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How to Conserve your land
Conservation organizations don’t save land – landowners do.
NEFF works to help landowners reach their conservation goals.
Options include land donations, conservation easements, and planned giving
as well as other innovative methods.
NEFF owns 130 forests totaling more
than 23,000 acres. Most of these are Memorial
Forests named to perpetually honor the donor or their family. These
forests are carefully managed to continue to yield the flow of benefits and
products.
The forest management program on lands held by NEFF, fulfill the longstanding
goal of teaching private forestland owners the benefits of sustainable forestry.
To this end they are all demonstration forests. Additionally, the forests are
NEFF's endowment and as such they are an important source of operating revenue.
This is generated through sustainable timber sales. They are all currently
independently certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as being well
and sustainably managed.
NEFF has been holding Conservation Easements for private landowners
since 1976. Currently we hold easements on 125 different properties totaling 1,138,000 acres.
Conservation easements (or restrictions) are great ways to keep your land in the family, in traditional land uses,
minimize your tax liability, and preserve open space and habitat. By donating a conservation easement
to NEFF you will be able to keep your forest working as a sustainably
managed forest, continue to harvest crops on your farm, or maintain open green
space on your land. Easements allow you to own your land and manage it the
way you intend as per the terms of the contract while easing the estate and tax
liabilities enabling you to afford to pass it to successor generations.
The most common terms of Conservation Easements today are the relinquishment of
your rights to develop the property. The right to develop a property is
the most valuable right of the bundle bound in real property.
For more information about conservation easements see our Questions and
Answers for Landowners page
More from the Land Conservation department
Landowner options for land conservation
Ongoing Conservation Projects
Conservation Easement management monitoring program
Conservation FAQs
NEFF Conservation Links
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