Sample for Practice 11A: Easement Preparation Cost Estimates

A sample stewardship cost calculation from the accredited Piedmont Environmental Council.

This guidance covers Practice 11A: Funding Conservation Easement Stewardship.

This is a sample landowner pledge form for contributions to the Conservation Easement Stewardship Endowment Fund and Legal Defense Fund from the accredited North Branch Land Trust.

A sample stewardship and legal defense fund calculation from the accredited Hill Country Conservancy.

Join stewardship experts Angela Sturdevant, TNC, Jamison Hutchins, Central Indiana Land Trust and Leslie Ratley-Beach, Land Trust Alliance, as they lay out what land trusts need to know when planning for the long-term cost of managing and defending their properties. 

Land Trust Standards and Practices, Practice 6A. Fiscal Health, includes five elements. This module addresses Practice 6A5: Build and maintain dedicated or restricted funds sufficient to cover the long-term costs of stewarding and defending the land trust's land and conservation easements.

In the recent case Pine Mountain Preserve v. Commissioner, the Eleventh Circuit advised conscious breathing. So everyone took a deep breath, including the court, who then simplified the complicated tax regulations and analyses, making them accessible concepts.

How can your land trust ensure it has an adequate legal defense reserve to protect your preserves and conservation easements? Calculate your reserve number using the Legal Defense Reserves Calculator.

Eventually, every land trust will face some form of legal action and it is very difficult or even impossible to know ahead of time when a land trust will be involved in a legal action (regardless of whether the land trust is initiating or responding to a legal action) so planning ahead is essential.