IS A CONSERVATION EASEMENT RIGHT FOR YOU?
By Burt Rutherford
More and more ag producers are using conservation easements for estate planning and cash infusions.
“ The times, they are a’ changin.” Those prophetic words by the old cartoon character Pogo Possum are as true now as ever. Indeed, change has been part of human existence ever since humans have been around. Now, however, it seems that change comes more often, with greater velocity and higher stakes.
Indeed, it was the changing world of the Mountain West that gave rise 30 years ago to the Colorado Cattlemen’ s Agricultural Land Trust( CCALT), the first agriculturally based organization designed to help ranchers and farmers use conservation easements as a tool to assist with generational transfer in a time of upheaval in land use and ownership. Since CCALT was established in 1995 by members of the Colorado Cattlemen’ s Association, similar organizations have been founded in other states— California( California Rangeland Trust), Kansas( Ranchland Trust of Kansas), Wyoming( Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust), South Dakota( South Dakota Ag Land Trust), Texas( Texas Agricultural Land Trust), and Oregon( Northwest Rangeland Trust).
“ The idea was that producers and families needed options for estate planning purposes,” according to Erik Glenn, CCALT CEO.“ And a lot of that came from the resort area ag communities like Steamboat and Carbondale, where you still had working family ranches, but land prices had appreciated because of the resort nature of those communities,” he said, a need that still exists today and a need that is now expanding beyond traditional resort communities.
Conservation easements are the primary tool CCALT and other ag-focused land trusts use to achieve their mission, which is to keep ag producers on the land and ag communities viable and thriving.
“ A conservation easement is a perpetual set of deed restrictions on the land that the landowner voluntarily chooses to encumber the property with,” Glenn said.“ We help them facilitate that transaction, and we monitor the easement year after year to make sure the terms of the easement are being maintained.” Busting Some Myths“ There are a lot of misconceptions about conservation easements and some of those are being promoted by groups that claim to be landowners’ rights groups,” Glenn said. For example, he’ s heard people claim that an easement locks you into what you can do, such as grow only certain crops, run only so many cattle or only have fences in certain places.
“ Now, you could certainly write an easement that way, but that would be dumb,” he said.
One of his favorite stories is about a ranch around Pueblo, Colorado, that had, as part of its conservation easement, terms that dictated all dogs had to be on a leash.
“ How do you enforce that and why would you put a‘ no dogs off leash’ term on a ranch easement? It’ s just dumb,” Glenn said.“ It’ s those things which have given easements a bad name in agricultural circles and rightfully so.”
Therefore, it is essential farmers and ranchers interested in a conservation easement know about the group they are dealing with. Where conservation easements get a bad rap in the agriculture community is when a landowner works with an organization that is mission focused on environmental issues rather than on agricultural land use, Glenn advised.
“ If the primary focus of the easement is on environmental issues, that organization is going to write easements that are very different than what we’ re going to write,” he said.“ We’ re focused on drafting an easement that makes sure ag production can coexist with the terms. Your management is your domain. And we think by doing that, we actually end up with better conservation over time because we know ag producers are the best stewards of the land.” How It Works For a landowner interested in developing a conservation easement, the first step is to get in contact with an organization like CCALT. A member of the CCALT team will sit down with the landowner, and possibly the landowner’ s family, to begin the process.
“ Our involvement initially will be to help the landowner understand what the easement process is going to look like and how it will work,” Glenn said.“ We are also going to work to understand the landowner’ s goals in doing an easement and what their long-term goals are for the operation. We’ ll help them design that easement to meet those goals and objectives.”
“ We work with landowners so they drive what the easement looks like so it works for their operations. They need flexibility. Our focus should be ensuring the land is there to do what the land’ s intended to do,” he said.
When all the terms and details of the easement are finalized, CCALT and the landowner jointly record the easement in the county property records, and the
10 FEBRUARY 2026 www. NCBA. org