Law Commons^™

Keeping The Perpetual In Florida's Conservation Easements, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in the protection of the Florida Wildlife Corridor and other environmentally sensitive lands. One of the primary tools being used to accomplish this protection is the perpetual conservation easement, which is touted to landowners and the public as providing a permanent guarantee that the subject lands will never be developed. There is a very real danger, however, that perpetual conservation easements in Florida may not, in fact, be perpetual, and that the protections put in place today will vanish over time—along with the public funds invested therein—as government and nonprofit holders “release” …

Building Better Conservation Easements For America The Beautiful, K. King Burnett, John D. Leshy, Nancy Mclaughlin

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In January 2021, the Biden Administration endorsed the goal of protecting 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 to conserve biodiversity and help curb greenhouse gas emissions. The Administration’s initial report on this “America the Beautiful” initiative, issued in May, indicates that federally-deductible conservation easements are likely to play an important role in its implementation. This essay addresses whether and how such easements should be counted in this process.

This matter is of great importance. Donations of conservation easements, by which landowners receive generous federal tax deductions if they restrict the use of their properties in perpetuity in …

Preservation Is A Flawed Mitigation Strategy, Jessica Owley

Jessica Owley

The objective of the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. To help achieve that objective, the Clean Water Act limits the ability to dredge or fill a wetland. To do so, one must first obtain a section 404 permit. These permits, which are issued by the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) with coordination and oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), require project proponents to avoid, minimize, and compensate the harms of any wetland destruction or modification. Compensatory mitigation is a troubling concept in wetlands regulation because it …

Reconciling Development And Natural Beauty: The Promise And Dilemma Of Conservation Easements, Zachary A. Bray

Zachary Bray

Local and regional private land trusts are among the most important and most numerous conservation actors in contemporary America, and conservation easements are perhaps the key land conservation tools used by these trusts. In recent decades, privately held conservation easements and local and regional private land trusts have grown at a rapid and increasing rate, and the total acreage protected by privately held conservation easements is now larger than some states. The early growth of privately held conservation easements met widespread approval, but more recently, contemporary conservation easement practice has attracted many critics, based in part on well-publicized national scandals …

Preservation Is A Flawed Mitigation Strategy, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The objective of the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters. To help achieve that objective, the Clean Water Act limits the ability to dredge or fill a wetland. To do so, one must first obtain a section 404 permit. These permits, which are issued by the Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) with coordination and oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), require project proponents to avoid, minimize, and compensate the harms of any wetland destruction or modification. Compensatory mitigation is a troubling concept in wetlands regulation because it …

Conservation Easements And The "Term Creep" Problem, Michael Allan Wolf

Michael A Wolf

This Essay first discusses the “term creep” problem that has long plagued the Anglo-American common law of real property, that is, the tendency of common law courts (and in turn commentators and legislators) to use the same label to describe two or more conceptually discrete, though related, concepts. The confusion between easements of the “traditional” and “conservation” varieties is just one in a long line of situations in which the decision to allow often significantly dissimilar concepts to share the same name has led to unfortunate consequences. The second part of the Essay explains the substantive nature of the hybrids …

Mitigating The Impacts Of The Renewable Energy Gold Rush, Amy Wilson Morris, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

Solar energy developers have turned their sights on California’s deserts. Since 2010, local, state, and federal agencies have approved nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of solar energy projects in the California desert, including more than 3,000 MW on public lands. The 9,000 MW of approved projects (if all are developed) would require approximately 63,000 acres of total desert land with 21,000 federal acres. The scale of proposed landscape change is unprecedented. Solar energy facilities can be more land-intensive than other forms of energy generation. Because of concern about the potentially devastating impacts of climate change, most major environmental groups have expressed …

Governmental Conservation Easements: A Means To Advance Efficiency, Freedom From Coercion, Flexibility, And Democracy, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

Over the past twenty-five years, courts and commentators have recognized and upheld conservation easements as an important vehicle to preserve natural and ecologically sensitive land, focusing primarily on easements held by nonprofit organizations (NPOs). During the same period, courts and commentators have supported property rights of owners against governmental land use regulation. This paper maintains that these two independent developments militate for the increased use of consensual conservation easements by governmental entities to achieve public land preservation goals. Governmental conservation easements can realize the benefits of efficiency, consent and free choice, and conservation, while avoiding the coercion implicit in public …

Conservation Easements And The "Term Creep" Problem, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay first discusses the “term creep” problem that has long plagued the Anglo-American common law of real property, that is, the tendency of common law courts (and in turn commentators and legislators) to use the same label to describe two or more conceptually discrete, though related, concepts. The confusion between easements of the “traditional” and “conservation” varieties is just one in a long line of situations in which the decision to allow often significantly dissimilar concepts to share the same name has led to unfortunate consequences. The second part of the Essay explains the substantive nature of the hybrids …

Who Should Protect The Forest: Conservation Easements In The Forest Legacy Program, Jessica Owley, Stephen J. Tulowiecki

Articles

No abstract provided.

Conservation Easements At The Climate Change Crossroads, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The essence of a conservation easement as a static perpetual restriction is coming to a head with the understanding that the world is a changing place. This demonstration is nowhere more dramatic than in the context of global climate change. In response to this conflict, users of conservation easements face the decision of either (1) changing conservation easement agreements to fit the landscape or (2) changing the landscape to fit the conservation easements. Both of these options present benefits and challenges in implementation. Where conservation easement holders’ ultimate goal is to keep a maximum number of acres under protection from …

The Enforceability Of Exacted Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley

Journal Articles

The use of exacted conservation easements is widespread. Yet, the study of the implications of their use has been minimal. Conservation easements are nonpossessory interests in land restricting a landowner’s ability to use her land in an otherwise permissible way, with the goal of yielding a conservation benefit. Exacted conservation easements arise in permitting contexts where, in exchange for a government benefit, landowners either create conservation easements on their own property or arrange for conservation easements on other land.

To explore the concern associated with the enforceability of exacted conservation easements in a concrete way, this article examines exacted conservation …

Reconciling Development And Natural Beauty: The Promise And Dilemma Of Conservation Easements, Zachary A. Bray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Local and regional private land trusts are among the most important and most numerous conservation actors in contemporary America, and conservation easements are perhaps the key land conservation tools used by these trusts. In recent decades, privately held conservation easements and local and regional private land trusts have grown at a rapid and increasing rate, and the total acreage protected by privately held conservation easements is now larger than some states. The early growth of privately held conservation easements met widespread approval, but more recently, contemporary conservation easement practice has attracted many critics, based in part on well-publicized national scandals …

Hicks V. Dowd, Conservation Easements, And The Charitable Trust Doctrine: Setting The Record Straight, W. William Weeks, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is the fourth in an exchange of articles published by the Wyoming Law Review discussing the application of charitable trust principles to conservation easements conveyed as charitable gifts. In 2002, Johnson County, Wyoming, attempted to terminate a conservation easement that had been conveyed to the County as a tax-deductible charitable gift. The County's actions were challenged, first in a suit brought by a resident of the County, Hicks v. Dowd, and then in a suit brought by the Wyoming Attorney General, Salzburg v. Dowd. The over six years of litigation associated with the easement's attempted termination has been the …

Slides: Market-Based Stream Flow Restoration And Mitigation, Amanda Cronin

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Amanda Cronin, Washington Water Trust, Seattle, WA

23 slides

Saving Special Places: Trends And Challenges With Protecting Public Lands [Outline], Robert B. Keiter

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

7 pages.

Includes bibliographical references

"Robert B. Keiter, Wallace Stegner Professor of Law, University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law"

Slides: Changes In Timberland Ownership: The New Hampshire Experience, Paul Doscher

Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned (June 16-19)

Presenter: Paul Doscher, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Concord, NH

20 slides

Slides: Trends For Large Forest Landowners, Michael Goergen

Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned (June 16-19)

Presenter: Michael Goergen, Executive Vice President and CEO, Society of American Foresters, DC

21 slides

Slides: Tug Hill Commission, Ny, Linda Gibbs

Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned (June 16-19)

Presenter: Linda Gibbs, Natural Resources Specialist, Tug Hill Commission, NY

26 slides

Private Lands Conservation In The British Virgin Islands, Joan Marsan, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

46 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In Belize, Joan Marsan, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

49 p. : map ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The Bahamas, Elizabeth Mccormack, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

59 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The Dominican Republic, Julie Truelsen, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

56 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In Grenada, Kevin Doran, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

47 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In Puerto Rico, Elizabeth Mccormack, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

41 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The U.S. Virgin Islands, Sonja Klopf, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

61 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In Guam, Craig Corona, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

93 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The Commonwealth Of The Northern Mariana Islands, Gregg De Bie, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

68 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The Republic Of The Marshall Islands, Gregg De Bie, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

59 p. ; 28 cm

Private Lands Conservation In The Federated States Of Micronesia, Kevin Doran, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Books, Reports, and Studies

74 p. ; 28 cm