FAQ
Is our portfolio too small?
Will our portfolio size make remote monitoring cost effective?
Land trusts with a wide range of easement portfolios have benefited from remote monitoring. In addition to more efficient stewardship, they found that sharing remote imagery helped improve landowner relationships and their outreach programs. These additional uses helped the land trusts justify the start-up costs.
In the second year of the grant program, we found that with the drop in imagery prices between 2020 and 2021, remote monitoring became an affordable option for organizations with fewer parcels or acres.
For more, see the Return on Investment section, which provides a cost-benefit analysis.
Comparison of monitoring costs by organization
Total number of properties in portfolio
Average cost per property using remote monitoring
Average cost per property using in-person monitoring
Number of staff (FTE)
Remote monitoring experience level
Total acres monitored this year
22
$619.94
$123.26
9
Beginner
11,300
23
$634.83
$980.29
4
Intermediate
16,328
29
$255.00
$255.00
7
Intermediate
25,769
38
$427.33
$941.89
3
Intermediate
36,183
39
$250.70
$2.57
0
Beginner
693
41
$238.75
$184.34
8
Beginner
6,673
42
$76.71
$181.21
0.8
Beginner
1,865
45
$91.80
$171.69
8
Intermediate
11,479
46
$367.92
$491.11
27
Intermediate
7,000