Back in April, Congresswomen Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) introduced the Landowner Easement Rights Act that limits the term of a conservation easement to 30 years, as reported in Liberty Matters, April 15, 2025.
After 30 years, the bill allows the landowner to renegotiate terms, renew agreements, or buy back the conservation easement at fair market value.
“Landowners are among the best stewards of our natural resources, and they don’t need the federal government locking up their land forever,” Fedorchak said. “Easements shouldn’t last multiple generations” and their legislation “restores balance, gives landowners flexibility, and allows them the freedom to reassess, renegotiate, and reclaim control over their property. Conservation should be a partnership, not a one-sided permanent restriction.”
Art Hutchinson of Arkansas Agrees
Art Hutchinson, a 73-year-old rancher and his daughter Abby own the “oldest family-owned cattle operation in the Upper Arkansas River Valley.” Attempting to figure out how to financially supplement their ranching operation, they came up with the idea to host a two-night bluegrass concert with camping on their 800-acre ranch.
They negotiated for 18 months with Bonfire Entertainment who agreed to a multiyear deal.
Unfortunately, 15 years earlier, the Hutchinsons negotiated two separate conservation easements, with the largest being 470 acres of the 800 owned and controlled by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust.
The land trust ended up denying the Hutchinson’s request for a festival on their land claiming their idea was “too big and the impacts too intense” and would violate the terms of their conservation easement.
The easements are in perpetuity.
Hutchinson said that his family has produced cattle for 150 years and has taken care of the community. “That has all changed. There are not many farms in this nation that last past four generations.” “… the way we are going is no longer sustainable…the money is running out and something has got to change.”
The Hutchinson ranch is getting boxed in by development and their costs are going up. Land values have soared and he said: “We need to take a solid look at these older easements and see how they can be adjusted to address these changes.”
Scotty Stoughton with Bonfire Entertainment said (about the control the land trust has on the land) “I never had any indication that the decision (to have the festival) was not up to them (the Hutchinsons). I’m pretty sure they didn’t know it was not up to them.”
Erik Glenn, head of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust said when these easements are negotiated, it’s hard to build “flexibility” into the agreement to adjust for changing times. It’s hard to “foresee what will happen in 15 to 20 years and even harder when you have to think about 50 to 100 years.”
“Into perpetuity” means forever and Glenn wondered if a 30-year term is the answer. “It could be,” he said. Hutchinson agreed saying: “I can see the handwriting of the wall. “Perpetuity is not working with the way this state has changed.”
This is precisely the issue Representatives Hageman and Fedorchak are attempting to address in their legislation. The children of the landowner, who placed the burden and restrictions of a perpetual conservation easement on the land, should have the opportunity to decide if they want to keep the restrictions or not.
They need the opportunity to decide how their land should be owned and managed, not their parents or a third party.
To read the Hutchinson story as written in The Colorado Sun, go here.
