Conserve Your Land
Conserving your land is one way you can help safeguard the places you love for your family and future generations to experience and enjoy. The 40+ land trusts in Wisconsin partner with landowners to protect land forever.
If you are a landowner, you have options. You can:
- Transfer ownership of your land to a land trust through sale or donation either now or in the future via a reserved life estate or will
- Retain ownership of your land through a conservation easement, which can either be sold or donated in the future
Each land protection agreement between a land trust and landowner is unique, honoring the landowner’s goals, the land trust’s mission and capacity, and the land’s special features. The FAQs section below provides more information about these options.
Land Protection in Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a unique state with a variety of terrain. Learn about the wide range of land protected by Wisconsin land trusts in this infographic.
Land Conservation Glossary
Land conservation work can involve a lot of unfamiliar terminology. This glossary explains some of the terms used on our website and the websites of land trusts and other land conservation organizations.
Work with a Land Trust
Ready to conserve your land? Your local land trust will work with you to understand your options and pick the best path forward.
FAQs
No. Gathering Waters is a statewide alliance that supports our member land trusts around the state to protect land in their service areas. Find a land trust near you and get the conversation started about protecting your land.
Find a land trust near you and talk with them about protecting your land. Your local land trust will work with you to determine if the land you own fits with their land protection mission and resources and discuss the options.
A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that enables the landowner to retain ownership and use the land while ensuring it is permanently protected from development.
While a landowner retains the right to own and sell the property, the easement’s restrictions will remain permanently attached to the property's title. Therefore, future owners of the land will be bound to the terms of the agreement. The land trust holding the easement is responsible for ensuring the easement terms are upheld in perpetuity.
Find a land trust near you and ask them about how you can protect your land through an easement. Each easement is unique to the conservation values and characteristics of the land, current and future landowner goals and needs, as well as policies and practices of the land trust, and must be tailored to accommodate these interests and needs.
One site we recommend is UW Extension Natural Resources Institute - Landowners webpage:
https://naturalresources.extension.wisc.edu/landsteward/
