Part of the river flowing by one of the easements in Ashe County, NC
Every fall, team members along with volunteers set out to monitor our 38 easements across a two month period.
What you might ask are conservation easements and how do you monitor them?
These easements are typically a mutal agreement between the land owner and a conservation organization or entity. The easement limits the uses of the land while working to achieve set conservation goals or objectives, however, the owner remains in control of the lands.
To date, New River Conservancy has 38 conservation easements with various land owners in North Carolina and Virginia that are along the New River or its tributaries.
John Copeland takes field notes about an easement in Grayson County, VA
To maintain a conservation easement, the property must be monitored every 1-5 years. Monitoring is done through a combination of methods, depending on the site and its location. Typically, our team will visit a site and conduct visual field work by walking, taking pictures, taking notes abut changes, observing the overall site and talking with land owners. If we are unable to get to a site or walk it, aerial mapping/photography is used. This allows us to still get visuals on the overall condition and potential changes that have occurred.
While this easement monitoring season might be closed, we are always looking for volunteers for next year. If you are interested, please contact our Land and Water Quality Manager, John Copeland at john@newriverconservancy.org