Explore Protection Options

Together we can protect the places that matter most

Your land isn’t just a place to you — it’s the family farm, the lake your kids learned to fish, where you saw your first gray wolf. The Minnesota Land Trust can help you pass on those memories to the next generation by ensuring that the land that made it all possible will be here for them – forever.

Conservation Easements

The Minnesota Land Trust primarily works with conservation easements in our land protection effort. These are individually tailored agreements through which landowners voluntarily limit the use and development of their property to permanently preserve its natural or scenic features. These features, called conservation values, might include significant wildlife and plant habitat, lake or river shoreline, wetlands, or important scenic lands which benefit the public.

Conservation easements can be used to protect a variety of lands that benefit the public through their conservation values. The Minnesota Land Trust concentrates its efforts on protecting:

  • Habitat for wildlife, fish and other species, and native plant communities such as prairies, forests, blufflands, and wetlands
  • Lakes, rivers, and streams
  • Scenic landscapes, particularly those with local community significance

Most conservation easements are placed on privately owned lands. However, there are occasions when public lands may be protected with a conservation easement.

The Land Trust currently holds hundreds of easements that protect tens of thousands of acres of land across Minnesota.

Learn more about conservation easements and the process of protecting your land.

If after reading, you are interested in land protection with the Minnesota Land Trust, you are encouraged to complete our questionnaire to begin the process. This is a detailed questionnaire designed to gather information about the property and your interest in protection. When received, we will review the information provided  and determine if and how the Land Trust will be able to assist you.

This questionnaire will take some time to complete. If you have a more general question about land protection, please use contact our office.

Land Donation

The Minnesota Land Trust may accept gifts of real estate subject to the Land Trust’s Gift Acceptance Policy. Typically, the Land Trust does not retain property for the long term but will sell the land and use those funds to further the mission of the organization. If you would like to donate land to the Minnesota Land Trust, please contact us to discuss next steps.

Life Estate

If you donate your land but keep a life estate, you retain ownership and use of the land for the remainder of your life. Upon your death, ownership of the land will be transferred to the Minnesota Land Trust. If you’re interested in leaving your land in this manner, please contact us so that we can discuss your conservation goals for the land.

Planned Giving

The term “planned gift” is used to describe anything you give or leave to charity from your estate through a will. A will is a simple tool used to leave a legacy.

Learn more about planned giving options

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The Minnesota Land Trust protects and restores Minnesota’s most vital natural lands. Learn more.

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A donation to the Minnesota Land Trust is an investment in conservation for Minnesota.

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