Lori Ensinger and Bill Kuebler bought their house and land, in Somers, in 2005 and protected 17 acres with a conservation easement the following year. The property is next to the 654-acre Angle Fly Preserve. We asked Lori, now WLT President, to describe the decision-making process.

Lori Ensinger: We had been specifically looking for a large parcel that we could buy and put an easement on, thereby permanently protecting the property’s conservation values, while also defraying some of the cost. When we first looked at the property, we didn’t realize that we were so close to Angle Fly. When the broker told us the property abutted on a 650-acre nature preserve, we finally connected the dots.

It was a difficult decision for us to permanently give up our development rights. But in essence, we pulled forward some of the value of the development rights in the form of a tax deduction that is real cash. We intend to live on this property for at least 20-30 years, and don’t feel that we have really lost anything. For us, life is not all about maximizing every last dollar. There are other important priorities – and making a permanent contribution to the community holds a lot of value for us.

Since this is permanent, we had to also think about 10, 20, and 50 years down the road. As we were going through the process, we did think twice about whether we were creating a situation that was so complex as to deter any future buyers from being interested in the property. We actually had discussions with the realtor about her views of the value of the property with an easement, without an easement, and then if it were subdivided.

Working with Westchester Land Trust was very easy. The staff was extremely generous with their time, and very willing to offer different solutions to things we were getting hung up on.

The Ensinger-Kuebler easement protects 17 acres next to the Angle Fly Preserve. While our easement does not allow public access to the property, we felt very good about preventing the subdivision of this beautiful parcel into three or four building lots. The proximity to Angle Fly also made us feel like we were adding to the value that had already been created there. We know our neighbors were very happy about our decision as well!

I would urge other landowners to consider doing an easement for either or both of two reasons – environmental or purely financial. I think large landowners have a responsibility to be stewards of their unique and precious resource.

If you are environmentally minded already, it is a simple process to at least explore putting an easement on the property. If you are not, there can be such compelling financial reasons to do it, that you would be remiss in not exploring it.