Land Protection

Keeping nature near ... always

“After our children grew up and moved away, we all agreed that preserving our land would be better than selling it. It’s a gift for future generations.” 

land donors, Kingston

Ways we can help you protect the land you love forever

Our Land Acquisition Committee applies our land acquisition criteria to an offer of land or of an easement on land. We will visit a property of interest and complete an assessment of it using our site assessment template and guidelines. 

There are many steps in the land acquisition process and it may take several months to complete.

Conservation easements / Land protection agreements

When you donate or sell your land to us, we become its owner. A donation of a conservation easement is different. You continue to own the land and may pass it on to your heirs or sell it.

The natural values of the land are protected through an agreement with us which is registered on the title to the property. This land protection agreement puts some limits on what you or subsequent owners can do on the property.

Typically, a land protection agreement will not permit the severance of the land or its commercial use. Current buildings and roads may be maintained and re-built but no new buildings or roads are allowed. There are usually restrictions on changing the shoreline and logging the property.

The exact terms of a land protection agreement are specific to the property, the wishes of the landowner, and the natural values the land conservancy most wants to protect.  

As the holder of the conservation easement, we have an obligation to visit the property at least once a year to make sure the terms of the agreement are being followed.

Please watch this video with Howard Clifford, owner of CLIFFland to learn more about why a landowner might choose to restrict the future use of a property through a conservation easement.

Charitable receipts

The donor of a conservation easement receives a charitable receipt for the difference in value of the property without the restrictions and with the restrictions in place.

For example, an appraiser determines that the value of a shoreline property with a cottage is $500,000. The restrictions in the conservation easement reduce the value of the property to $300,000. The land owner will receive a charitable receipt for $200,000.

A conservation easement may be an EcoGift if the land meets the ecological gift criteria.

When a landowner donates a property to the Land Conservancy, we will issue a charitable receipt for the appraised value of the property. 

Tax laws also allow us to provide a charitable receipt for a property that we buy when the price we are paying is below the appraised value. For example, if property x is appraised at $250,000 and we agree with the owner to buy it for $150,000, we can issue a charitable receipt for $100,000.

When Environment Canada approves a property as an EcoGift, the owner’s capital gain on the disposition of the property is zero ($0). This may have significant tax value to some donors.

“In southern Ontario, wild natural land is disappearing fast. When it is developed, it’s gone for good.” 

a land donor, Kingston

“It feels good to know that the land we love will be protected.” 

donors of an easement, Westport

Stewardship

Stewardship means taking care of our land to ensure its ecological health in the future.

Sometimes good stewardship means leaving the land to evolve naturally, without any human interference.

Sometimes, we may need to be more proactive. For example, Meyer Woods had a spruce  plantation on it, planted to meet a managed forest strategy developed during the 1960s. With little management follow through, however, the plantation had little value for producing wood to harvest, but equally little likelihood of succeeding into a natural mixed woodland.  To increase the speed of forest regeneration and give other species a chance to succeed, and to hasten natural successional processes, a forester recommended that we thin out about a quarter of the trees. The felled trees were left in place to decay and provide soil enrichment and habitat.

We work with other land owners to encourage good stewardship practices, and helped publish a booklet on alvars. The booklet describes the unique ecology of alvars and promotes their protection.  Each of our properties has a stewardship plan, which is reviewed regularly.

We would be pleased to offer assistance to landowners in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington counties who would like to know more about habitat protection and land stewardship, and the ways in which the Land Conservancy may be able to help them achieve their goals.

Land in trust

Land in Trust is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credit service.

The program enables a LEED project to purchase credits from Land in Trust, and these credits are then used to preserve natural areas.  A $2,000 contribution protects one acre of land.

The Land Conservancy is one of 15 Canadian land trusts — all members of the Canadian Land Trust Alliance — that are participating in this new program.  The program promotes greener building projects and the conservation of Canada's diverse natural landscapes.  A winning combination.