Land Protection
Land is more than property; it’s a story, a home, a responsibility.
In the Driftless Area, every acre conserved strengthens our communities, protects clean water, and ensures a resilient future. For over 25 years, Driftless Area Land Conservancy has worked with landowners to permanently protect the most meaningful places in Southwest Wisconsin. Whether it’s a working farm, hunting land, private retreat, or a special place where your family has built a legacy, each decision to conserve land benefits neighbors, wildlife, and generations to come.
But these opportunities don’t last forever. Once land is sold and developed, its conservation potential is lost. Driftless Area Land Conservancy stands with landowners, ready to choose permanent conservation. Together we can protect the Driftless, but only if we act now.
We will walk with you every step of the way.
Conservation Easements
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust (like DALC) that limits certain types of development or uses in order to preserve the land’s most important natural, scenic, agricultural, or cultural features.
At Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC), conservation easements are one of our primary tools for land protection. By placing a conservation easement on your land, you’re doing more than protecting a place. You are preserving clean water, wildlife, climate resilience, and rural heritage in one of the Midwest’s most important natural regions.
“The decision to protect my family’s property was easy. My parents knew the Leopold family and took us kids to the Shack often. There I saw conservation in action and learned to care for the land. Purchasing our “farm” was their way of enacting Leopold’s values, now preserved in perpetuity through an easement with DALC.”
Private Land. Permanent Protection.
Land under easement remains private property. You retain ownership, and can continue to live on the land and use it for farming, forestry, recreation, education or other activities that sustain conservation values. Even as you sell, bequeth, or mortgage the land the land, easements stay with it, ensuring its conservation values are protected forever. the land forever.
Conservation easements offer great flexibility. Conservation easements are highly customizable. For example:
- A farm easement might allow continued crop production and new agricultural buildings
- A property with rare habitat might limit new development to protect sensitive species
- You can apply an easement to all or part of your land
- Public access is optional, not required.
“The Stark-Livingston Conservation Easement in Spring Green was part of my family’s farm. As a girl, I loved it. When Peter and I moved from Madison and built a house, we restored 15 acres into prairie. With each improvement, our attachment grew. Our investment, our labor, and others helped convince us to preserve what we created. Thanks to DALC, it remains a haven for habitat and caring people.”
If you prefer a physical copy of our Conservation Easements brochure and intake form, please email hannah@driftlessconservancy.org or call 608-930-3252 to request they be mailed.
Completed forms can be emailed to hannah@driftlessconservancy.org or
mailed to:
PO Box 323
Dodgeville, WI 53533
More Ways to Conserve Land
Real Estate Donation
Whether you own ecologically important land in the Driftless, commercial real estate in a city, or a far-away vacation property, gifts of real estate advance DALC’s mission! If you’re considering a land donation now or via your estate plan, please contact us so we can discuss whether we would create a nature preserve on the site, sell it subject to a permanent conservation easement we retain, or sell it outright without restrictions using the proceeds to advance our mission. No matter what, your gift will help protect nature in the Driftless.
Real Estate Sale
DALC occasionally purchases ecologically or agriculturally-important land to create or expand nature preserves, permanently protect important wildlife corridors or secure critical farmland for the next generation. All land we purchase is first appraised by an independent, licensed appraiser. As a non-profit land trust, we can’t pay more than an appraised fair market value, but we make every effort to pay fair and competitive prices for land we buy.
Charitable Bargain Sales – A Sale & Gift in One
When you sell land or a conservation easement to DALC for less than an appraised fair market value, the difference between the market value and the purchase price represents a charitable gift. Like other gifts of real estate, these below-market sales may qualify for an income tax deduction and offset or exemption from capital gains taxes. Ask your tax advisor how a bargain sale could work for you!
Retained Life Estate Gift
Donate your land or other real estate to help DALC in the future, and keep enjoying it now. By donating your home, cabin or farm to DALC via a retained life estate, you continue to live on the property for life. Donors do not pay rent but remain responsible for taxes and maintenance. When your life estate ends, DALC assumes full control of the property. Life estate gifts may provide immediate income tax benefits based on the difference between your property’s current fair market value and the value of the life tenancy you retain.
As an accredited land trust, Driftless Area Land Conservancy meets strict standards of excellence in land conservation.
DALC holds dozens of conservation easements across six Wisconsin counties. With a commitment to permanent land protection, ethical practices, and long-term stewardship of the places we protect, we monitor every easement annually. These visits are more than a requirement. They are an opportunity to stay connected, answer questions, and offer ongoing support to landowners.
Protecting land through a conservation easement truly represents a partnership in perpetuity. We are connected to the land as an ongoing partner to landowners, providing advice, resources, support, and ensuring consistency even as the property changes ownership.
If you would like to explore ways to protect your land, please contact our Land Protection Manager, Hannah Ornelles, at hannah@driftlessconservancy.org or 608-930-3252.
A New Chapter for Wintergreen
Wintergreen is entering a new chapter rooted in conservation, care, and community connection. With long-term stewardship in mind, this Driftless property will be restored, protected, and thoughtfully shared for generations to come.
No Houses Here – this Land is for the Birds!
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Celebrating a Legacy of Stewardship: Honoring the Cates Family
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