BarbriSFCourseDetails
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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Environmental

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, September 30, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
ALL

This CLE course will examine conservation easements and the legal considerations when drafting and enforcing an easement for the preservation of land and natural resources. The panel will discuss the benefits and limitations of these easements and the challenges associated with amending and enforcing the easements. Finally, the panel will offer best practices for using conservation easements.

Faculty

Chris Gutschenritter
Director of Land Conservation Law Program
Gathering Waters

As part of the Conservation Law Program, Mr. Gutschenritter provides legal services to Wisconsin land trusts. He convenes a Land Conservation Law Council of experienced attorneys to help shape and guide the Land, and works to broaden the community of practice of legal professionals in the land trust community, with a focus on the long-term obligations facing land trusts. Mr. Gutschenritter also delivers continuing legal education opportunities to land trust staff and board members across the state.

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Justin Hollinger
Director of Conservation Law
WeConservePA

Mr. Hollinger joined the WeConservePA team as the organization’s first-ever Director of Conservation Law. A member of the Pennsylvania Bar, he has represented nonprofits in millions of dollars of complex real estate transactions, and advised nonprofit clients in a wide range of transactional and operational matters. Mr. Hollinger most recently served as a staff attorney with Regional Housing Legal Services. He received his Juris Doctor, summa cum laude, from Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

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Description

A conservation easement is a legally enforceable land preservation agreement between a landowner and either a government agency or a qualified land protection organization for conservation of the land and its resources. As such, certain types of development, commercial and industrial uses, and other nuisance activities may be managed while preserving the ownership rights of the landholder, making conservation easements flexible preservation strategies.

However, counsel must understand how to draft, utilize, and enforce easements, as the easement holder accepts the document in perpetuity and holds the risk and responsibility related to its enforcement. Counsel must know how to assess and inventory the property's preservation value and natural resources, and how to identify responsible resource management actions and stewardship priorities and activities for the property.

Donations to a "stewardship fund" often enable stewardship activities on lands subject to a conservation easement. They may be beneficial from a tax standpoint for the donors, but counsel must meet applicable legal requirements and ensure compliance with applicable income, estate, and property tax regulations.

Further, because easement holders are responsible for enforcing the easement in perpetuity, they must continually contend with violations by other landowners and third parties, including trespass or encroachment claims; improper exploitation of natural resources; or claims under the varying state criminal, tort and real property laws.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses both the challenges associated with drafting effective conservation easements and the considerations for enforcing the provisions of a conservation easement in perpetuity.

Outline

I. Drafting and interpreting conservation easements

II. Benefits and limitations of conservation easements

III. Challenges in enforcing easements in perpetuity

IV. Issues associated with the amendment of conservation easements

V. Encroachment and other legal rights to action

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • How should counsel draft and structure conservation easements to maximize benefits to the holder?
  • What are the challenges and state law implications of enforcing easements in perpetuity?
  • How can counsel advise clients on funding and benefiting from stewardship activities?