Protect Your Land

Whether your land has been in your family for five years or five generations, you care about its future. Permanent conservation is an option for families with sizable properties, especially as land is passed on to succeeding generations.

Read more about the tools available to protect private land with the Northwoods Land Trust (NWLT). Before deciding which option best suits your interests, it is important to contact us. It often takes families several years to consider all of the factors to reach a decision. Once a decision is made to permanently protect land, it typically takes several months to one year to complete the necessary steps with NWLT.

Photo by Mark Bugnaski

Land Donations

Donating land is one of the finest legacies anyone can leave to their community. This may be the best protection strategy if you cannot or do not wish to own and manage land or pass such land on to heirs. By donating all or a portion of your undeveloped land, it becomes ours to care for. 

Land is one of the most tangible legacies anyone can leave to benefit future generations.Landowners who choose to donate land to NWLT for permanent protection do so for many reasons, but the primary motivation is that they want what’s best for their property in the long term. 

Considerations

  • There may be no one to inherit your property.
 
  • Heirs may not have an interest in protecting the land as you do, and it could become subdivided and developed after your passing.
 
  • You do not wish, or are no longer able to, own and manage your land for the foreseeable future.
 
  • You want to reduce the estate tax burden, or large capital gains tax liabilities, if you sell your land.

Benefits

  • It gives peace of mind knowing that your property is forever protected.
 
  • It is a relatively simple transaction.
 
  • It releases your responsibility for managing the land and paying property taxes.
 
  • It is a charitable contribution and may provide substantial income tax deductions and estate tax benefits.

When Donating Land

  • We review the property’s natural and ecological characteristics, size and proximity to other conserved lands to determine if it is eligible for permanent conservation.
 
  • If your property is eligible for permanent conservation, we will visit the site, conduct title work and hold vote by our board of directors.
 
  • We accept a perpetual responsibility to own and manage the land to preserve its conservation values.
 
  • We ensure there are financial resources set aside to protect and defend the land into the future. We may ask you to make a gift toward our Land Stewardship Fund, which isn’t a requirement, but surely helps us meet our future obligations.
 
  • We write a land management plan that honors your intentions and is tailored to the property.
 
  • We typically open donated lands to the public, which can be minimal with no improvements, or it can involve creating low-impact recreational opportunities.

Note: very rarely NWLT may purchase properties for protection. Only certain properties will qualify for a purchase through NWLT – mainly those with great ecological significance or highly sought-after locations, and where the price and timing of such a sale is flexible so we can seek grants and major gifts to fund it.

Conservation Easements

A conservation easement is a permanent land protection agreement between NWLT and a landowner. By donating a conservation easement, you donate (all or a portion of) your rights to develop or subdivide a property. Conservation easements allow you to create a vision for your land that will last long after your lifetime.

 

Conservation easements are a unique tool that land trusts can offer to landowners of all kinds.  The easement (agreement) is voluntary and permanent. It allows you to retain ownership of your land, enjoy and manage it, pass it down to heirs or sell it. The easement is tied to the deed and binds future owners to its terms. We monitor the protected property annually to ensure the easement terms are met into the future.

CONSIDERATIONS

  • There may be no one to inherit your property.
 
  • Heirs may not have an interest in protecting the land as you do, and it could become subdivided and developed after your passing.
 
  • You wish to own and manage the land for the foreseeable future.
 
  • You want to reduce the estate tax burden, or large capital gains tax liabilities if you sell your land in the future.

Benefits

  • It gives you peace of mind knowing that your property is forever protected.
 
  • It can be tailored to your particular property and your goals. For example, easements can allow for sustainable timber management. It can limit development all together or leave room for improvements and additional structures.
 
  • Land protected by a conservation easement can be sold, passed to heirs or otherwise transferred.
 
  • The conservation easement donation is a charitable contribution and may provide substantial income tax deductions and estate tax benefits.

When Donating a Conservation Easement

  • We review the property’s natural and ecological characteristics, size and proximity to other conserved lands to determine if it is eligible for permanent conservation. If eligible, it requires a site visit, vote by our board of directors, title search and more.
 
  • We accept a perpetual stewardship responsibility to annually monitor and uphold the agreement terms.
 
  • We ensure there are financial resources set aside to protect and defend the land into the future. We may ask you to make a gift toward our Land Stewardship Fund, which isn’t a requirement, but surely helps us meet our future obligations.
 
  • We don’t determine if the public is allowed to access your land – you do. Like other private lands, permission to access the property must be obtained from the landowner. 

Watch our videos featuring four families who have donated conservation easements to NWLT.

Other Land Protection Options

Explore other options available through NWLT and other organizations. 

You can bequeath a property to NWLT through your will. This may involve a property that is intended for permanent conservation, or a property that may be resold to support our mission. Landowners can also plan for estate issues by granting a conservation easement through their will. Executors can also grant an easement prior to settling the estate. We ask that you contact us before deciding to place NWLT in your will or estate plans. Visit our Legacy Giving page for more information.

If a parcel of land does not meet our criteria for permanent protection, you may still consider donating it as ‘trade land.’ Trade lands gifted to NWLT are resold to provide funds for the conservation of ecologically significant land elsewhere (or to generally support our mission). The potential tax benefits of ‘trade lands’ are the same as land gifted for permanent conservation. Contact us if you are interested in donating ‘trade lands.’

You can act as a ‘conservation buyer’ by purchasing a property with high ecological value and then protecting it with a conservation easement or land donation. NWLT can review a property that you are interested in buying to see if it qualifies for conservation before you act on it. In other cases, NWLT simply hopes to link conservation-minded buyers and sellers but does not act as an agent for either party. NWLT does not become involved in negotiations between sellers and buyers. Contact us if you are interested in serving as a conservation buyer.

Outright gifts of cash and donations of other assets such as securities, life insurance, IRA distributions or other valuables may also be given to support our conservation activities. Such gifts may be directed to our Land Protection Fund to be used to support the acquisition of land or easements that are of high priority or are time sensitive in nature. Visit our Support page for more information.

Many landowners participate in governmental programs such as Wisconsin's Managed Forest Law (MFL) for property tax reasons. Others participate in USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service programs to improve land, reduce runoff and better manage their properties. Most government programs are fully compatible with NWLT’s land protection tools.

Today, carbon programs are beginning to be available for smaller forestland owners. For example, the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) offers financial assistance incentives to help you pay for the activities like invasive species treatment or cover costs such as property taxes or road maintenance.

County land and water conservation departments and regional lake and river associations can offer information about best practices and explain regulations. They may also have programs and cost-share funding for erosion control, establishing buffers, native plantings and other improvements.

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