What are the conservation benefits?

Increasingly, landowners – and the public in general – recognize that farm and forest land, clean water and air, diverse wildlife habitats, scenic vistas, and rural character have public as well as private value.

Clarke County’s Easement Purchase Program provides a way to attain a balance between landowners’ rights and responsibilities and the public value of rural land. The Easement Purchase Program supports the goals of Clarke County’s Comprehensive Plan by adding another tool to protect the county’s natural, scenic, cultural, and historic resources, while promoting a stable, sustainable, and vital agricultural and forestry base as well as protecting the county’s surface and groundwater supplies.