Strengthening Conservation Easements

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at National Land Conservation Conference: Rally 2005

Madison, WI
October 17, 2005
 

Thank you, Mary (Pope Hutson). I am delighted to join you—and so many of our conservation partners—here in Madison for Rally 2005.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service has been a partner in conservation for 70 years, helping people help the land. Over the past 20 years, we’ve also worked with land trusts on conservation easements. And our easement portfolio has grown exponentially.

Role of Conservation Easements

A robust easement portfolio is a natural complement to other NRCS efforts to conserve natural resources. Easements are voluntary. Rather than restricting what a farmer or rancher can do on the land, they provide an incentive for conservation. They have helped families retain farms and ranches that otherwise might have gone to developers.

Two decades ago, the general thinking of many in the agricultural community was that no one would sign up for easement programs except those in deep financial distress. But that’s not the case.

Many farmers and ranchers have come to understand that a conservation easement can be the best way to ensure that the land they love remains in agriculture. They can afford to continue to work the land while protecting it.

NRCS Easement Portfolio and Programs

In 2005, NRCS has agreements covering more than 11,000 easements totaling over 2 million acres. If we continue to sign conservation easements at the present rate, we expect to have 18,000 easements covering about 4 million acres before the end of the current farm bill in 2007.

Recently, we reorganized our offices in Washington to place all our easement programs together. Today, we have four easement programs available. Let me just touch on each of these.

The Wetlands Reserve Program is our largest easement program with 1.6 million acres. It’s a significant component of the President’s promise to improve, protect, enhance and restore 3 million acres of America’s wetlands over the next five years.

The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program helps farmers and ranchers keep their land in agriculture by providing matching funds to enable State, Tribal or local governments and non-governmental organizations—such as land trusts—that have existing farm and ranch land protection programs to purchase conservation easements—more than 360,000 acres since 1996.

Through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, nearly 127,000 acres of flood-prone land has been placed into easements.

Finally, some 746,000 acres are enrolled in the Grassland Reserve Program. GRP helps landowners and operators restore and protect grass and range lands in parcels of 40 acres or more.

There’s one other program I want to mention—the Healthy Forest Reserve Program, created in 2003 to restore and enhance forest ecosystems, but as yet unfunded, though it is included in the FY 2006 Senate Ag appropriations bill. One of the special features of this program is a “safe harbor” provision for landowners who participate, permitting them to avoid future regulatory restrictions on the use of that land protected under the Endangered Species Act.

NRCS easement programs have proven popular, but also somewhat confusing with different rules and requirements.
We’d like to standardize our easements and cut the time it takes to close easements from 15 to 18 months to 12 months.

Certification for Land Trusts

Even as NRCS easement programs have expanded, so has the easement community. A few problems have cropped up—ranging from poorly drafted easements to inflated appraisals to inadequate easement monitoring—and more.

The controversies with The Nature Conservancy were a wake up call for everyone. We must do more to advance the professionalism of the easement community.

That’s why I strongly support an accreditation program for all prospective easement holders. Specifically, NRCS supports the efforts of LTA to improve the quality standards for land trusts such as a national accreditation program, like the one previewed at the breakfast this morning, including:

1. New training program for land trusts
2. Trust accreditation program
3. Certification program for easement appraisers
4. Program for land trust defense of conservation easements

There is a tremendous need for this program to:

• Increase consistency among conservation easements

• Enable more efficient operation of NRCS easement programs as land trusts become more familiar with their obligations and our programs
• Discourage bad actors

• Reduce instances of inflated appraisals

• Ensure better monitoring and management of easements

Conclusion

When I was a young man, my father used to say to me, “Son, always remember that any land you ever hold title to is not really yours. You are simply the steward while you’re on this earth.”

I trust that everyone is here because they want to be good stewards of the land on behalf of the public and the generations to come. I believe well-designed conservation easements in the hands of responsible and well-prepared easement holders are an outstanding way to fulfill that stewardship.
 

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