Land Conservation
As your local land trust, it is our mission to permanently protect lands with scenic, agricultural, habitat and cultural values in San Luis Obispo County. The Land Conservancy works county-wide and focuses on protecting Monterey Pine Forests in Cambria, coastal streams and drainages in San Luis Obispo and Nipomo, oak woodlands countywide, and wetlands in Black Lake Canyon.
We protect land by working cooperatively with willing landowners on conservation projects that benefit local resources and meet the needs of local landowners. Our conservation lands are protected either by direct purchase (where we take ownership of the land) or through conservation easements that keep land in private ownership.
A Conservation Easement is a legal document that is recorded on the deed of the conservation property that protects the resources on that property. Each conservation easement is tailored specifically to meet conservation and landowner needs. There are many benefits to Conservation Easements including the maintenance of agricultural viability and several types of tax advantages for landowners. Tax benefits include charitable deductions on income tax and reduced estate values for estate planning. In some cases property taxes may be lowered, but this is not always the case and is never guaranteed.
Stewardship of our conservation lands is of great importance to the Land Conservancy. Each year the Land Conservancy monitors all of our Conservation Easements to assure that the conservation restrictions are being upheld. Regular monitoring of our own property is also undertaken to assure that there are no conservation threats. We are also very active in restoring our conservation properties. See our restoration pages for samples of our stewardship work.
Learn more about Conservation Easements
See a listing of our current conservation portfolio
The Land Conservancy subscribes to the Standards and Practices of Professional Land Trusts published by the national Land Trust Alliance.