Steps to Donating a Conservation Easement

Donating a conservation easement to the Green River Valley Land Trust (GRVLT) offers a unique opportunity to conserve your property for future generations. It also offers a chance to realize significant income and estate tax benefits. Though each project is different, most involve the following steps. Landowners typically pay modest transaction costs during the donation process, which many recover in tax savings.

1. Planning and Gathering Information
Choosing to donate a conservation easement represents an exciting decision for landowners and their families. Like any decision, a little planning based on good information goes a long way. Resources like the GRVLT, legal and financial professionals, and others familiar with conservation easements can help landowners with this decision to ensure that the easement meets—and exceeds—their goals.

2. Obtaining Land Trust Board Approval
The GRVLT’s Board of Directors approves each phase of a project from beginning to end. This provides “checkpoints” throughout the donation process to ensure that the GRVLT doesn’t overlook anything.

3. Preparing the Conservation Easement and Supporting Documents
The GRVLT prepares an initial draft of the conservation easement for the landowner and their attorney or other advisors to review. The GRVLT staff then work with the landowner and their advisors to create a mutually-acceptable easement document. Though the GRVLT works diligently to see that every donated easement meets the IRS requirements for deductibility, please recognize that we cannot assure the deductibility of a particular donation.

Four documents typically support the conservation easement:

A title report ensures that the conservation easement will meet the IRS requirements for deductibility and address any issues that could undermine the property’s natural values. For example, the report could reveal mortgages, liens or access easements on the property requiring subordination before the easement is signed.

A surface mineral report likewise ensures that the conservation easement will meet the IRS requirements for deductibility and address any issues that could undermine the property’s natural values. The IRS generally prohibits deductions for easements that allow surface mining by any method. Since this requirement can pose difficulties in split estate states like Wyoming, the IRS allows deductions for easements on split estate properties “if the probability of surface mining . . . is so remote as to be negligible.” Easement donors typically obtain a surface mineral report from a qualified geologist to meet this “remoteness test.”

An independent appraisal determines the easement’s value. If landowners wish to claim a tax deduction for donating the easement, they must engage a qualified appraiser to prepare a qualified appraisal that meets the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code.

A resource inventory documents the condition of the easement property at the time of the donation. The inventory describes the natural and man-made features of the easement property and includes maps and photos. Landowners can engage a resource consultant to prepare the inventory or request that the GRVLT prepare it in-house.

4. Finalizing and Recording the Easement
When the landowner and the GRVLT are comfortable with the conservation easement, each signs before a notary public. The signings need not occur simultaneously and signatures can be exchanged through the mail or delivery service. After the landowner and the GRVLT have signed the conservation easement, the GRVLT records the document with the Sublette County clerk. The GRVLT keeps the original document in its safe deposit box and provides a copy to the landowner for their records.

5. Claiming the Tax Benefits for the Easement Donation
Once the easement is recorded, landowners can claim a deduction for the easement’s value on their federal tax returns. Landowners must file a special form with their returns, which their appraiser and the GRVLT will sign prior to filing.

6. Contributing to the GRVLT Stewardship Fund
The GRVLT strongly encourages each easement donor to contribute to its Stewardship Fund. This fund helps the GRVLT cover the costs of monitoring and enforcing the terms of the easement in perpetuity. The GRVLT determines the amount of each contribution based on a formula that accounts for the easement terms. Easement donors can make a gift in a variety of ways, including over time or through their estate plan. The GRVLT will gladly discuss the suggested gift amount, as well as various ways that the easement donor can make the gift, at the easement donor’s request.

After completing these steps, the landowner and the GRVLT begin a working relationship to ensure that the easement meets the landowner’s conservation objectives into the future. The GRVLT 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, respond to concerns or discuss funding options for enhancement projects. In many ways, the conservation easement is a working partnership for the land.