We are a Champaign County, Ohio, 501(c) (3) conservation organization, a “land trust.”

• We work to preserve farmland, open space, and wildlife habitat.

• We sponsor programs about land preservation, conservation, local foods, climate change, and natural history.

• We are one of over 1300 land trusts in the United States.

What is a land trust?

A land trust is a private non-profit conservation organization.  A land trust is organized to help achieve individual and community land use and land preservation goals, often using conservation easements.

​

What is a conservation easement?

• A conservation easement is an important land preservation tool.

• An easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that permanently limits some uses of the land.

• A land trust works with a landowner to create easement language that protects the conservation values of the owner’s property.

• Conservation values may include productive agriculture land, stream corridors, woodlands.

• Once an easement is written and agreed upon, it is recorded at the county recorder’s office.

• An easement remains in place from owner to owner. That is, an easement “follows the land” and protects the conservation values of the property, “in perpetuity.”

• Owners continue to own their land.  They can use their land, sell it, or pass it on to heirs, subject to the easement.