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Abstract
The impact of U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service grass and
wetland easements on
agricultural land values across
three counties in the Prairie
Pothole Region of South Dakota
were determined by comparing
the sale prices of 38 easement
encumbered properties sold
between 1994 and 2000
across 9 counties in South
Dakota, with hypothetical fee
simple sale prices calculated
using land values from
comparable sales without
easements. On average
grass/wetland easements
reduced sale prices by 6.6
percent. Alternatively, 60
percent of properties had
reduced sale prices attributed to
easements. However, almost 95
percent of sellers were more
than sufficiently compensated
for reduced sale prices by
earlier USFWS easement
payments and average net
impacts to sellers of easement
encumbered land was a positive
30 percent.