How We Protect Land

When our conservation staff members are presented with an opportunity to protect land, they first consider how it aligns with our conservation criteria. 

Broad enough to apply to many different kinds of land, these criteria are used to rate such things as a property’s adjacency to other protected lands, climate resilience, natural ecosystems, wildlife habitat, marine shoreline values, historical and/or cultural significance, and/or productivity and viability as working land.

The greater the significance of criteria met by the property, the higher its priority for protection.

If our conservation team believes a property offers significant conservation value, they bring the opportunity to our Conservation Projects Committee (CPC) for initial discussion. Meeting regularly, this committee comprises a number of Land Trust board and staff members and many dedicated community volunteers.

If the Conservation Projects Committee members are interested in learning more, several committee members visit the property to evaluate its conservation values in person.

After the merits of the project are considered, it’s either tabled or recommended for consideration by the Land Trust’s Board of Directors.

If the Conservation Projects Committee recommends pursuing a project, the project analysis begins.

Our conservation staff members complete a Conservation Values and Feasibility Analysis to answer such questions as:

• What funding may be available?
• Are there any location issues to consider?
• What will the long-term stewardship requirements be for the land?

In short, we determine whether we have the resources to conserve the land and whether we have the capacity and resources necessary to assume the obligation required to care for, monitor, and protect it forever once it is protected.

The results of the Conservation Values and Feasibility Analysis are presented to the Land Trust's Board of Directors.

These volunteer community members who govern the Land Trust’s work consider the details of the project and vote on whether the conservation team should pursue due diligence on the project.

If given the go-ahead, our conservation team works on the project for months or often years: meeting with landowners, coordinating funding, hiring appraisers and surveyors, consulting with partners, drafting the conservation easement if necessary, and much more.

Due diligence includes: appraisal, cultural resources assessment, environmental assessment, partner discussions, securing necessary funding, land survey, title review, and more.

Once all of the due diligence is completed, but before any easement or land purchase closes, each project goes to the Conservation Projects Committee for a final recommendation and then goes to the Board of Directors for a final decision.

Once a property is protected, the important work of stewarding the land begins. Caring for the properties we own (our preserves) takes a great deal of work by staff members and volunteers, some who make multi-year commitments to help manage a preserve and others who attend our twice-monthly work parties.

Our stewardship staff members and trained volunteers also make yearly monitoring visits to all of the privately owned properties on which we hold easements, meeting with landowners to ensure that the terms of the easement are being upheld and that the land is thriving.