Conservation Easements in Cherry County, Nebraska

How the review actually works, step by step

Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-2,112, a proposed conservation or preservation easement in Nebraska isn't simply recorded once a landowner and a land trust (or a federal agency) agree to it -- it first has to clear review by an "appropriate governing body." For most Cherry County land, that's the County Board of Commissioners; for land inside the Niobrara National Scenic River corridor that isn't within a city or village, the Niobrara Council reviews and approves the easement instead of the county board. Before the governing body acts, the statute requires the proposal to first be referred to the local planning commission with jurisdiction over the property, which has sixty days to comment on whether the proposed easement conforms to the area's comprehensive planning. Only after that referral and comment period does the governing body -- county board or Niobrara Council -- make its own decision.

The governing body's standard for denial is specific: it can find that approving the easement isn't in the public interest if the easement is inconsistent with an officially adopted comprehensive plan in force at the time, with a national, state, regional, or local conservation or preservation program, or with a known governmental proposal for use of the land. That's a real substantive standard, not a rubber-stamp formality -- and Cherry County's own track record shows the board is willing to apply it even over the planning commission's own prior approval.

What the 2024 Bow and Arrow Ranch denial actually shows

In January 2024, the Cherry County Board of Commissioners voted to deny a proposed conservation easement on the Bow and Arrow Ranch -- a partnership between the ranch's owners and the Nebraska Land Trust intended to protect habitat for the federally listed American Burying Beetle -- finding it inconsistent with the county's own Natural Resource Plan and Comprehensive Land Use Plan. What makes that case instructive rather than a one-off: Cherry County's own Planning Commission had already reviewed and approved the easement before it reached the board, and there was no recorded neighbor opposition driving the denial. The board reportedly retained an outside property-rights consultant in reaching its decision, and the case drew attention from property-rights advocacy groups as a rare example of a county board actually exercising its 76-2,112 veto power rather than treating it as symbolic.

For anyone evaluating a Cherry County conservation easement today -- as the landowner proposing one, or as a buyer looking at land that already carries one or previously had one proposed and rejected -- the practical lesson is that a willing land trust or federal partner, and even prior Planning Commission approval, is not sufficient here. The county board has shown it will independently weigh an easement against its own comprehensive and natural resource plans and can reject a proposal those other parties have already signed off on.

What to check before relying on an easement proposal or an existing one

• Whether the parcel sits inside the Niobrara National Scenic River corridor and outside any city or village limits -- if so, the Niobrara Council, not the County Board, is the reviewing body, and its own track record and current membership/posture should be checked separately.
• The current text of Cherry County's Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Natural Resource Plan, since that's the specific yardstick the board measures a proposed easement against -- ask the Planning & Zoning office for the current adopted version, not an older draft.
• For land that already carries a recorded conservation easement, confirm it actually cleared board or Niobrara Council review at the time -- an easement negotiated directly between a landowner and a land trust without going through this state-law review process could be vulnerable to a later legal challenge to its validity.
• For a proposed easement, budget real time and expect real scrutiny: the sixty-day planning-commission referral period alone means this isn't a fast administrative filing, and Cherry County's board has shown willingness to deny even planning-commission-approved proposals.