Colorado Open Lands
Conservation Easement
Program Manual
& Model Conservation Easement
The Conservation Easement Program Manual is available as a downloadable zip file. The CE Program Manual consists of a variety of procedural forms and task lists to help conservation organizations through the process of completing a conservation easement project and preparing for the responsibility of perpetual easement stewardship, including:
- Model legal documents
- Project evaluation and selection forms
- Project summaries and process checklists
- Model correspondence
- Stewardship endowment calculations
- Stewardship monitoring reporting forms
- Models for record keeping
The Program Manual was completely revised in March 2005 and sections have been further modified thereafter.
We welcome any suggestions you have for improving its functionality. Feel free to adapt it to the needs of your organization as well.
Download the latest zipped CE Program Manual here
CE Manual (4.65 MB)
(Because of size, it might take a while over a slow connection.)
The Model Conservation Easement is the standard format that Colorado Open Lands uses as the foundation for writing all of our conservation easements. It covers all of the issues that may be addressed in the wide variety of easements that we write. Obviously not all sections apply in each landowner's situation, and as such, we make a practice of tailoring a draft version for their situation before ever sharing the document with them, so they are not overwhelmed with irrelevant or unnecessary terms.
However, it is good for a land trust to have a well thought-out approach to any circumstance that might come up. This is just our approach and we urge you to get your own legal advice before adopting any portion of it.
Click here for a link to our Model Easement
We recommend WinZip.
If you do not have a zip program, you can download WinZip here.
