Conservation Force
A Force for Wildlife Conservation
Conservation Easements- Land Trust Division
The oldest cypress tree in Louisiana and the largest live oak in South Carolina.
Conservation Force's primary purposes are the conservation of wild places, wildlife and our way of life. Thus, Conservation Force is a land trust. We are establishing conservation easements to maintain wild places for wildlife on private lands for their perpetual sustainable use in their natural condition. We also own and hold mitigation bank easements to restore and protect the natural, scenic or open space of land to ensure natural areas forever. View the Conservation Easements brochure.
Why do we do this? For the same reason we are a conservation organization. We are saving land for hunters now and in the future. Hunting cannot be saved, much less game to hunt, without saving the habitat necessary for both. Habitat is essential. It is the root of all biodiversity.
I have a home all to myself; it is nature.
- Henry David Thoreau, Journal, January 3, 1853
It is the end of a family when they begin to sell the land. Out of the land we came and into it we must go, and if you will hold your land you can live.
- Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, 1931
To leave something in "the woods" for our children we must pass-down "the woods."
- Chrissie Jackson
Conservation Force is a Patron of the Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Foundation and John J. Jackson, III is a founding board member and past-president of that foundation. It too holds select conservation easements within the State of Louisiana.
We have expanded into other states throughout the country and hope to in foreign lands that have legal provisions for conservation easements. The easements are created by donating development rights on private land to a non-profit, public, charitable foundation such as Conservation Force. It is a tax-deductible, charitable contribution for the landowner and serves wildlife conservation and the public good by preserving and/or restoring the land to its wild state forever. To date, many of Conservation Force's land and easement holdings are on rivers, streams and waterways. That fits well with the Scenic River Act of Congress that was designed to help preserve valuable river borders, and with recovery efforts for the "threatened" listed Louisiana black bear. Conservation Force has long been a member and partner of the Louisiana black Bear Conservation Committee, which was selected and cited as a model at the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation. Water frontage appraises higher because of its potential as frontage lots for developments. Consequently, easement donors get higher tax deductions for their creation.
Map of Easments
List of Land Trust
La Petite Riviere Longfork Easement
This easement is in the Atchafalaya River Basin and is influenced by the Red River. The Petite Riviere ("Little River") that provides the primary drainage is a tributary of the Red River. It consists of 704.49 acres in Avoyelles Parish, approximately eight miles northeast of Marksville, LA. It is between Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge and five Louisiana State Wildlife Management Areas, particularly Spring Bayou Lake and Wildlife Management Area. It is an oak/hickory forest with cypress swamps, lakes and waterways.
Marshall Easement
295.31 acres in St. Francisville, LA.
Lucky Hit Wetlands Mitigation Bank 89 acres near Plattenville, LA.
Tangipahoa River Island & Shoreline
This is a cypress swamp just above Lee's Landing, owned in full by Conservation Force.
Dugas Waterfrontage Easement
1. Tract 1 is contiguous to over a hundred acres of land enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program.
2. Tract 2 is contiguous to the Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge which contains over 17,000 acres of publicly owned land dedicated to conservation.
3. Tract 3 is contiguous to 192.6 acres of land that is enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program. The WRP acreage is in turn contiguous to 704.49 acres of land...that is subject to a conservation easement in favor of Conservation Force.
Tracts 1, 2 and 3 total 221.96 acres. The three tracts help fill a missing link in the corridor between Lake Ophelia NWR and Spring Bayou WMA. The servitude also helps with recovery of the "threatened" Louisiana black bear. The Black Bear Conservation Committee is partnering and has planted 130 acres of hardwood seedlings.
Copper Mill Bayou (Edgen)
Zachary Mitigation Bank
In April 2009, Conservation Force became the holder of a 72.7 acre mitigation land parcel in Zachary, Louisiana. The land is being converted from cleared livestock grazing land to hardwood forest. Conservation Force is the "holder" of the conservation servitude on the restored property which is to be inspected and maintained forever in its restored, natural state for hunting, fishing, trapping, recreation, etc. It borders Copper Mill Bayou and part of the Amite River Watershed.
Comite Flats I
Spruce-Pine Hardwood Flat and Bottomland Hardwood Forest Restoration Project/Zachary Wetland Mitigation Area, East Baton Rouge Parish. Amite River Basin. 105 acres.
Comite Flats II
107 acres of bottomland and hardwood forest restoration, Amite River Basin.
The Bluffs I & II Nature Area
158 total acres on Thompson Creek, West Feliciana Parish, LA.
Dear John:
Thanks for your e-mail and all your assistance with the two conservation easements. I sincerely appreciate all you and your wife have done to make these easements possible. I think they have helped West Feliciana Parish immensely, along with The Bluffs subdivision. My entire family feels good knowing that these two tracts of approximately 170 acres will eventually be a forest on the banks of Thompson's Creek.
To give full credit where credit is due, you need to thank your brother Bob who introduced me to conservation easements several years ago. At that time, I became fascinated with the idea that one could be responsible, do something good for a community and at the same time obtain a tax benefit.
Again, I appreciate your diligence in handling the easements on behalf of Conservation Force, along with all you and your family have done in assisting me.
Happy New Year
With kindest regards,
Richard J. Dodson
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Turtle Bayou/Acadian Haynesville Extension
Central Louisiana Mitigation Area
176.1 acres in Rapides Parish, LA.
University Lakes Urban Reserve
14.6 acres on the University Lakes in Baton Rouge, LA.
Shreveport/Barksdale Easement
294.5 acres. The easement is adjacent to the South Bossier Park, Field of Dreams.
South Carolina Cattle Creek
963.501 acres in Orangeburg County, South Carolina (near Branchville).
The largest Live Oak in Orangeburg County, South Carolina.
Tunica Hills Fisher Place
Senator Tom McVea's tract is 402.9 acres in Tunica Hills, West Feliciana Parish, LA, northwest of St. Francisville. It is bisected by Polly Creek which runs into the Mississippi River. This site contains southern mesophytic forests and is in the range of ESA listed Louisiana black bear.
Hickory Hill Plantation Servitude
104.01 acres in East Feliciana Parish, LA.
Texas East Bay Farms, LLC
Gulf Coastal Plains Wetland Mitigation Bank
This is the first wetland mitigation bank in the State of Texas. It is located slightly east of Galveston Bay. Phase One is 464 acres adjacent to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. Ultimately it will be 1,850 acres in Chambers County, Texas.
Fulkerson-Redwood Creek Servitude
Zachary Mitigation Bank
290.6 acres in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Enterprise Woodlands Plantation
Lafourche Parish
Barataria Drainage Basin
This tract of 146.69 acres is being fully restored to be hardwood bottomland and cypress swamp.
Conservation Force continues to develop its land trust division. More private landowners are considering donation of conservation easements to Conservation Force. We can also serve as a land trust for organizations that support us and desire or need to partner to save habitat.
In August 2008, the Delta Land Trust added to that growth by making a $10,000 contribution to Conservation Force in a ceremony at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Delta Land Trust is a long-established easement bank in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana where Conservation Force's land holdings and easements presently exist.
Delta Land Trust making contribution to Conservation Force
Conservation Force continues to develop its land trust division. More private landowners are considering donation of conservation easements to Conservation Force. We can also serve as a land trust for organizations that support us and desire or need to partner to save habitat.
In August 2008, the Delta Land Trust added to that growth by making a $10,000 contribution to Conservation Force in a ceremony at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Delta Land Trust is a long-established easement bank in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana where Conservation Force's land holdings and easements presently exist.
