Find Challenges Challenging to Define?
Make plans now to track challenges that you may need to report on your Terrafirma membership confirmation next year. Remember, you do not need to report challenges if there is no damage to the property, nominal volunteer or staff time was needed to address the challenge, and you incurred no out of pocket expenses. To help you keep track of the different types of challenges, please see the definitions below.
|
Challenge |
Definition |
|
Violation |
includes prohibited structures and uses, excessive recreational activity (such as all-terrain vehicles), surface alteration, timber harvest, and dumping, violation of a management plan and anything else that explicitly violates the stated terms of a conservation easement |
|
Trespass |
includes actions by third parties (neighbors, developers, government and so forth) such as vegetation removal, structural encroachment, fences, topography change and so forth. |
|
Litigation Notice |
when you receive written notice that a lawsuit has been filed against the land trust |
|
Verbal or Other Threat of Violation or Trespass |
includes threats to violate the conservation easement or trespass on fee land or conservation easement |
|
Disregard of Easement Obligation |
this is a catch all section for when a legal challenge does not fit into any other category for example transfer of water rights on paper to a holding company that technically disregards the no severance provision of the conservation easement but functionally retains the water rights in the same ownership |
|
Mediation or Arbitration Notice |
when you receive written notice of mediation or arbitration action |
|
Adverse Claim of Legal Right |
including adverse possession, contest by heir, boundary challenge, etc. |
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about filing claims or anything else, please let us know. Email us at 
or call 202-800-2219 for Lorri or 802-262-6051 for Leslie.
