One family's experience

by Cindy Hildebrand & Roger Maddux

photo by: Cathy Engstrom/INHF

Conservation easement donors Roger Maddux and
Cindy Hildebrand meet with INHF staff member
Joe McGovern (standing) just before the easement
documents are signed. The three are reviewing
baseline photos that will be used when evaluating
the land’s condition during future monitoring visits.

When we signed the legal papers that made us landowners, we felt happy and lucky. But we didn’t feel like real landowners until the land started to fill with our memories —the elm branch where we saw bluebird parents feeding their speckled young, the quiet creek bend where muskrats played, the steep slope where we pulled invading sweet clover to help blooming prairie violets.

Soon we knew we wanted to protect the land permanently. But we put off action because the decisions seemed so difficult and complex. Could we combine protection with the flexibility we needed? How expensive would protection be? And we thought we had plenty of time.

Looking around, however, we could see the pace of land development increasing. And we realized that if something unexpected happened to us, our land would be both vulnerable and commercially valuable.

It was time to move forward. But how? We weren’t sure, and we felt much more comfortable cutting brush than wrestling with legal documents and financial calculations.

What made the difference was finding out that there were conservation partners who understood our feelings and were willing and able to help.

We didn’t have to figure things out on our own. We could get detailed advice every step of the way, and we could create a land protection agreement as unique as our land and our goals. And we also discovered that the tax benefits would help us more than we had thought.

By the time our conservation easement was ready, we were as happy to sign it as we had been to sign the land ownership papers. Now we can look at our land and know that the bluebirds, muskrats, and prairie violets have a safe future. It’s a very good feeling.

Cindy and Roger are Story County landowners and prairie enthusiasts. In 2005, they donated a conservation easement to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.