Rio Grande Agricultural Land Trust

We work with private land owners who would like to preserve the conservation values of their land by voluntarily executing a conservation easement(CE) on their property. CEs are deed restrictions which protect the land from future development in order to protect farming, ranching, water rights, historic sites, open space, wildlife habitat and corridors. Conservations easements are perpetual and remain with the land. It is a flexible document designed by the landowner to protect current and future uses of the land. It guarantees that your land will remain the way you want it, forever.

Landowners executing a CE on their land can receive financial benefits in the form of reduced estate and income taxes and low property taxes. Many landowners chose to donate CEs benefiting from these reduced taxes. There are also State and federal programs which can help pay for CEs, such as the USDA-Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, the NM Land Conservation Incentives Act, the NM Natural Heritage Conservation Act, North American Wetlands Conservation Act, to name a few....

We cannot afford to lose our farms and ranches. What happen on our farm and ranches directly affects our access to a local food supply, water supply, wildlife habitat and the vitality of our rural communities, the linchpins of our cultural heritage. Loss of these lands impacts the agricultural economy and way of life, it also fragments migration corridors and threatens wildlife through the loss of riparian habitat.