We’re Saving The World
One small piece of land at a time. To date, the Pelican Coast Conservancy has successfully conserved over one hundred thousand acres of land across the Southeastern U.S. through conservation easements and fee simple donation. This is one of the most current tools in our arsenal which also includes timber management plans and carbon sequestration validation and verification. Can perpetually protecting your forest provide you with a financial benefit above and beyond the federal tax deductions, and state tax credits associated with conservation easements? The Pelican Coast Conservancy can help with plan that may qualify you for property tax relief. For more information, please contact us at wernest@pelicancoastconservancy.org
Conservation Easements
The most frequently used tool in the land protection arsenal is the conservation easement. A conservation easement is a legal encumbrance — sometimes including a transfer of usage rights — which creates an enforceable land preservation agreement between a landowner and a qualified land protection organization (often called a “land trust”), or a government agency (municipality, county, state, federal), for the purposes of conservation. It restricts real estate development, commercial and industrial uses, and certain other activities on a property to a mutually agreed upon level. The property remains the private property of the landowner.
Land Stewardship
Easement monitoring is the ongoing process of making sure the purpose and restrictions of each individual conservation easement are being upheld. It is a cooperative process between the Pelican Coast Conservancy and the landowner. Per IRS Code 170 (h), “the land trust monitors its easement properties regularly, at least annually, in a manner appropriate to the size and restrictions of the property, and keeps documentation (such as reports, updated photographs and maps) of each monitoring activity.”