Conservation Easements
A conservation easement or conservation servitude can help protect your land, wildlife habitat, scenic areas, or historic buildings. It’s an alternative to selling the land for development.
A conservation easement or conservation servitude is a legal agreement ensuring your property will be managed according to your wishes. With an easement or servitude, you retain ownership of the land, and you may qualify for tax benefits.
What Is It?
A conservation easement is a legal agreement between the person who owns the land and a non-profit conservation organization (often called a land trust) or a government agency.
Why Use One?
Some of the reasons to use an easement include to preserve or promote a conservation ethic on your property; to protect special features of your property such as mature trees, wildlife habitat, or historical significance; to maintain the productivity of your land; or to reduce your tax burden
What Land Qualifies?
At least 51% of the land must be natural habitat. Mississippi River Trust (MRT) focuses on significant habitats that need protection such as wetlands, bottomland hardwoods, native prairie and more.
Tax Benefits
Both federal and state laws provide tax benefits to landowners who protect natural or historic land with qualifying conservation easements. Conservation easements are not suited for every situation. Landowners should consult tax professionals for more specific information.
Recent Conservation Easements
Read through the stories of 12 landowners and the success that the conservation easements had.
This property is in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, in the Mississippi River Alluvial Floodplain. The Yendalg, LLC servitude area is broadly described as located in the Deciduous Forest Formation for ecological purposes. The oak/gum/cypress forest is the associated functional climax vegetation. The property is just outside Baton Rouge, between the communities of Arlington and
This approximately 330-acre servitude is owned by Ed and Thais Tonore. It is in the floodplain of the Mississippi River in Madison Parish, Louisiana. This property is just northeast of the Sherman S. Shaw and Linda Silmon servitudes. It is near the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, with the prominent mammals being the Louisiana black
The Robert B. Todd servitude property totals approximately 306 acres and is 11 miles southeast of Tallulah, in Madison Parish, Louisiana. The property was enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program in 2005 and was restored to forested wetlands. The landowner strongly desires superior land stewardship, emphasizing outdoor recreation, wildlife management, and hunting. This protected property
The Charlotte Smith Revocable Trust and D&M Smith, LLC (Smith Trust) is a 191-acre forested property on Crowley’s Ridge adjacent to the St. Francis National Forest in Lee County, Arkansas. The property is within Crowley’s Ridge, one of Arkansas’s six distinct ecoregions. Crowley’s Ridge, named after the early settler Benjamin Crowley, is the smallest ecoregion
The Linda Silmon servitude property encompasses 2 tracts of approximately 1,289 acres total. It includes Wild Horse Bayou and is located in Tensas Parish, about 12 miles northwest of Newellton, Louisiana. The entire servitude property is in the Mississippi River floodplain. The servitude property is subject to a perpetual Wetlands Reserve Program easement. It is
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