Conservation Easement

Easement for lake bluff to land trust
The full story appears in the Dec. 14 Daily Union

Continuing its efforts to protect and preserve land throughout the area, the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County has accepted a donation of a conservation easement on a 64-acre wildlife area in the Town of Koshkonong.

The property, located on the south side of Lake Koshkonong and referred to as Blackhawk Bluff, is owned by Linn and Ann Duesterbeck.

Significant portions of the land have been restored to native prairie and wetlands, which are home to many birds, wildlife and aquatic species.

“It is a wonderful gift to nature,” said Martine Koeppel, chairperson of the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County. “It’s just a beautiful area.”

By recently donating a conservation easement on their property, the Duesterbecks have protected their land in perpetuity.

Conservation easements, when completed, are attached to the title of the property and are forever enforced.

Members of the Land Trust Network of Jefferson County monitor the easements for compliance and the easement travels with the entire piece of land, even if the land is split up and sold as separate pieces.

“Property owners like the Duesterbecks, who wish to determine the fate of their land even after they no longer own it, may place a conservation easement on their property restricting it from future residential, commercial and industrial development,” Koeppel explained.

The easement also restricts the destruction of the land itself. Activities such as mining, gravel and sand extraction, and sod farming, are not permitted.

Koeppel said landowners can be very specific with their conservation easement by including language that restricts logging in certain areas, ensures that their prairies are not disturbed, and even restricts the type of recreational activities allowed in the future.

In October, the land trust accepted another donation of an easement on a 137-acre farm in the Town of Sumner.

Koeppel said the property owners, who wished to remain anonymous, currently grow crops and raise livestock on their farm, and wanted this tradition to continue in the future.

“This farmland conservation easement was created to protect farming in the future for Jefferson County, but it also protects the native wildlife habitat that exists in the woodlands, prairies and wetlands that exist on the farm,” she said., adding three more projects are under way.