For landowners

Protect your land — and keep it yours

A conservation easement lets you keep owning, living on, and working your land while protecting it from development — forever. Broad Water holds that promise, and the endowment that keeps it funded.

The reassurance

You keep your land. You give up only the right to pave it.

A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement that permanently limits development on your property — while you keep owning it, living on it, and working it.

You decide what stays protected. You can still farm, hunt, harvest timber, build the home your family needs, sell the land, or pass it to your heirs. What changes is that the right to subdivide and develop is retired — for good — so the land you love can’t be turned into something else after you’re gone.

What stays yours

An easement is not a sale

Protecting your land does not mean giving it up. With a Broad Water easement, you keep nearly everything:

  • You keep the title. The land stays in your name — yours to live on, manage, and enjoy.
  • You keep working it. Farming, forestry, hunting, and grazing can continue under terms you help write.
  • You keep the right to sell or pass it on. The easement runs with the land, so heirs and future owners inherit both the property and its protection.
  • You decide on public access. Open it to the community or keep it entirely private — your call, written into the agreement.
  • Only development rights are retired. Subdivision and sprawl come off the table; everything that makes the land land stays.
Two ways to protect it

Choose the path that fits your land — and your family

Most landowners protect their property one of two ways. We’ll help you weigh which is right for you, with no pressure either way.

Option 1

A conservation easement

You keep owning your land and place a permanent agreement on it that limits development. Broad Water holds and defends that agreement forever.

  • You stay the owner and keep using the land.
  • Protection is permanent and runs with the land.
  • May qualify you for federal and state tax benefits.

Best if you want to keep your land in the family and protect it at the same time.

Option 2

A land donation

You donate the property itself — in whole, in part, or through your estate — and Broad Water stewards it permanently as conserved land.

  • A lasting gift that removes the burden of management.
  • Can be structured during your lifetime or through your will.
  • May offer significant income- and estate-tax advantages.

Best if you’re ready to pass the land on and want it cared for in perpetuity.

Not sure which fits? That’s exactly the conversation we’re here for — and your tax and legal advisors should be part of it too.

How it works

From first conversation to forever

Protecting land is a deliberate, unhurried process. Here is how it goes with Broad Water.

01

Start a conversation

Tell us about your land and what you hope to protect. No commitment, no cost.

02

Walk the land together

We visit, learn what makes your property special, and document its conservation values.

03

Tailor the agreement

You decide what is protected and what you keep. The easement is written around your goals.

04

Record it permanently

The agreement is recorded with the deed, binding every future owner of the land.

05

Steward it forever

We monitor the land every year, in perpetuity — funded by a dedicated endowment, not a promise.

Why landowners protect

What you get for protecting your land

A lasting legacy

The land you cared for stays the way you knew it — for your grandchildren and theirs.

Potential tax benefits

Donated easements may qualify for federal income-tax deductions and estate-tax relief. Your advisors will confirm what applies to you.

Certainty that holds

Protection that can’t be undone by the next owner, the next market, or the next generation.

Stewardship that’s funded

An accredited steward visits every year and defends the easement — backed by a real endowment, so the promise is kept.

Where we stand

Conservation first — never a tax shelter

You may have heard about “syndicated” conservation easements marketed as investments with inflated deductions. Broad Water does not participate in abusive syndicated transactions, full stop. Every easement we hold is a genuine conservation outcome, valued honestly and held to Land Trust Alliance standards and IRS rules.

When you protect land with us, you can be confident it is protected for the right reasons — and that it will stand up to scrutiny for as long as it stands.

Ready when you are

Let’s talk about your land

Every property is different, and so is every family’s goal for it. Tell us a little about your land and we’ll walk you through the options — no pressure, no cost.

The land outlives all of us. Protecting it is how a family’s care for a place becomes permanent.
Broad Water InnovationsHolding conservation easements, in perpetuity
Land Trust AllianceMember land trust
IRT-ApprovedLong-Term Steward, Virginia
Charity Navigator4-star rated
501(c)(3)Qualified land trust