Starting the Land Protection Process:
A Few Baby Steps for Forest (and Farm) Owners
By
Steve Broderick, University of Connecticut Extension Forester

As Connecticut’s Extension Forester, it’s been my privilege to meet many hundreds of forest landowners. Over time, many of them have come to love their land, and would love to know it will remain undeveloped after they’re gone.

Some landowners feel secure because they have a valid, up-to-date will. But as noted land use attorney Stephen Small says, a simple will which leaves everything to a surviving spouse or equally divided among heirs may actually be the wrong thing for everyone involved. In the worst case it can waste thousands of dollars in available tax savings and leave a difficult tax-planning dilemma in the hands of surviving family members. It can even force heirs to sell property against their wishes.

A good family land protection plan will nearly always require professional assistance at some point in the process. But that doesn’t mean you should walk into an attorney’s office tomorrow and cry “Help!” By working through a few simple steps before seeking assistance, you can both save money and help ensure that your land protection plan accomplishes exactly what you want it to. So if you’re a forest owner, or you know someone who is, here for your (or their) consideration are five simple steps for starting a family lands protection plan:

Step 1 - Get specific. What is it exactly that you want preserved for future generations? Try to think in terms of specific protection goals, such as protecting habitat for wildlife, preserving a scenic vista, and/or sustaining a working farm. Some additional questions to ask yourself include:

Do you want an heir or heirs to someday own it, or do you prefer that someone else (e.g. a land trust, the town or state) own it? Do you want to retain the land and exclusive use of it for your lifetime? Do you want the public to be able to enjoy your land, or do you want it to remain private?

STEP 2 – Talk about this with the family. This isn’t necessary for everyone, but is absolutely essential for many. Many a land protection effort has failed, or never gotten off the ground, because family members either didn’t communicate or couldn’t agree. At some point, we all must face our own mortality. There is nothing unseemly or morbid about having these discussions, but breaking the ice can be difficult.

STEP 3 - Connect with Local Support Groups. Let’s assume you’ve thought through these two steps. You’ve thought some about specific land protection goals and raised the issue with appropriate family members. If you haven't already, now it’s time to reach out and make some initial contacts. Which ones you make, and in what order, are up to you. Some to think about include:

1. The Green Valley Institute. We can provide you with information on land protection tools and techniques, answer specific questions and help you pull a team of partners and advisors together that can work with you. In Connecticut: holly.drinkuth@uconn.edu; (860) 774-9600 or in Massachusetts: boblevite@hotmail.com or (508) 831-1223

2. Your local land trust. Land trusts are non-profit organizations run by local, conservation-minded volunteers. They exist to permanently protect and care for open space. Land trusts can help you explore land protection funding programs, locate good legal assistance, and much more. This map shows local land trusts within the Quinebaug-Shetucket Heritage Corridor and the towns where each one operates.

3. Your town Conservation Commission. In many towns these Commissions can work with you and the local land trust to help you realize your land protection goals. Your town clerk or annual town report can provide contact information.

4. A conservation attorney. If you have a good attorney that you like and trust, that’s great. But be aware that some attorneys (even those who advertise estate planning services) may not know much more than you do about the specialized needs and tax issues facing folks protecting land. If in doubt, ask one of the above for a recommendation.

STEP 4: Learn a few basics about land protection tools and options. Most likely, the groups you contacted in Step 3 will have provided you with some written and verbal information on land protection options. See the Land Protection Decision Tree and/or Further Reading on Protecting Family Lands.

Perhaps the single most important land protection concept to understand is the "separable rights" concept. Simply put, owning land means owning lots of individual, and separable, rights: the right to till the soil, to hunt, to fish, to cut timber, to subdivide and build, etc, etc. As a landowner you have the right to remove one or more of these rights, while still retaining all the rest. A farmer selling his/her development rights to the state Department of Agriculture is a good example of this. The farmer still owns every other right he/she always had, but has chosen to remove that particular one.

STEP 5 – Take stock of what you have. People who own thousands of dollars worth of stocks or bonds usually keep fairly close track of them. Yet it’s always amazed me how these very same people can own tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of land and timber, and yet know almost nothing about it. ( see Stewardship Options for Forest Owners). If you don’t know where your boundaries are, that’s a good place to start. This doesn’t necessarily mean an expensive survey. If abutters agree on boundary location, and they record an accurate description on their deeds, that’s usually all that matters.

STEP 6: Never forget that now is the time! I know, I said five steps. But this one sort of transcends the rest.

Contrary to popular belief, estate and land protection planning are not things to put off until just before you die. After twenty years in this business, I can assure you that simple procrastination is Enemy Number One when it comes to protecting family lands. There are at least three good reasons why now is the time to do your land protection planning:
1. If you should die unexpectedly without a plan, the state and/or your heirs will create one for you. Theirs may not look much like what yours would have.
2. Good planning can save land now, save you money now and save your heirs money later.
3. You’re of sound mind at the moment. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

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