Will landowners have privacy concerns?

Among the land trusts we worked with, there were few landowner concerns over privacy. One land trust proactively addressed this concern by comparing the imagery from remote monitoring to the imagery Google Earth is already capturing on a regular basis. It also released a landowner newsletter introducing remote monitoring as a valuable tool in land stewardship.

Please note that if your land trust uses remote monitoring from a plane or satellite, courts have ruled that it is beyond the individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy so you do not need to obtain landowner consent. However, in the interest of good landowner relationships consider adding a remote monitoring provision to your conservation easement template and alert current landowners of your intentions.

If you plan to capture remote imagery by drone, unlike images captured by plane or satellite, you will likely need to obtain landowner consent to comply with privacy laws. State law on drone usage and privacy violations vary state by state so consider 1) engaging an attorney to provide you with a state specific opinion on drone use for compliance with state privacy laws or 2) review the easement terms for drone usage, and if the easement is silent, seek the current landowner’s written consent to capture drone imagery as this will help to protect your land trust if a landowner challenges the land trust’s use of drones for monitoring. Note that this written consent will not run with the land so successor owners should provide their written consent as well.