The Land Trust Alliance: Resources for Land Trusts

Scenic America Action Guide

Scenic Easements: A Tool to Conserve America the Beautiful

20 pages; published 2005; $8.00

Available online at www.scenic.org, or by writing to Scenic America, 1634 I Street, NW, Suite 510, Washington, DC 20006

Scenic Easements: A Tool to Conserve America the Beautiful is intended to promote scenic conservation by encouraging the routine inclusion of scenic protection in general purpose conservation easements, as well as the establishment of stand-alone scenic easements Funding for conservation easements has grown dramatically in recent years through state and local bond issues, federal agricultural and open space programs, and private foundations. Scenic America prepared this publication to promote protection of visual resources in new conservation easements acquired with these funds.

With this publication, Scenic America hopes to ensure that the best possible advice on scenic protection through easements is available to landowners; land trusts; and federal, state and local agencies. To this end, Scenic Easements provides a history of their use, reviews types of scenic resources currently protected by easements, and discusses special considerations for drafting scenic easements.