Take a peek behind-the-scenes of our projects pipeline and learn why it takes so much staff time and effort to protect our local open space, wildlife habitat, and agricultural land. This page provides a general overview of our day-to-day work. Each project is unique, so while they all follow these steps, they may progress at different speeds and in different sequences.
Donations from our community make our program possible. This post will help you understand how your private donations help us leverage millions of dollars to complete our projects. Project funding often comes with restrictions, but your donations help us complete projects and keep our lights on as well.
YEAR ROUND
BRLC works year-round to increase community awareness, ensuring landowners interested in protecting their properties learn about our services. We’ve earned a trusted reputation, giving landowners the confidence to rely on us as we expertly guide them through the complex land protection process.
POTENTIAL PROJECT
1 - 6 months
Landowners reach out to us and express a desire to protect their property. We meet with them to understand their goals and tour their property. We ask about the property's history, discuss current land use, and take photos. We currently have a backlog of leads which our staff does not have the time to pursue.
INITIAL REVIEW
2 - 6 months
After our site visit, our Land Protection Committee reviews the potential project. When we have multiple potential projects we rank them based on what we are trying to protect:
Open space (farmland, forest, wetlands, rangelands)
Wildlife Habitat
Public Recreation
Historic importance
We estimate the cost of the project and gauge the landowner’s interest in tax incentives instead of money for their property’s development rights. Other factors like landowner goals, acreage and family support are also important. We review many worthy prospective projects which do not make it past this stage because we do not have enough staff and funding capacity to pursue them all. We wish we could.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
6 months - 3 years
Once the Land Protection Committee and the Board have given initial approval we start step 3. We work on steps 3a, 3b, and 3c all at the same time, which usually takes our staff anywhere from six months to three or more years. Our staff spends a considerable amount of time coordinating meetings and communicating with landowners, multiple funders, government agencies, legal experts, surveyors, geologists, and environmental experts who all contribute to each project. Keeping everyone on the same page throughout the project’s multi-year timeline is a monumental task.
3A. DUE DILIGENCE & DOCUMENTATION
We review the legal history and title to the property to make sure there are not any problems like liens or other easements which could impede our process. We carefully document the current condition of the land, which becomes important in step 6. We hire experts to provide us with technical reports on the minerals, environmental conditions, and legal boundaries of the property.
3B. CONSERVATION EASEMENT
A “conservation easement” is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust like BRLC that permanently limits certain rights and uses of the land. As a nonprofit focused on land conservation, we sometimes purchase these rights to protect the public benefits of the property, and we are legally prohibited from using or selling them. Working with legal experts, we create perpetual conservation easement deeds, ensuring the land is protected forever.
3C. PROJECT FUNDING
After we know which rights would best protect the property (and which rights the landowner is willing to sell), we hire an appraiser to determine the value of those rights. It is then up to our staff and project funders to raise sufficient funding to fairly compensate the landowner. Landowners usually donate part of the project value (and may receive a tax deduction) which reduces the total amount we need to raise. In an effort to protect open space, wildlife habitat, and agricultural lands, we are often competing with land developers who can offer significantly more money than we can, and on a much shorter timeline.
FINAL REVIEW
3 - 6 months
Our board and each funding partner has the opportunity to review relevant project documentation and ask questions as part of their final approval decision. The more partners we have on a project, the more time it takes to complete this detailed process.
CLOSING
1 - 2 months
Once BRLC, our funding partners, and the landowner have all agreed on the final details, we move to closing. This is when the actual sale or donation of property rights and restrictions occurs. Money often changes hands and legal paperwork is signed at a title company. The easement documents are filed with the county recorder so that they will always be on record when the property is eventually sold or inherited.
MONITORING & PROTECTION
Ongoing
BRLC becomes the permanent owner and steward of the specified property rights and restrictions named in the conservation easement deed. It becomes our duty to visit the property annually to ensure that the public values which we set out to protect are in fact being protected. If the property is ever developed, subdivided, or modified in a way that threatens the public values for which the easement was created, we have legal representation and recourse to restore those values.
