Because I do not understand conservation easements fully I have a question. If a farmer gives/signs a conservaton easement does it open his farm lands for hiking, snowmobiling,etc etc to all people or does it just prevent future development but allow the farmer to continue farming. What if the current owner sells the property can the new owner continue to farm the land? Thanks BIll Moses

Thanks for your question, Bill. I will try to respond briefly but welcome any further questions as I don't know that conservation easments are well understood. Giving a conservation easement is a donation of the development rights to land you want to see protected. It is deeding those development rights in perputuity. This is done by a contract that allows one to keep out of conservaton things like their home and other strucutures or areas related. The rest is protected from development but can be used for whatever the parties involved may want or accept. It can be used for logging, farming or other uses. Whether or not it is open for all recreations uses has to do with current use. You can post it against hunting, for example, and then you loose some of the current use property tax reduction but not all. That only impacts current use, not the conservation easement. But current use only has to do with property taxes. Giving away the development rights means a charitable donation which you can deduct from income taxes. It requires an appraisal to set the value of that gift of development rights. The easement is a deeded part of the land so it goes with the land when one sells it. One other thing worth mentioning is the property tax situation for the town. Most people seem to think any development spreads out the tax base and would reduce their share. That is not so. It leaves out the cost side of land use. There have been many cost of communty service studies in NH and around the country and the findings are quite consistent. Residential development is tax negative. That is it costs more in community services than it brings in taxes. (Schools are a part of that.) Commercial and Industrial development is generally tax positive and brings in more in taxes than it costs for community services. Conservation easements are like commercial and industrial use. During any payment of a loan (for example if the town gives an easment and borrows to do so) it is about the same as commercial and industrial uses of land. However, if there is no loan or after the loan is paid off, conservation easment land is more tax positive than either commercial or industrial land uses as essentially there are no costs for community services (police, fire, etc.). Yet there still are property taxes even if at the current use rates. I hope this is clear enough but I will try to clarify what I know about it if anyone has other questions. Two other sources for information are the Monadnock Conservancy and the Society for the Protection of NH Forests. Both have brochures exlaining it I believe.

Here is a web site for the Monadnock Conservancy that also explains conservation easements: http://www.monadnockconservancy.org/html/how_cons_easements.html

Thank you. Your explanation was helpful. Bill