Public and private groups are scurrying to protect critical natural areas, farms and managed forest lands as conversion of land to other uses proceeds at a rapid pace. Most of us are familiar with publicly protected lands such as state parks, town forests and, of course, the White Mountain National Forest. A less visible but equally impressive part of the privately owned land in the state is also protected from development.
Conservation easements are the primary way used to protect private land from development.
A conservation easement typically restricts, on a permanent basis, subdivision and residential, commercial and industrial uses of the land. In New Hampshire, this may be a private conservation organization, public agency or conservation district. Easement holders don't actually hold development rights when they enter into a conservation easement with a private landowner. Instead, the development rights are extinguished forever and the holder takes on the responsibility of monitoring the land to assure the restrictions set up by the original landowners are upheld indefinitely. In most cases, what motivates people to permanently protect their land from development is a strong conservation ethic - for one reason or another, they want to see their land remain as open space in perpetuity.