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95 Denv. L. Rev. 727 (2017-2018)
Climate Change Challenges for Land Conservation: Rethinking Conservation Easements, Strategies, and Tools

handle is hein.journals/denlr95 and id is 751 raw text is: 







          CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES FOR LAND
        CONSERVATION: RETHINKING CONSERVATION
             EASEMENTS, STRATEGIES, AND TOOLS


   JESSICA OWLEY,*   FEDERICO   CHEEVER, ADENA R. RISSMAN,m M.
     REBECCA   SHAW,^  BARTON H. THOMPSON, JR.,^^ & W. WILLIAM
                                WEEKS

                                DEDICATION
     We  dedicate  this Article to our coauthor Fred Cheever. Fred  passed
away  during the final stages of this work. He was  a driving force behind
this project, greatly shaping both its academic rigor and practical applica-
tion to conservation in a changing  world. It was a rare privilege to work
closely with Fred, and we  honor  him by  continuing the work  to conserve
the lands and waters that sustain us.

                                ABSTRACT
     Climate  change  has significant consequences  for land conservation.
Government   agencies  and nonprofit  land trusts heavily rely on perpetual
conservation  easements.  However,   climate  change   and  other dynamic
landscape  changes raise questions about the effectiveness and adaptability
of  permanent   conservation  instruments   like conservation   easements.
Building  upon a study of 269 conservation  easements  and interviews with
seventy conservation-easement   professionals in six different states, we ex-
amine  the adaptability of conservation easements   to climate change. We
outline four potential approaches to enhance conservation  outcomes  under
climate change: (1) shift land-acquisition priorities to account for potential
climate change  impacts; (2) consider conservation tools other than perpet-
ual conservation easements;  (3) ensure that the terms of conservation ease-
ments  permit the holder to adapt to climate change  successfully; and  (4)

     *  Professor, SUNY Buffalo Law School. We would like to thank Resources Legacy Fund,
the Woods Institute at Stanford, and the Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy for financial support
for this effort. This project would not have been possible without the support of the land trust commu-
nity and the seventy organizations that provided conservation easements and agreed to interviews. We
have presented portions of this work at the Land Trust Alliance's annual rallies and many conferences
and workshops. While several of us have links to land-conservation organizations, the work here is
our own and does not represent the opinions of any such organizations. We also want to thank the
students who assisted in gathering and synthesizing data, along with Josh Eagle and Cinnamon Car-
lame who coordinated the students at the University of South Carolina.
    **  Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
    *** Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife
Ecology.
     A  Chief Scientist, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
     ^^ Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law, Stanford Law School and founding
Perry L. McCarty Director and Senior Fellow of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
   AAA  Glenn and Donna Scolnik Clinical Chair and Director, Conservation Law Clinic at Indiana
University Maurer School of Law.
                                    727

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