Congresswomen Fedorchak and Hageman champion conservation easement reform
Washington, D.C. – Congresswomen Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) and Harriet Hageman (R-WY) today introduced the Landowner Easement Rights Act. This bill would prohibit the Department of Interior (DOI) from entering into new conservation easements exceeding 30 years and empowers landowners to renegotiate terms, renew agreements, or buy back conservation easements at fair market value. This does not prevent Americans from entering into conservation easements or force them to renegotiate easements they wish to continue, but it instead provides optionality to those seeking to change their agreements, an option not currently available.
“North Dakota landowners are among the best stewards of our natural resources, and they don’t need the federal government locking up their land forever,” Fedorchak said. “Easements shouldn't last multiple generations. This bill restores balance, gives landowners flexibility, and allows them the freedom to reassess, renegotiate, and reclaim control over their property. Conservation should be a partnership, not a one-sided permanent restriction.”
“Under our current system of perpetual conservation easements, the devil is in the details. Americans seeking new means of conservation and financial returns on their land enter conservation easements and soon discover they’ve ceded some of their most important private property rights, including development rights and management decisions, to third parties who increasingly work more as government agents than with the landowner. Intergenerational land use restrictions can cause serious problems with little to no recourse. This bill ends the current policy and allows a landowner to enter into time-limited conservation easements, thereby ensuring that each generation can make decisions regarding their property,” said Rep. Hageman.
“No one has the right to permanently impair the property rights of future generations, but that is exactly the role forever conservation easements play,” said Margaret Byfield, Executive Director of American Stewards for Liberty. “Rep. Hageman and Fedorchak’s 'Landowners Easement Rights Act' limit the easements held by the Department of the Interior to 30 years. This is a vital step in making the property rights whole again and reducing the stranglehold the federal government has over landowners. It is not our right to tell future generations what they can and cannot do with their land.”
BACKGROUND:
Conservation easements are legal agreements which allow landowners to retain and use their property but permanently remove development rights to achieve conservation priorities in exchange for certain tax benefits. Most landowners are told of the incentives when entering into the agreement but not their downside, namely the loss of private property rights, the lack of productive development from the land, and the inability to change the land use in the future. Additionally, third parties which manage the easement act more in concert with the government and its restrictive land management priorities rather than those of the owner. Easements also reduce local revenue and can increase dependency on the federal government.
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