FAQ
Will it hurt landowner engagement?
Without an in-person visit how will we maintain landowner relations?
While some organizations admitted they felt less connected with landowners after a year of remote monitoring, the majority experienced either no change or an improvement in their landowner relationships. Using imagery saved time that they used to focus on building relationships.
For example, some found that a hybrid approach of reviewing remote imagery and then visiting the property allowed them to focus on building landowner relationships. The focus of the visit changed to allow more time to visit with the landowner about the property and their plans—becoming a landowner-led visit rather than a land trust-led visit.
Many of our landowners were very interested in seeing how recent land management activities looked from above and how things were shaping up, even better to be able to see it annually.
Some landowners were glad they didn't have to drive down to meet us. Most were happy we received the funding and were trying it. We talked to landowners and when they would tell us about something that happened on the property, we would go back and look at imagery and see if we could see it.