Conservation Easements
The most traditional tool for conserving private land, a “conservation easement” is a legal agreement between a landowner and the Santa Fe Conservation Trust that permanently limits the uses of a property in order to protect its conservation values. Conservation easements allow landowners to continue to own and use their land, and sell the property or pass it on to family. The agreement is flexible and tailored to protect the land’s conservation values and meet the financial and personal needs of the landowner. A conservation easement may apply to all or a portion of the property, and need not require public access. For example, property owners can give up the right to build additional structures while retaining the right to grow crops or graze cattle.
Future owners are bound by the terms of the conservation easement and the Santa Fe Conservation Trust takes on the responsibility and legal right to enforce it. If a future owner or someone else violates the conservation easement the Santa Fe Conservation Trust will work to have the violation corrected. The Santa Fe Conservation Trust is also responsible for making sure the conservation easement’s terms are followed, for example ensuring the ongoing health of a wetland. This is managed through land “stewardship” by the Santa Fe Conservation Trust.
Conservation easements ride with the property, not the landowner. A landowner who places a conservation easement on their property still retains ownership and may sell, mortgage, or bequeath their land as usual. However, because it retires certain development rights, a conservation easement often significantly reduces a land’s potential monetary value. This figure, as determined by a special appraisal, is considered a charitable gift by both the federal and state government, qualifying the landowner for a federal tax deduction, and—since 2008—a transferable (saleable) NM state tax credit. Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 170(h) states that a qualified conservation contribution is a contribution of a qualified real property interest (i.e., a conservation easement) to a qualified organization exclusively for conservation purposes.