Conservation Defense Insurance

Quick Links

Insurance Conference Call

Please join us for an informational conference call on the proposed conservation defense insurance program on February 23rd. Alliance staff will be there to answer any questions or concerns you have.

Date: February 23, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM PT ** 2:00 PM MT ** 3:00 PM CT ** 4:00 PM ET
Phone Number: 800-803-0998
Participant Passcode: 559933#

Please feel free to send questions prior to the call to Leslie Ratley-Beach, Conservation Defense Director, at lrbeach@lta.org or call her at 802-262-6051.

How Much Has Your State Committed?

Watch the commitments for the proposed conservation defense insurance program grow. You can see progress of the 12,000 conservation easements and fee land needed to make the program feasible on the Tree-mometer. Or if you want to see how your state stacks up, see the map of land trust commitments as a percentage of total units by state, who have committed to join the collective defense and permanence effort. Land trusts from 42 states have committed 70% of the necessary easement and fee land parcels. Join them now and keep the momentum going.

See the complete list of committed land trusts >>

"Our board understands that upholding the terms of our 46 conservation easements is our most fundamental responsibility - no matter what else we have done or may want to do, we have an obligation to landowners and the community to make sure that the conservation values of the land covered by the conservation easements are always protected. We see the proposed insurance program as vital to making that happen." - Jim Welsh, Executive Director, Natural Heritage Land Trust, Wisconsin

"This simply makes economic sense. We will take a very small percentage allocation from our existing Conservation Lands Defense Fund and buy the insurance. The result will be to essentially triple our existing financial resources for conservation easement defense." - Jay Freedman, Treasurer, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Maine

Remember - accreditation is not necessary in order to participate. This program is open to all land trusts. See detailed terms and conditions, commitment letter and background information >>

Commitments Pass 70 Percent

We now have more than 70% of the 12,000 conservation easements and fee land needed to make the conservation defense insurance program feasible. So consider joining now to keep the momentum going. Now more than 213 land trusts from 42 states are committed to collective defense. Remember - accreditation is not necessary in order to participate. This program is open to all land trusts. See detailed terms and conditions, commitment letter and background information >>

We Are All In This Together!

Join the dozens of land trusts that have already committed to participate in this program by sending in your commitment letter and check today. So far these land trusts have committed more than 70% of the 12,000 conservation interests needed to make this program feasible.

New! Watch a brief video interview with Stan Lilley, Executive Director of the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy in Michigan: "Why We Committed To Conservation Defense Insurance."

For more information, call or write to Leslie Ratley-Beach, Land Trust Alliance Conservation Defense Director at lrbeach@lta.org or 802-2626-6051. We are all in this together and are stronger for it!

Program Background

Alliance Board Asks Land Trusts to Participate in Conservation Defense Insurance Program

Thank you to the hundreds of land trust volunteers, board and staff members and attorneys who commented on the drafts of the proposed conservation defense insurance program.

At their June 5 meeting the Alliance board approved the terms of a potential program to cover the costs of enforcing and defending easements and protecting land trust land. We need a minimum of 12,000 easements or fee parcels for this program to be feasible, so the next step is to find out how many land trusts are willing to participate.

The Alliance board will evaluate the level of commitment over the next year and determine later whether to proceed further with exploring feasibility of this possible program.

Your land trust may be reluctant to take on the cost of the new premium in the midst of a recession. Because of that concern, premium payments would not begin until the program starts. If the Alliance board ultimately approves the program, we wouldn’t begin actual operations before January 31, 2012 and possibly as late as December 31, 2013. However, a modest registration fee is due with your letter of commitment.

Learn more background on Conservation Defense Insurance >>

Why Take Action?

Threats to Permanence

Conservation easements and preserves owned by land trusts are increasingly under attack across America. These attacks are coming from a few landowners who attempt to undermine their conservation easements, utilities looking for new transmission corridors, adjoining landowners, developers and trespassers. Although land trusts have had relatively few legal challenges, research shows that as property values rise, incentives to disrupt or void easements grow as well, and so does trespass on land trust property.

Just because your land trust has never had to fund major litigation in the past does not mean that you will be so lucky in the future. Every land trust has some conservation easements that are older or not so well-drafted, and even solid easements are vulnerable to violations and frivolous lawsuits. Eventually, every land trust will face some form of litigation.

The stakes are high, as a single adverse decision from a legal case could endanger the permanence of thousands of easements. Without action now, the land trust community risks losing many of the gains made in recent years. Land trusts and their attorneys must be prepared to defend easements in court if all other negotiated resolutions fail. For many land trusts without sufficient reserves for defending easements and land, the costs of a single lawsuit could threaten the land trust’s survival. Moreover, if a land trust fails to properly defend an easement, it could result in bad case law that could jeopardize easements held by other organizations across the United States.

A land trust should not have to stand alone against a well-funded adversary, and the united strength of 1,700 land trusts across America could present a formidable defense. In the past, land trusts have been able to raise funds to defend an occasional challenge to an easement, but the expected increase in legal challenges now require a coordinated national strategy.