Study of the Degree to which Three Land Trusts’ Conservation Easements Protect Biodiversity Kathlene Miyauchi Abstract Conservation easements are a useful tool for the protection of natural resources on a piece of land in the United States. Easements as legal documents divide the bundle of property rights between the land trust and a private owner. This study examined the mission statements and conservation easements of three land trusts: The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), and Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). Conservation easements from each land trust were compared in terms of the level to which they protect biodiversity. This level was gauged through the listed restrictions and rights within each conservation easement. Variation between conservation easements was not as great as expected considering the different valued aspects of each piece of land. A predictive quantitative model for the level of biodiversity within the conservation easements was created. The measurements used to gauge aspects of this model came from common categories generated from the rights and restrictions and a conservation easement checklist from TNC. Results indicated that conservation easements from TNC reflected the highest mean protective measures in terms of biodiversity, followed by POST, and MALT. In addition, results showed that the land trusts’ Restrictions and Rights for the grantors (private owners) were very similar. The similarity is an indication that the land trusts, although not explicitly targeting biodiversity may indirectly protect aspects of biodiversity.Introduction With the spread of urban sprawl and dwindling land resources in the United States, land preservation for the protection of ecosystems and wildlife is a priority. In the state of California, land preservation is especially important with the growth in population and as areas become overwrought with individuals whose priorities are not environmental concerns. Conservation easements in recent years emerged as a valuable tool for protecting land resources. The California legislature declared in 1979, “the preservation of land in its natural, scenic, agricultural, historical, forested, or open-space condition is among the most important environmental assets of California. The legislature further finds and declares it to be the public policy and in the public interest of this state to encourage the voluntary conveyance of conservation easements to qualified nonprofit organizations” (CA Civil Code 815). Conservation easements protect the integrity of land resources through a joint effort of a land agency and the original owner of the land. A land agency depending on whether their focus is biodiversity protection, natural habitat protection, or agricultural use, identifies a piece of land as valuable through its unique qualities. If the original owner agrees to enter into an agreement with a land agency, the landowner becomes the grantor and the land agency becomes the grantee to the land. While, the grantee buys the rights to the land, the grantor holds the original power to these rights and a conservation easement ultimately rest on the grantor’s decision to transfer specific rights (Diehl 1988). In the state of California conservation easements are a “limitation in a deed, will, or other instrument” (CA Civil Code 815.1). This means, conservation easements are any agreement in which the property management is restrictive with the intent to conserve some aspect of a piece of land. Conservation easements are unique conservation tool in the fact that that each is different and uniquely tailored to every type of land. Although the basic set up of a conservation easement may be the same, each easement protects specific characteristics of the land that is unequal in any other easement (Barrett 1983). As conservation easements are a relatively new tool, little literature concerning the different types of conservation easements has been published. Most resources only cover formation of easements or are a comprehensive review of easements in different regions. An interesting subject to cover concerning conservation easement would be the effectiveness of the easement in protecting the land.In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are several factors land agencies look for when determining acquisition of a piece of land. In general easements are typically agricultural, preservation, scenic, open space, trail, forever-wild, conservation restrictions, or restrictive covenants (BAOSC 1991). Key aspects to these easements were their conservation values and the protection with in the rights and restrictions given to the grantor (land agency) and the grantee (private owner). Conservation Easements from three local land trusts were sampled to show the level in which they reflected the protection of biodiversity. Biodiversity1 is defined as the diversity in genes, species, and habitats (Stein 2000) in this study. The land trusts, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), and Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) were chosen based on their proximity to University of California, Berkeley and the type of lands they protected. The study was conducted to ascertain the way in which conservation easements restrict land management for the protection of biodiversity and the different levels in which biodiversity is protected within the easements. As conservation easements are a relatively new tool in the state of California, few studies with similar intentions have been conducted. This study was intended to show an aspect of the ultimate evaluation of the effectiveness of conservation easements as land protection tools. The idea was to show that the representation of biodiversity and the intent of each land agency for protection of land resources were aligned within the easements, TNC with the highest level of reflection, followed by POST and MALT. Methods Conservation easements are unique to the piece of land they protect and to the land agency to which they belong. I collected easements from three land agencies: The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), and Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST). These organizations are private, non-profit, and are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Also, these land trusts have different land interests. From TNC, I received a total of 14 easement documents spanning Central and Northern
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