Conservation Law, P.C., Jessica E. Jay, Attorney at Law

DISCLAIMER:  The information provided here is general in nature and should not be relied upon as legal advice. 

 

Conservation Permanence through Legal Practice 

Jessica represents statewide, regional, and local land trusts including Colorado Open Lands, Aspen Valley Land Trust, Estes Valley Land Trust, Rocky Mountain Conservancy, and Palmer Land Conservancy, in their ongoing stewardship and perpetual conservation easement projects. She also represents private landowners conserving farms and ranches, urban and rural wildlife habitat, land for public trails, recreation, and education, historic properties, and scenic open space all over Colorado. She assists public entity-landowners, including the Town of Crested Butte, City of Durango, and Gunnison County, Colorado in the protection of land with perpetual conservation easements and exploration of public access on conserved parcels, including e-bike usage.    

 

Conservation Innovation through Collaboration

In addition to the practical work of assisting landowners and easement holders to protect land through the use of flexible but durable perpetual conservation easements, Jessica also collaborates with the conservation community to innovate for landowners and easement holders regarding conservation tax incentives, stewardship and enforcement mechanisms, and the framework for modification and termination of perpetual conservation easements. She creates and publishes legal guidance for federal and state tax and conservation law, orphaned and neglected conservation easements, agricultural water rights leasing, and mineral rights and extraction on conserved properties. 

 

Shaping Conservation Policy and Law

Jessica’s expertise and perspective, shaped by decades of practice in land conservation law, informs courts, legislatures, regulators, and policymakers in the creation of conservation statutes, policies, and case law.  She is a board member of Keep it Colorado representing conservation professionals, for which she serves the policy, governance, and orphan easement committees. She was nominated by the Colorado legislature to the HB 19-1264 Working Group to recommend legislation for the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions crafting processes for addressing orphaned and neglected easements, repayments to Colorado landowners denied tax credits, and alternative methodologies for analyzing and awarding conservation tax credits. This policy and law making builds on the foundation of Jessica's policy guidance on these topics.

Click here to be connected to statutes and cases citing to Jessica's research.  Ms. Jay is a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Conservation Defense Network, and has both served on and counseled the Land Trust Alliance Conservation Defense Advisory Council, which advises the Alliance on matters involving the enforcement, defense, and permanence of perpetual conservation easements. She has published Opportunities for Reform--A To Do List for Sustainable, Perpetual Land Conservation in the Vermont Law Review Summer Volume 2022, as a part of the Vermont Law School's Land Use Reform Symposium.

 

Recent Publications

Opportunities for Reform and Reimagining in Conservation Easement and Land Use Law: A To-Do List for Sustainable, Perpetual Land Conservation, 46 Vt. L. Rev. 387, July 2022

From the most urgent and obtainable in the short term to the most sea-changing and aspirational in the long term, presented here is a view of the immediate, ongoing, and future needs for reform or reimagining in land conservation law. These reforms and reimagining include bolstering and expanding conservation incentives in the face of extensive abuse, integrating private land protection within communities, adjusting land monetization and valuation approaches, unbundling land ownership notions, and re-democratizing and restoring land access and use. Such reforms and reimagining are intended to sustain and secure perpetual land conservation as a continuing, dynamic, and flexible source for critical resource management and protection at the local, state, federal, and global levels, while ensuring equitable, inclusive, diverse, and just land protection in the context of past, current, and future generations of land use and users.

Upcoming Presentations

Keep it Colorado, Spring Summit, Presentations, May 2024

          •Roundtable Conservation Law Topics

          •To Do List for Sustainable, Perpetual Conservation in Colorado

          •IRS Form 8283 and Colorado Tax Credit Updates 

Vermont Law School, Summer Session, June 2024

Land Trust Alliance, National Land Trust Rally, Presentations, September 2024