Certain environmental remediation strategies require long-term oversight.
As a long-term steward, the West Virginia Land Stewardship Corporation provides the monitoring and maintenance needed to ensure that the remedies chosen for a particular site remain effective over time. WVLSC offers long term monitoring and management of conservation easements in coordination with the WV Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as well as private mitigation banks. When areas of ecological importance must be disrupted due to industrial or commercial activity, mitigation banks are created to preserve similar ecological value elsewhere.
Learn more about mitigation banks below.
WVLSC ensures that conservation easements retain their ecological value in perpetuity. Our stewardship of mitigation projects created to offset damage to streams and wetlands or wildlife habitat can include holding the conservation easement that is placed on property and/or serving as the long-term steward that monitors and maintains the easement or other restriction in perpetuity.
The WVLSC can also monitor and maintain sites that have been remediated pursuant to a state or federal environmental program. These might include brownfields, underground storage tanks, closed landfills, open dumps, hazardous waste sites, and former mining sites. Engaging the WVLSC as either a short- or long-term steward allows responsible parties and property owners to satisfy their perpetual obligations without shifting focus away from their primary business.
Achievements of this program include nine enrolled easements and over $800,000 in managed endowments to support ongoing management.
What is a conservation easement?
Conservation easements are legal agreements between a property owner and a government agency or conservation organization to restrict uses of the property to help restore and protect it. Each conservation easement contains unique specifications for the property and are recorded as deed restrictions to remain in use in perpetuity.