LIHUE, Kauai — A Hawaii family has donated two perpetual conservation easements to place permanent restrictions on the land use of 40 acres of wetland used for taro production.
The Garden Island Newspaper reports that Gaylord and Carol Wilcox and their daughters Nicole Pedersen, Darcie Gray and Eliza Wilcox made the donation Thursday to the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust. The land is located in Waioli Valley.
The easements permanently protect the farm from future development and degradation.
A perpetual conservation easement is the Land Trust’s primary conservation tool. It is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation entity. The landowner who donates the conservation easement remains the landowner and the Land Trust must uphold the conservation easement even with future landowners of the property.