When your stewardship staff or volunteers conduct their annual monitoring visits, they probably ask the landowners questions before the visit, or fill out answers while they’re onsite. But are they asking the important questions that will help you to determine if there could be a division of property resulting in a violation of the conservation easement, or other threat to it?

Words like “subdivide” can be confusing to people who aren't familiar with technical legal terms. So here are some simpler ways to phrase the question:

• “Have you signed anything or agreed to any division of your land, even a tiny piece of it and even if you didn’t get paid?”
• “Have you agreed to give rights of any kind to anyone else over your land?”

Asking this can help you to be sure that you’re on top of any potential legal issues that may be brewing.

Have questions? Please let us know. You can email us directly or call 202-800-2219 for Lorri or 202-800-2248 for myself. Leslie will be out on sabbatical through September 11.

Thanks,
Hannah

P.S. Planning your 2018 budget? Terrafirma will have its first ever slight price increase of $3 per parcel starting with the 2018 policy - see more information here.