easement

It took four years, but now, she and the forests’ other fans have a conservation easement forbidding commercial development or logging, giving the next generation better tools to protect the forest.

This would mean not just protecting wilderness areas and national parks, but private land, farms of all sizes, and urban green spaces, using public-private partnerships and conservation easements.

Whether a pipeline is removed or abandoned may come down to the terms of the easement—the agreement between a landowner and a pipeline company.

Some get permission from the state to keep existing seawalls through easements, wherein homeowners essentially pay the state to lease the public lands under the structures.