TerraBites
A short newsletter of bite-size ideas to chew on for Terrafirma owner-member land trusts, released January, February, May, June, September, October and November.
When transit companies purchase insurance for their fleet of taxis or buses, they have to list every taxi driver or bus driver in their application. Conservation defense is similar. For each category of property right you choose to insure (conservation easement, trail easement, fee land, etc.) you have to list every parcel. If you leave out parcels owned by some landowners, it prevents Terrafirma from accurately determining how much your insurance should cost. Worse, it could cause problems later on when you’re trying to submit a claim. So make sure when you’re enrolling or updating your application to include all of the parcels for each category of property rights you’ve chosen to insure.
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about listing parcels or anything else, please let us know. You can email us directly or call 202-800-2219 for Lorri or 802-262-6051 for Leslie.
Participating in Terrafirma shows your land trust’s commitment to long-term defense of the land it owns or helped conserve. It shows that you understand how pooling resources with hundreds of other conservation organizations to share risk and resources helps everyone uphold conservation permanently. Let your landowners know that your land trust is a member owner of Terrafirma and how that helps to preserve their conservation vision. Here’s a sample letter to show you one way that another land trust shared the good news.
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about filing claims or anything else, please let us know. You can email us directly or call 202-800-2219 for Lorri or 802-262-6051 for Leslie.
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.
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Challenge
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Definition
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Violation
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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
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Trespass
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includes actions by third parties (neighbors, developers, government and so forth) such as vegetation removal, structural encroachment, fences, topography change and so forth.
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Litigation Notice
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when you receive written notice that a lawsuit has been filed against the land trust
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Verbal or Other Threat of Violation or Trespass
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includes threats to violate the conservation easement or trespass on fee land or conservation easement
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Disregard of Easement Obligation
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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
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Mediation or Arbitration Notice
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when you receive written notice of mediation or arbitration action
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Adverse Claim of Legal Right
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including adverse possession, contest by heir, boundary challenge, etc.
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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.
