Conservation Easement Origins

Before 1983, limits on land use and development in Texas relied on restrictive covenants and common law easements. Restrictive covenants were fragile personal contracts. Common law easements often required adjacent land ownership, involving “in gross” rights that frequently expired or lacked transferability, making permanent conservation impossible. A turning point came with the Texas Uniform Conservation Easement Act of 1983, which recognized conservation easements as valid property interests, allowing them to exist in perpetuity. It also granted organizations legal standing to enforce these protections. The Hooks family was likely among the first in Texas to use the new tool: in 1983, they gave an easement on wooded property near Tomball to the Nature Conservancy. In the years since, millions of acres in the state have been protected in this way.