Monitoring and Management
What does “stewardship” of the land involve?
Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s Stewardship Team is responsible for managing nature preserves owned by SAHC, monitoring conservation easements, and much more.
Stewardship involves five general areas of program work: land management, monitoring compliance, managing relationships with landowners and neighbors, record keeping, and enforcement.
The Stewardship Team is responsible for creating and implementing land management plans for SAHC preserves. These plans outline hands-on management of each SAHC preserve and include everything from marking boundaries and improving habitat for species of conservation concern to implementing erosion control measures and administering contracts for invasive species removal.
For conservation easements, the Stewardship Team produces baseline reports, which are thorough visual and written descriptions of the land and its conservation values.
Both preserves and conservation easements must be monitored annually — a task that has grown exponentially as we continue to protect land. With a growing portfolio of conserved land that we are responsible for monitoring each year, SAHC is on the forefront of applying innovative technologies to improve efficiencies. High resolution aerial imagery, for example, can be used to detect changes on protected properties before or in lieu of a scheduled on-the-ground visit to a property.
An integral part of stewardship work involves establishing and maintaining positive relationships with partner organizations, landowners, and neighbors. We strive to provide and share educational resources with landowners across our collective network.
In record keeping, the Stewardship Team maintains clean, unambiguous and defensible permanent records, including GIS data and monitoring reports.
Enforcement involves ensuring the terms of a conservation easement are upheld – addressing violations and stewardship issues as well as enacting reserved rights.
Conservation Easement Landowners
Are you the landowner of a conservation easement? To find out more about what to expect and access resources for landowners, view our online CE Landowner Manual.