Crow's Nest: Easement Monitoring

This is the time of year when we monitor easements. These are private lands that are conserved by a legal agreement that Natural Lands Trust holds and enforces. Each one is unique, designed to meet the conservation needs of each landscape and landowner. Each winter Natural Lands Trust preserve staff gets out to walk the land and make sure no violations have occurred.

When I started at Crow's Nest twelve years ago I was responsible for monitoring 7 easements. Now I am responsible for 27 different properties, mostly in Chester County. Even more significant is the increase in protected acres: from personally monitoring about 200 to more than 1,200! Each of the preserve managers has experienced a similar change in workload, itself a result of the hard work of the people in the land protection office at Natural Lands Trust.