Agricultural Conservation Easements

Agricultural conservation agreements enable landowners to:

• preserve the land,
• maintain ownership of it, and
• usually realize significant tax savings or other financial incentives.

Conservation easements are:

Agreements between a landowner and a qualified conservation organization or public agency, in which:

1. The landowner promises to keep the land available for agriculture and/or forestry and restrict non-farm development or incompatible uses, and
2. The receiving organization or agency is responsible for monitoring the easement to ensure the terms of the easement are met.

Types of Agricultural conservation easements:

Working Forest - Protects forests through sustainable silviculture, harvesting and sale of timber.

Working Farm - Protects lands for specific agricultural purposes and primary processing, storage and sale of products in accordance with a conservation plan.

Click each title below to learn more about easements.

Transfer of Development Rights - Transfer of development rights (TDR) programs enable the transfer of development potential from one parcel of land to another.

Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements - Purchase of agricultural conservation easement (PACE) programs compensate property owners for restricting the future use of their land.

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program easements - CREP is a voluntary program to protect land along watercourses that is currenty in agricultural production. Example of CREP easement deed