Land Trust Risk Management of Legal Defense and Enforcement of Conservation Easements: Potential Solutions

Abstract

The private land conservation movement in this country must prepare to face a daunting opponent — landowners and their challenges to the restrictions placed on their land. These challenges are apt to take the form of legal scrutiny of one of the most popular land preservation devices currently in use, the conservation easement, and of the custodians of the conservation easement, the nonprofit land trust organizations. This article seeks to examine the complex interplay between land trusts, landowners, and the tie that binds them, the conservation easement. This article also proposes options for land trusts to protect against the inevitable legal challenges that await them in the next century by both present and future generations of landowners. Parts I, II, and III define and examine the roles of the land trust, conservation easement, and landowner. Part IV presents potential solutions for the individual land trust ranging from insurance solutions to options available for nonprofit entities, and Part V presents potential solutions for the land trust community as a whole, ranging from insurance solutions to nonprofit entity possibilities.

Keywords: Land Trusts, Land Trust, Conservation Easement, Risk Management, Insurance, Defense, Enforcement, Third Party Enforcement, Charitable Risk Pool, collective conservation easement defense