protect your land

  • Protect What You Love!

    We’ve been working with landowners for 30+ years to protect the forests, rivers, and farms they love in the Cacapon River Watershed.

    We primarily use conservation easements to protect land. A conservation easement is an agreement that restricts some land uses in order to protect land’s natural and agricultural values.

    You will continue to own the property and can live on the land, hunt and fish, farm, harvest timber, and otherwise use your land as you always have. You can sell it or pass it to heirs.

    Conservation easements offer peace of mind that the land you love will be here for future generations. They can also generate tax benefits.

    This thing called ‘sense of place’, I suppose that’s what it’s all about for me and for others who believe so strongly in a particular chunk of this earth. It becomes so much a part of us that we will do everything possible to ensure that it will not be harmed when we’re not around to care for it.
    ~ John Gavitt

  • How It Works

    If you own land in the Cacapon watershed (Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan counties):

    1. 1) Contact the Trust to discuss your goals for your land.
    2. 2) Our staff will work with you to draft protections for your land that balance your goals, flexibility for the future, and protection for the land.
    3. 3) Together we will work through “due diligence” to make sure we can accept your conservation easement and to help you be eligible for financial benefits. This may include a title search, property survey, and appraisal.
    4. 4) When we sign a conservation easement together, you obligate yourself and subsequent owners of the property to the “rules” you created in your conservation easement.
    5. 5) In return, you will have gained a permanent peace of mind that your land is safe, and you may be eligible for property tax and federal income tax savings.
    6. 6) Forever after, the Trust makes sure that the easement terms are followed. We will visit your property each year to ensure the rules you made for your land are upheld. We will take every step necessary to uphold your wishes.

    Consider joining the 100+ landowners who have protected their land with us. You too can enjoy the peace of mind of knowing your land is protected forever.

    Contribute to help protect more land!

    Meet landowners like you who have made the choice to protect their land