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    Step 5

    Review images

    The designated monitor then chooses how to monitor a property.

    • Do you know the property boundaries? Be aware that with in-person monitoring, in the absence of a survey, remote monitors often must rely on municipal or county shapefiles to determine a subject property’s boundaries. These shapefiles can be inaccurate, so imagery reviewers are advised to remotely monitor beyond the purported boundary line. Even in the case of highly accurate shapefiles, any potential violations detected within a reasonable distance of the purported boundary line require an in-person follow up to investigate.

    • It’s helpful if your land trust has tracked:

      • Past management actions

      • Upcoming planned management activities

      • Known features such as structures; temporary objects such as agricultural equipment or hunting blinds; objects not removed prior to conservation such as vehicles or dumping piles, stone walls or fences (out in the open or under the canopy); ecological features such as wetlands, streams and rivers; agricultural activities and agricultural uses; forest types; and forestry uses.

    • Familiarize yourself with existing documentation, including the baseline documentation report, and conservation easement.

    • Similar to an in-person monitoring event, the image can be reviewed by scrolling around the perimeter at the finest resolution level and then moving to the interior of the property.

    • The property can be reviewed by scrolling right to left or left to right and then top to bottom.

    • Properties with large acreage can be broken into sections to be monitored systematically. Those breaks may be natural, ecological, geographic or by easement type.

    Another approach for larger properties is to use a coarser (lower) resolution level for the entire property and use a finer (higher) resolution image for high risk or critical areas around structures or agricultural areas and equipment. This provides a number of benefits:

    1. The price per acre is reduced.

    2. Land trusts can archive a larger number of images, which otherwise would be cost prohibitive.

    3. Organizations can remotely monitor more properties because of the price reduction.

    Below is an example from TNC California. A coarser resolution, multispectral imagery was used for the majority of the property and a finer resolution image was used the area around the homestead/altered or built area.