By Cara Green, Easement Stewardship Associate

Cara Green, Easement Stewardship Associate

In April of this year, I joined Legacy as their new Easement Stewardship Associate. I’m only 4 months into my time here, and the peak of my conservation easement monitoring season is nearly over. Instead of heading out to multiple easements per week (and often per day), there is only a handful of easements left to monitor for the rest of the year. So far, I have walked a few thousand acres and counting! Joining the team at the start of the monitoring season was a wonderful opportunity for me to get acquainted with the land we help steward, and the easements I will return to each year to check on.

Did you know that Legacy currently holds more than 100 conservation easements? In addition, we help to monitor conservation easements held by WCPARC (Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission) and The City of Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt program, which makes our easement monitoring total at Legacy every year well over 160 properties! Both the WCPARC and Greenbelt conservation programs are millage-funded, and continuing to expand rapidly as they succeed in protecting hundreds of acres each year through placing conservation easements within Washtenaw County and the City of Ann Arbor. As their capacity for land protection and placement of conservation easements increases, both entities have sought assistance from Legacy to oversee the annual monitoring for their easements.

One of my main responsibilities at Legacy is to administer the annual monitoring for the easements contracted to us by our WCPARC and Greenbelt partners, and to assist with monitoring Legacy held easements also. Every year, Legacy and our conservation partners work diligently to increase the total acreage of protected land in southeast Michigan. We are able to protect land through conservation easements and nature preserves by raising the necessary funds for acquisition by applying for grants, fundraising, welcoming the support of our immensely appreciated and generous donors and community, and for our contract partners, utilizing millage funds. When an easement officially closes, however, the work is not done! Following the legal establishment of a conservation easement on a private landowner’s property, the holder of the easement is responsible for enforcing the easement terms and ensuring that the conservation values are upheld-forever. This is where I, as the Easement Steward Associate, come into play.

But wait…what exactly is a conservation easement? A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a private landowner and Legacy that limits the type and amount of development on a property, and also usually restricts other uses that would damage the natural features. The restrictions of the conservation agreement on the land apply to the current, and all future landowners, in which they accept responsibility to follow the easement terms, and permit Legacy to enforce the terms of the agreement. A conservation easement is recorded with the county register of deeds, and stays with the land for all generations of future landowners. A conservation easement is more than a legal document, it is a promise that the land will be protected forever!

Every conservation easement is different. For example, some easements safeguard high quality natural areas with woods, wetlands, or fens while others protect recovering farmland that contain wetlands or native grasslands, and some preserve working farms (which almost always have a portion of woods, a creek, a wetland, or a combination of many quality natural features). In addition to protecting the natural features present, conservation easements on working farms also help preserve local food systems, and are a tool for mitigating the climate crisis. The specific terms of a conservation easement agreement vary depending on the land use and the specific requests of the landowners who work with Legacy or one of our partners to place the easement. However, there is one thing ALL conservation easements share in common: annual monitoring! Completing an annual monitoring of the easement is universal, and extremely important.

Annual monitoring is a best practice utilized in Land Trusts to ensure the conservation agreement is upheld and that the character of the land and conservation values remain intact. Once a year, a staff member such as myself, or one of our seasoned photo-monitoring volunteers walks as much of the easement as accessible, taking photos and documenting anything special like high quality native plants, or anything out of the ordinary. The monitoring person also communicates with the current landowner to answer any questions and provide helpful resources so they can better care for their land. We then generate the photos and notes from the site visit into a formal report that gets saved for documentation and future reference. Both WCPARC and Greenbelt entities have relied on Legacy to oversee the annual monitoring for their easements as Legacy is an accredited Land Trust, and has very thorough and up-to-date best practices for ensuring the greatest care and protection of the easements and land.

When I am out monitoring an easement, I am keeping a close eye on boundaries and high-quality ecosystems like streams and riparian areas, wetlands, and woodlands. I’m also looking out for anything that may be out of alignment with the easement agreement such as felling trees, dump sites, or installation of impermeable surfaces which drastically effect the conservation values of the land. I take thorough notes of the current state of the easement, take plenty of photos that are geo-located, so if there is an area of the easement we want to keep an eye on, like a wetland or invasive species patch, we know exactly where to go in the future.

Luckily, we partner with caring and dedicated landowners who make our job at Legacy of monitoring and easement enforcements fun and relatively easy. So thankfully, I get to spend most of my monitoring visits enjoying long walks, taking in the scenic views, spotting wildlife and precious plants, and getting to know the landowners.

Building relationships with the Legacy, WCPARC, and Greenbelt easement landowners is an aspect of my position at Legacy that I really enjoy. I love to learn about the history of the property. And trust me, there is always a story! My favorite tales are the ones of rich history that become interwoven with the land. Stories of great-great grandfathers who purchased the land for one-dollar, or of families that immigrated and taught their children how to till the soil and grow fruitful crops–a family tradition that some farmers still carry on, sometimes upwards of 8 generations later. Whether an easement is recovering farmland, a natural area, or a working farm, there is a deep sense of pride, joy, and sentiment that is shared amongst the landowners of conservation easements. I love to reflect on the touching stories while walking the land, and can’t help but to feel extremely grateful that I get to call this work.

To learn more about our contracted work with the WCPARC and Greenbelt easement programs, check out this previous post >>> https://legacylandconservancy.org/see-a-need-fill-a-need/