Farmland Conservation Easements 101

Thursday, October 21
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Central Standard Time

Online Webinar

150 acres composed of farmland, oak savannas, and the Nippersink Creek near Richmond, protected by a conservation easement held by the Land Conservancy of McHenry County.

Finding access to farmland only gets harder as the supply of farmland declines -   Illinois has lost 3.6 million acres of farmland since 1950. There is a legal tool that keeps farmland available for farming and also benefits both farmland owners and farmers – the farmland conservation easement. This tool can help farmland owners preserve farmland that is a family legacy, reinvest in the farm operation, and work out the best possible succession arrangement. In many cases, especially near urban areas, easements can make farmland more affordable for farmers to buy as well.

In this webinar, Emy Brawley and Aimee Collins of The Conservation Fund will introduce you to the basic concepts of farmland conservation easements and how they work. They will then take you into a deeper dive into the many practical details of implementing one if you are a farmland owner. What, for example, can you and can you not restrict in the language of the easement? What exactly are the potential financial benefits? Emy and Aimee will also explain what farmers need to know about farming on land that has an easement.  

Linda Balek from The Land Conservancy of McHenry County (TLC) – an organization that holds conservation easements – will talk about TLC’s relationship with farmland owners and farm tenants on farmland TLC has conserved with easements.

Finally, you’ll hear about how The Conservation Fund and its partners are expanding the use of farmland conservation easements in Illinois as a way to make land more affordable and to build the resiliency of our local food systems.

There will also be many opportunities for you to ask questions of the speakers.

Questions?

847-507-5989/nathan@libertyprairie.org

Emy Brawley, The Conservation Fund

Emy Brawley is passionate about protecting farms, ranches and natural areas with conservation easements.  An attorney by training, over the past 20 years she has helped private landowners, government agencies, and conservation land trusts ensure critical lands are permanently protected in order to provide ongoing public benefits.  She currently works as Illinois State Director for The Conservation Fund, a national non-profit with a dual mission of land conservation and sustainable economic development.  The Conservation Fund has worked in all 50 states to protect more than 8.5 million acres of land, including over 3 million acres of working farms, ranches and forests.  Emy is particularly enthusiastic about launching a new program - the Working Farms Fund - here in northeastern Illinois to provide next-generation farmers with a patient pathway to land ownership.

Aimee Collins, The Conservation Fund

Aimee Collins is the Midwest Program Associate for The Conservation Fund and works closely with conservation partners, farm businesses, and others to provide technical and real estate assistance and other support for the Fund’s suite of programs in Illinois. Her love for nature grew from her childhood among the oak groves, prairie patches, and rolling farm fields of rural McHenry County and today she lives near Woodstock. Aimee’s 22 years of conservation experience has ranged from biological survey work for the National Park Service on the west coast, to working with private landowners and partners to protect farmland and natural areas across Chicagoland, to restoring wildlife habitat in the bi-state Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge area. She holds dual B.A. degrees from National Louis University and Prescott College.

Linda Balek, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County

Linda Balek has called McHenry County, Illinois home since her family pulled up its suburban roots and headed out to a farm in Woodstock in 1968. Currently she is lucky enough to work as Farm Program Manager for The Land Conservancy of McHenry County, helping landowners preserve the land they love, and helping the next generation of farmers connect with the land they need to start their own farms. She has been instrumental in preserving thousands of acres of land in McHenry County through acquisition and conservation easements. Her current passion is establishment of a food forest on a small farm field that was donated to The Land Conservancy.