The Karst Conservancy promotes private conservation, a voluntary, non-confrontational approach to conserving natural resources. We work within the private sector using free market tools to permanently preserve karst land.

Land Acquisition
The most effective tool that we have to protect conservation land in karst regions is to directly purchase the property. This method offers us the most control over the property and simplifies monitoring since the Conservancy is the only party involved in the property. While the outright purchase of land may be the most effective conservation tool, it is also the most expensive. Our programs are some of the most expensive to implement in the nonprofit world.

The Karst Conservancy also accepts the donation of land in karst areas. Some of the primary benefits to the landowner, besides permanently protecting their land, include current income tax deductions and federal estate tax reduction.

Conservation Easements
A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a land trust and a landowner that places permanent restrictions on a property in order to protect it's conservation values. The easement restricts the use of the property to exclude certain activities on private land such as commercial development or residential subdivisions. The landowner retains ownership of the property and a high degree of control. Landowners usually set up conservation easements to protect their property from future development because they love their land and they don’t want to see it developed by their heirs or subsequent owners. Placing an easement on a property may also result in income tax savings for the landowner.

The Karst Conservancy accepts donations of conservation easements in karst regions and monitors them in perpetuity.

Conservation Buyer Projects
The Karst Conservancy has a program to match conservation minded buyers with sellers of significant karst properties. Additionally, we may be interested in acquiring the property ourselves. If you own land in a karst area that you wish to sell, and want to see its conservation values protected, contact The Karst Conservancy to do so.