Model Policies

Conservation easements are intended to last—to ensure protection of important resources, no matter people’s whims—through the decades and centuries. However, the world changes and so do understandings of how best to meet conservation objectives. A land trust must be prepared to address these changes in order to ensure that its conservation work is effective while assuring its supporters and the public that it is a reliable agent of conservation. This resource serves as a guide to responsible decision-making regarding potential amendments of grants of conservation easement. WeConservePA guide. 20 pages.

Every easement-holding land trust should have a policy to help guide responsible consideration of potential amendments to grants of conservation easement. WeConservePA produced this one-page Model Policy for Conservation Easement Amendment, together with its expansive “Guidelines for Conservation Easement Amendments, Waivers, and Letters of Interpretation,” to assist land trusts in establishing or updating such a policy and, most importantly, acting responsibly and productively in their easement decision-making. COMING IN JUNE 2024