Monitoring Personnel

Land trusts can utilize volunteers, board members, staff, consultants or even other land trusts to conduct monitoring of their conservation easement properties. The choice of easement monitoring personnel will depend on the skill level or expertise needed, the resources available to the land trust, and the land trust’s goals for its monitoring program. If, for example, one of its goals is to build ongoing relationships with landowners, then a land trust representative who has continuity with the organization should conduct the visit. But if the goal is to inspect for soil nutrient depletion, then an expert consultant may be needed.

In some circumstances, land trusts may need several different types of monitors. For example, a land trust with an easement that protects both open space and a historic structure may need an architect with historical expertise to monitor the structure and a staff member with open space easement knowledge to monitor the remainder of the property. A land trust that uses volunteers as monitors may choose to have a staff member coordinate the overall monitoring program.

One emphasis of any monitoring program should be to provide thorough training to monitors. A land trust must ensure that volunteers and staff have appropriate training and experience for their responsibilities. These individuals serve a critical role in the organization, both as easement monitors and also as land trust ambassadors. A good monitoring program will support monitors so that they are equipped with the knowledge to feel confident in their assignments, are comfortable representing the organization and feel valued for their contributions to the land trust’s mission. For more information on this subject, see Practice 7E3.

How can a land trust create and maintain a quality monitor training program? Someone on staff with monitoring experience may coordinate and train the monitors. Perhaps a consulting land trust with extensive monitoring experience can provide a training workshop tailored to the monitoring philosophy and monitoring documents of the client land trust. A land trust should also consider incorporating a field component exercise in the training program to allow the monitors to make a trial run and ask questions. Monitors need to know:

• How to prepare for an inspection

• What materials are available

• What to bring on an inspection

• What to look for while on site

• What to look for while on site

• What information and observations to document

• What to do if they have questions or think they may have identified a potential violation

• How to handle questions from landowners if they accompany the monitor during the inspection

• What follow-up is required

• The name and contact information for the monitor program coordinator

A land trust can also obtain training for its volunteers from land trust conferences, such as Rally: the National Land Conservation Conference and training events hosted by regional or state land trust associations or coalitions. Another source for training may be neighboring experienced land trusts. For example, when the accredited Piscataquog Watershed Association in New Hampshire was setting up its volunteer monitoring program, it invited the accredited Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust, a regional staffed land trust, to provide a half-day training session for PWA volunteer monitors.

Most important, remember that all monitors, whether volunteers, staff or consultants, are the land trust’s representatives and need to understand the importance of conducting themselves in a professional and consistent manner.

Volunteerism is the backbone of many nonprofits, with land trusts being no exception. Volunteers are willing to donate their time, and often financial resources, to an organization they feel is worthwhile and making a true difference in their communities. A land trust that uses volunteers should have a program to attract, screen, train, supervise and recognize them. This strategy is especially important in easement monitoring because volunteer monitors have significant responsibility in upholding easements and maintaining good landowner relationships. For more information on using volunteers, see Practice 7B.

A land trust may want to select volunteers, or form a team of volunteers, who possess certain skills or knowledge. For example, volunteers may need to know how to read various maps and aerial photos, use a compass or GPS unit, take measurements of structures, operate a camera, walk for an extended period of time over various terrain, operate a boat or recreational vehicle, collect water samples, identify flora and fauna, be knowledgeable about farming operations and improvements and so forth. The land trust will also need volunteers that are comfortable engaging with landowners, if that activity is to be part of the monitoring visit. Volunteers who are observant, conscientious and trustworthy are best because they will need to report their findings reliably and be discreet about sensitive information as part of the monitoring process.

With an all-volunteer easement monitoring program, a land trust should assign someone to coordinate the program. The coordinator is responsible for ensuring monitors are familiar with the land trust and monitoring protocols, which include:

• Sharing information and providing materials such as maps, directions, landowner names and contact information, a summary of the key easement provisions, and a copy of the baseline to review prior to monitoring.

• Ensuring that monitors know what is expected of them from pre-monitoring preparations though post-monitoring wrap-up.

• Ensuring a clear division of labor, including who is responsible for completing all the assigned inspections on time, who handles any questions or issues raised by the landowner during the course of the inspection, who follows up on any potential easement violations and who completes the monitoring forms.

Some land trusts use volunteers for monitoring with a staff person overseeing and coordinating the monitoring program. One group has developed an exemplary monitoring program using this system. A part-time staff person oversees a corps of about 64 volunteers that perform annual monitoring of 82 easements. Volunteers are assigned to specific easement properties, and the coordinator provides each with maps, background information and monitoring training and materials. The volunteers visit the properties and complete the monitoring form, noting any problems or needed follow-up, and deliver the materials back to the coordinator. The coordinator reviews the results and routes any problems to the appropriate staff to address. This way, staff ensure that problem areas are handled consistently.

Of course, good training is fundamental to a volunteer-based monitoring program. A volunteer monitor is the face of the land trust, and volunteers must understand not only how to conduct monitoring tasks but also how to appropriately represent the land trust and field landowner questions.

The land trust should consider how it will evaluate the volunteer monitoring program. What backup plan does the land trust have if it does not have sufficient volunteers to meet its needs? How does it retain good monitors? How will monitoring quality be evaluated?

Staffed land trusts often use their staff to conduct easement monitoring for a number of reasons. As part of their daily work, staff members are likely to have learned about conservation easement provisions, the easement conveyance process, legal requirements, organizational stewardship philosophy and the importance of professional conduct and standards. They may have been involved in the easement transaction and so may already be familiar with the property and the landowner. Staff members understand the relationship between stewardship and the integrity of the land trust program, and they may be more efficient at implementing monitoring protocols than volunteers. Staff- based monitoring can provide more consistency in the program and increase the likelihood that a potential violation will be detected early. For example, the accredited Marin Agricultural Land Trust in California uses staff instead of volunteers, explaining that easement landowners are more comfortable knowing someone on staff and like to see the same faces from year to year.

Land trusts may also use consultants for easement monitoring. At present, this option appears to be less popular among land trusts, in part perhaps, because of the emphasis that land trusts are placing on building landowner relationships. With respect to cultivating long-term, partnership-oriented relationships with landowners, staff or dedicated volunteers may be better suited to this role.

However, using consultants for certain aspects of monitoring may allow land trusts to free up time for other areas of their work, such as conserving additional land. Consultant Shelton Douthit of California explains that land trusts sometimes hire him for the field component of monitoring. Land trust staff or volunteers do the face-to-face work with landowners, to maintain good continuity in the landowner relationship. The consultant specializes in knowing the land and its boundaries, special features and management. No matter how they employ consultants, land trusts need to invest time and money in finding, contracting and training consultant monitors. A consultant monitor should understand the easements, supporting documentation and the land trust’s monitoring policy and protocols. The consultant’s role as agent of the land trust must be well-defined, including the extent of the consultant’s authority to answer landowner questions, respond to requests for approvals and address potential problems. Because the consultant will be the face of the land trust with landowners, it is especially important that they understand the land trust’s philosophy regarding landowner relations. Ensure that the consultant knows how to be discreet in discussions with landowners and when to defer landowner questions to others at the land trust.

The contractual relationship between the consultant and land trust should be clearly defined, consistent with federal and state laws and, as appropriate, documented in a signed contract or memorandum of understanding that states terms and compensation. The land trust should also ensure that the consultant is familiar with sections of Land Trust Standards and Practices that are relevant to their work. For more information on working with consultants, see Practice 7C.

As with land trusts that use staff or volunteer monitors, a land trust that uses consultant monitors should be clear about who is supervising the consultants; who is responsible for handling follow-up, landowner questions and potential violations; and who is responsible for overseeing the overall monitoring program.

To locate qualified consultants, contact your regional Land Trust Alliance office, land trust association or coalition or neighboring land trusts for recommendations. Some local and state government agencies that hold conservation easements use consultants for monitoring and so may be a source of information as well.

An important role for a consultant is to seed best practices for stewardship into land trust operations. Land trusts with newly established easement programs may want to seek experienced consultants to help them design state-of-the-art protocols for easement monitoring.

Land trusts should be aware of real or perceived conflicts of interest within their monitoring programs. Guidelines in the monitoring policy and the land trust’s conflict of interest policy should address these concerns. Monitors should recuse themselves from conducting any inspection that may be perceived as a conflict of interest, such as an inspection of their own land, or land owned by their family members or partners, employers, neighbors or other related parties as defined by the IRS.

For example, the accredited Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) prohibits staff, volunteers or board members from monitoring their own or related parties’ easements. The land trust’s policy states:

No individual who owns property covered by a CCALT conservation easement, including Board members, staff or volunteers, and approved by the Board of Directors to monitor conservation easements, may monitor an easement on their own property, neighboring properties or any property in which they have a direct interest, financial or otherwise

For additional information on conflicts of interest, see Standard 4.