Conservation Easement Agreements

What is a Conservation Easement Agreement?

A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government entity that permanently limits or prohibits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation value.

When a conservation easement agreement is made:

• The landowner continues to own the property and may sell it or pass it on to heirs.
   
• Current and future owners are legally bound by the easement’s terms.
   
• The landowner does not have to allow public access onto the property.
   
• A land trust or government entity is responsible for making sure the terms of the agreement are upheld.

Because accepting a conservation easement is a lasting and serious responsibility for a land trust, the Door County Land Trust has developed a set of criteria to help determine whether or not they should enter into a particular conservation easement agreement. This criteria was developed to make sure that the Door County Land Trust is only accepting conservation easements for properties that have significant ecological or scenic value.

Our staff would be more than willing to discuss how a conservation easement works and determine whether your property meets our land protection criteria and falls within one of our priority areas.  Email us at info@doorcountylandtrust.org or call Terrie Cooper, Land Program Director, at (920) 854-4700. 

For more information about conservation easements and other land protection methods, download and read the informative booklet How to Protect your Door County Property- A guide to land protection strategies (545 kb)*. 
 

"Conservation must not fail, for too much of our native landscape has already been thoughtlessly destroyed.  Far too much has already been taken by us from those who are to follow.  It is our sacred duty to preserve what is left for unborn generations."

-Jens Jensen
Master of American landscape architecture and founder of The Clearing Folk School
 

In 2006, The Clearing Folk School and the Door County Land Trust entered into a permanent conservation easement agreement that ensures 120 acres of their property will never be developed and remain what Jen's Jensen envisioned so many years ago:  A place where the sun, the stars, open fields, giant trees and smiling flowers are free to teach an undisturbed lesson of life.

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Door County Land Trust
PO BOX 65
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235

E-mail: info@doorcountylandtrust.org

Sturgeon Bay Phone: (920) 746-1359
Sister Bay Phone: (920) 854-4700

Copyright © 2010 Door County Land Trust.  All Rights Reserved.  Last modified: 08/06/10

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