A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limits certain uses of a property in order to protect its conservation values. Easements allow you to continue to own and use your land, and to sell it or pass it on to heirs. Easements can qualify as tax-deductible charitable donations, and significant income, estate and property tax benefits are common.

When you create a conservation easement, you choose to give up some—but not all—ownership rights. For instance, an easement on property with rare wildlife habitat might forbid any development, but one on a farm might allow crops and construction of an additional barn. All future owners are bound by an easement's terms. An easement may apply to just a portion of your property, and need not require public access.

Perhaps most important, conservation easements can be essential for passing land on to heirs . By removing the land's development potential, the market value is lowered, significantly lowering the estate tax—which can be as high as 45% of the land's value. In many cases, a second sizable deduction can be applied as well. These savings can make the critical difference in your heirs' ability to keep the land.

To learn more, contact Tim Girmscheid, Land Preservation Specialist, at 847.548.5989 x 32 or email at: tim@libertyprairie.org. Another good resource is the Land Trust Alliance, www.lta.org. We respect landowners' needs for confidentiality.