Bodega Land Trust

“Each Conservation Easement specifies what is allowed on the specific easement. There is also a detailed Easement Baseline document describing the condition of the easement so that each year's easement monitoring can determine conditions with respect to the baseline. Yearly detailed photos and information are kept as part of Easement Monitoring Reports. There is also an Easement Defense Policy under development. In addition, Bodega Land Trust carries a policy with Terrafirma RRG LLC, a spinoff of the National Land Trust Alliance the Bodega Land Trust is a member of, to cover legal costs necessary for conservation defense. These costs include fees for attorneys and experts for lawsuits and mediation, for both the enforcement and defense of conservation easements and fee owned land. This would cover land trust attorney and other fees in the event the land trust either starts the lawsuit or is named in a lawsuit. It also covers attorney and other expert fees for efforts to resolve cases prior to litigation.”

“Bodega Land Trust acquires land conservation easements through donations as charitable contributions. The land conservation easements are not recorded as assets on the organization's Balance Sheet since the property rights granted to the organization are restricted, cannot be sold, and convey only the right to restrict the use and development of the land not owned by the trust. These easements generally provide that the land will be maintained unimpaired in its current natural, agricultural, scenic, or recreational state. For conservation easements which include donated land, of which there is one, the organization would record the value as a fixed asset - land.”