Working With LRCT To Preserve Your Land

The Initial Inquiry

Upon receiving your inquiry about land protection, LRCT staff will send you a packet of written materials explaining more about the Trust and its land protection methods and objectives. The packet also includes a Property Information Sheet asking you about your land and your goals in preserving it. After reviewing the responses on this form and determining that the project is of mutual interest, LRCT will contact you. We will request permission for LRCT staff and volunteer committee members to walk the land, and will ask that you supply a copy of any recent survey done of the property.


A First Look at the Land

LRCT staff will complete a Property Assessment Report while walking the land, noting particular attributes of the property and potential management requirements and objectives. A brief description of the land and photos taken during this initial visit will be used in future presentations to the LRCT Board and for general publicity purposes as the project moves forward.


Determining Land Protection Objectives and Methods

Our staff will then meet with you to share information from the property visit and to further clarify your goals in preserving your land. You will be asked whether your intention is to provide LRCT with the gift of the land and its title, or the gift of a conservation easement. (If funding for the project is required, staff will also explore the viability of local fund raising with you.) If you intend to pursue an easement, we will inquire as to which rights (e.g. timber rights) you wish to retain. We will also discuss your views on the potential management of the property, in particular, your interest in allowing public access to the site.


Obtaining Preliminary Approval

Our staff will present the project to the Lands Committee of the LRCT Board. The Lands Committee will assess the conservation value of the property and determine if its protection is in keeping with LRCT goals, objectives, and capacities. Our office will notify you of preliminary approval and:


•request that you provide us with a new survey of the property if one has not been done recently;

•advise you to seek legal counsel;

•notify you of the need to conduct an appraisal on the property;

•provide you with a projected management plan or model easement (as appropriate) to discuss with your attorney;

•request your permission to conduct further on-site review of the land prior to its transfer;

•explain the need for LRCT volunteer "monitors" to walk the land on an annual basis;

•explain LRCT's need to secure funding to properly care for or "steward" the land;

•request a stewardship gift to endow LRCT's future responsibilities to care for the land, or request your consent for LRCT staff to seek funding from the local community; and

•present you with a suggested time line for the project.*


* Landowners seeking tax benefits for their donation of land or easement to the Trust should be aware that LRCT staff must adhere to time lines dictated by quarterly meetings of the Board. It may be difficult, if not impossible to complete a project in the final weeks of a calendar year, unless prior planning included such a deadline.


Approval and Completion of the Project

Once our office receives from you or your attorney a copy of the new survey and a proposal for title transfer or specific conservation easement language, the project will be presented to the full LRCT Board for its approval. Upon approval, LRCT's legal counsel will conduct a final title search and then work with your attorney to schedule and implement the closing.

Post-Closing Documentation for Tax Purposes

In order to receive allowable income tax benefits from your gift of land, you are required to submit appropriate forms (8283) to the IRS. The forms will include the value of the gift based on the appraisal you had done on the property. Once you or your attorney have prepared the IRS forms you will need to submit them to LRCT for signature.

Publicizing the Gift

It is customary for LRCT to publicize in the media all donations of land or conservation easements. Typically, a press release is issued which includes a photograph and description of the property and details about how LRCT worked with members of the community to protect the land. With the exception of stewardship or other monetary gifts made to the Trust, this information is in most cases a matter of public record. However, if you donate land, an easement or a stewardship gift to LRCT and do not wish to be listed by name as a donor, please make us aware of that as early as possible.

Land Management and Stewardship

Posting of boundary signs, trail construction and maintenance, and other land management projects are commonly instituted by LRCT volunteers. If you as a land donor, your family, or your neighbors are interested in assisting with monitoring or other projects, please contact us. We would greatly appreciate your joining our efforts.

By law, all properties on which an easement has been placed must be routinely monitored to ensure that the (current or future) landowner is abiding by all restrictions stated in the deed. In addition to monitoring easements, LRCT routinely inspects other protected properties to ensure proper management. In all cases, land donors are invited to participate.