers, lakes and streams. These privately owned lands provide critical winter range, migration routes and breeding grounds for Wyoming’s wild creatures and protect our most important resources for future generations.

Since its start in 2000, the GRVLT has worked with nearly 40 families to conserve nearly 20,000 acres of ranchland in Sublette County. We continue to work with landowners to preserve the working ranches, wildlife habitat, and open spaces that make Sublette County such a special place.

What are Conservation Easements?
Conservation easements are voluntary 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. 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. Each conservation easement is unique. For example, an easement may cover an entire ranch or just a portion of a property. Except for the rights they expressly restrict (e.g., the right to subdivide), conservation easements generally do not affect traditional uses of the land such as ranching, hunting, and fishing. Landowners may also reserve a limited number of future home sites. Landowners retain the right to sell the land, pass it to heirs, and use it as collateral for loans. Conservation easements do not require or allow public access to your land.

Benefits of Placing Land Under a Conservation Easement
Conservation easements offer a variety of benefits for landowners and communities. For landowners, they provide assurance that future generations will enjoy the land’s agricultural, scenic and wildlife values. They can also provide the income and estate tax benefits described below. For communities, they provide a way to preserve their agricultural heritage, sustain working ranches, support local businesses, and maintain their quality of life.

Valuing a Conservation Easement
As a general rule, the value of a conservation easement equals the difference between the fair market value of the land without the easement in place and the fair market value of the land as restricted by the easement. To carry the “bundle of rights” illustration through, each stick in the bundle of property rights has a value. Together, these values make up the property’s overall worth. By limiting certain uses of the property, conservation easements essentially remove sticks from the bundle, thereby reducing the property’s overall value. The value of the removed rights equals the value of the conservation easement.

The Green River Valley Land Trust can provide contact information for appraisers (who determine the value of the conservation easement) to interested landowners. Once the appraiser determines the easement’s value, the landowner has three options:

Donate the conservation easement to the land trust and receive potentially significant income and estate tax benefits;
Sell the conservation easement for less than its fair market value in a “bargain sale” and treat the difference between the easement’s fair market value and the sale price as a tax-deductible charitable gift; or
Sell the conservation easement for its fair market value and receive cash from the sale.

The GRVLT only purchases conservation easements in rare cases where the property’s conservation values face significant threats or no conservation alternatives exist.

Potential Income and Estate Tax Benefits
Conservation easements offer a variety of federal income and estate 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. Click here to explore the income and estate tax benefits associated with a conservation easement donation in greater detail.

To qualify for federal income and estate tax benefits, the conservation easement must meet the following general requirements:

The easement must be donated or sold for a bargain price
The easement must be a “qualified real property interest,” meaning it must restrict the use of the property to protect its conservation values in perpetuity
The landowner must donate the easement to a “qualified organization” (such as the Green River Valley Land Trust)
The easement must serve at least one of the following “conservation purposes:”

Preservation of open space (including farmland, ranchland and forest land) that is either (a) pursuant to a clearly delineated federal, state or local governmental conservation policy and will yield a significant public benefit or (b) for the scenic enjoyment of the general public and will yield a significant public benefit
Protection of a relatively natural habitat for fish, wildlife, plants, or similar ecosystems
Preservation of land for public outdoor recreation or education
Preservation of a historically important area or certified historic structure

In addition to these requirements, the conservation easement must prohibit all surface mining. Where the landowner does not own the entire mineral estate, the IRS will allow a deduction only where the probability of surface mining is “so remote as to be negligible.” The land trust will work with donors to determine if this is the case. Also, if a mortgage encumbers the property, the IRS will not allow a deduction unless the mortgage holder subordinates their rights in the property to the land trust’s right to enforce the easement’s terms. Again, the land trust will work with donors and the mortgage holder regarding subordination. Finally, a resource inventory must be prepared to document the condition of the property at the time of the donation.

What Happens Once the Easement Is In Place?
The signing of the easement begins a working relationship between the landowner and land trust to ensure that the easement meets the landowner’s conservation objectives. The land trust monitors the property annually, but leaves day-to-day land management decisions to the landowner. These annual visits foster good communication with the landowner and provide an opportunity to answer questions or respond to concerns. In many ways, the conservation easement is a working partnership for the land.

Please contact us to learn more about how conservation easements can play a role in meeting your goals for your land!