Minnesota Land Trust

“The minnesota land trust has extensive policies and procedures covering its conservation easement stewardship program. The ultimate responsibility of the land trust's conservation easement stewardship program is to preserve the conservation values associated with each property. Therefore, the land trust is prepared to legally defend and enforce its easements when necessary. Legal enforcement, however, is a remedy of last resort. The goals of the land trust's easement stewardship program include encouraging voluntary compliance whenever possible, establishing and maintaining good relationships with landowners and the communities in which our easements are located, documenting the condition of lands protected by each easement at the time the easement is completed and monitoring that condition over time, maintaining accurate records and being efficient and effective with the use of funds in supporting stewardship activities. Components of the stewardship program include: creating an appropriate baseline property report, easement administration, monitoring, landowner relations, community relations and easement enforcement and defense. The land trust has specific policies and procedures for each of these components. As one of the first nationally accredited land trusts in the country, these policies and procedures and their implementation by the land trust have passed land trust accreditation commission scrutiny. All conservation easements accepted by the minnesota land trust grant to the land trust expansive rights to enter, monitor and inspect the property. All easements also provide comprehensive enforcement rights and remedies for the land trust in the event of a violation and detail the limited circumstances under which the conservation easement could be modified or terminated.”

“Conservation easements accepted or purchased by the land trust are not recognized as assets in the financial statements because the land trust does not have fee title to the properties and there are no expected future economic benefits. If purchased, the costs of conservation easements are expensed when the easements are acquired. Most purchases of conservation easements are made with state of minnesota funds through the outdoor heritage fund (ohf) or environment and natural resources trust fund (enrtf) and are shown as revenue and expenses in designated gl [acquisition] accounts. Only the purchase price of an easement is recorded; project costs such as title work, mapping and the like are considered part of the land trust's core operating program expense.”

“The endowment fund was established to provide long-term operating support for the minnesota land trust; the judd lake endowment was established to provide funds for the care and management of the judd lake property the land trust owns near ely.”

“A tax expense or benefit from an uncertain income tax position (including tax-exempt status) may be recognized only when it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained upon examination by taxing authorities. Management believes the land trust has no uncertain income tax positions that would result in an accrual, expense or benefit under the more likely than not standard.”