In the United States, a conservation easement is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental entity to constrain, as to a specified land area, the exercise of rights otherwise held by a landowner so as to achieve certain conservation purposes. It is an interest in real property established by agreement between a landowner and land trust or unit of government. The conservation easement "runs with the land", meaning it is applicable to both present and future owners of the land. The grant of conservation easement, as with any real property interest, is part of the chain of title for the property and is normally recorded in local land records.
Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), Winterthur's founder and a prominent antiques collector and horticulturist.
Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States and is open to visitors year-round to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture, events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as educational lectures, courses, and workshops.
Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park is a 691-acre (2.80 km2) state park located in the hamlet of Great River, New York, on Long Island. The park includes an arboretum designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for William Bayard Cutting in 1886, as well as a mansion designed by Charles C. Haight. Today Bayard Cutting Arboretum State Park is one of the last remaining estates on the South Shore of Long Island. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 as a historic district. Robert Fulton Cutting, known as the “first citizen of New York” and his wife Helen Suydam Cutting, niece to Caroline Astor, would frequent the manor house and estate as both William and Robert were brothers. Together Robert and William brought the sugar beet industry to the United States.
The Emerald Necklace consists of a 1,100-acre chain of parks linked by parkways and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts. It was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and gets its name from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula. In 1989, the Emerald Necklace was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The Gardens at Elm Bank, home of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, occupies 36 acres (15 ha) of Elm Bank Reservation, a 175-acre (71 ha) recreational area of woodlands, fields, and former estate property on the Charles River managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The estate's entrance is located at 900 Washington Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States, with the major portion of the grounds located in the neighboring town of Dover. In 1987, the entire site was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Elm Bank.
The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit organization of its kind in the world and has 100,000 member households as of 2021. In addition to land stewardship, the organization is also active in conservation partnerships, community supported agriculture (CSA), environmental and conservation education, community preservation and development, and green building. The Trustees owns title to 120 properties on 27,000 acres (11,000 ha) in Massachusetts, all of which are open to the public. In addition, it holds 393 conservation restrictions to protect an additional 20,000 acres (8,100 ha). Properties include historic mansions, estates, and gardens; woodland preserves; waterfalls; mountain peaks; wetlands and riverways; coastal bluffs, beaches, and barrier islands; farmland and CSA projects; and archaeological sites.
Hatley Park National Historic Site is located in Colwood, British Columbia, in Greater Victoria. It is the site of Hatley Castle, a Classified Federal Heritage Building. Since 1995, the mansion and estate have been used for the public Royal Roads University. From the 1940s to 1995, it was used for the Royal Roads Military College, a naval training facility.
Warren Henry Manning was an American landscape designer and promoter of the informal and naturalistic "wild garden" approach to garden design. In his designs, Manning emphasized pre-existing flora through a process of selective pruning to create a "spatial structure and character." An advocate for the conservation of the American landscape, Manning was a key figure in the formation of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a proponent of the National Park System.
Natural Lands is a non-profit land conservation organization with headquarters in Media, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the management, protection, and conservation of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey's native forests, fields, streams, and wetlands. The organization owns and manages 43 nature preserves—and one public garden totaling more than 23,000 acres—located in 13 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nineteen of the preserves are open to the public for recreational use; the others have limited visitation due to the presence of sensitive ecosystems or limited facilities.
Duke Farms is a 2,700 acre center for environmental stewardship in Hillsborough, NJ, that restores the natural environment, invests in sustainability innovation while offering visitors free inclusive and accessible resources for finding their place in nature.
Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit environmental conservation and education organization headquartered in Stinson Beach, Marin County, California, on the eastern shore of Bolinas Lagoon. The lands upon which ACR operates are within the ancestral territories of the Coast Miwok, Southern Pomo and Wappo peoples. ACR recognizes that Indigenous communities are very much alive today and striving to protect and maintain relationships with cultural and natural resources on ACR lands; they acknowledge that Indigenous lands are occupied by them and others.
California Rangeland Trust is a conservation nonprofit organization founded in 1998. The Rangeland Trust is the largest land trust in California, having conserved over 371,000 acres (1,500 km2) of rangeland on 90 ranches across 26 counties.
The Idlewild Farm Complex is a 26-acre (11 ha) plot of land in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It was originally part of the Welsh Tract and is now a portion of the Bridlewild Trails Association.
The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County (LCSLO) is a non-profit land trust organization that has been operating in San Luis Obispo County, California since 1984. The LCSLO is dedicated to the voluntary and collaborative preservation and improvement of lands that hold significant scenic, agricultural, habitat, and cultural values. Their work aims to benefit both the local community and the wildlife that depends on these lands.
Joshua's Tract Conservation and Historic Trust, or Joshua's Trust, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) land trust operating in northeast Connecticut. Joshua's Trust was incorporated in 1966 to help conserve property of significant natural or historic interest. As of 2011, the Trust protects more than 5,000 acres, maintains 42 miles of trails that are open to the public, holds educational outreach programs, and publishes the Joshua's Tract Walkbook.
John Charles Haas was an American businessman and philanthropist, at one time considered the second richest man in Philadelphia. He was the chairman of global chemical company Rohm and Haas from 1974 to 1978. Under his leadership, the family's William Penn Foundation became a $2 billion grantmaking institution, ranking as one of the largest such institutions in the United States.
The Sanctuary Forest is a non-profit conservation land trust in the Mattole River headwaters on the northern California coast. Established in 1987, as a community effort, its goal was to preserve a 2000-year-old redwood named “Big Red." The area also contains spawning grounds for Chinook salmon and steelhead in a tributary of the river.
Pamela Cunningham Copeland was an American horticulturist and historical preservationist, known for her philanthropy. Her home and gardens became Mt. Cuba Center, a public garden and research center for Appalachian Piedmont flora that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Dunn Gardens in Seattle, Washington, is a privately owned 7.5-acre (3.0 ha) property composed of the remaining acreage of the estate of Arthur G. Dunn Sr., who bought the property in 1914 as a summer get-a-way for his family, and contracted the landscaping to the Olmsted Brothers. Upon his death, the property was inherited by his children. His son Edward B. Dunn provided for the care of his share of the estate in his will. A trust was created two years after his death to oversee the entire property. Dunn Gardens were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 15, 1994, and is open for special public events and docent-led guided tours April through July, and from September through October.
