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When teams consider adding Lens to their monitoring toolkit, we’re often asked about the impact of remote monitoring tools on landowner relationships. After all, maintaining strong, positive relationships with landowners is key to successful and effective land stewardship. So, how does Lens affect the dynamic? We sat down with Troy Walters, Outreach & Monitoring Coordinator at Northwoods Land Trust, to talk through just that.
Northwoods Land Trust (NWLT) is entering its third year using Lens after getting started with remote monitoring through a Land Trust Alliance program in 2022. The small but mighty team of five at NWLT is responsible for monitoring 99 conservation easements and 32 properties they own, covering about 15,500 acres. Before integrating Lens into their workflow, the team relied solely on in-person site visits – that’s a lot of ground to cover! Originally turning to remote monitoring to save their team some time, Troy discovered another unexpected benefit: Lens created opportunities to strengthen relationships with landowners.
Before implementing Lens, Troy monitored easements exclusively on the ground, and met with landowners during his visits. Considering some easements are quite large – one is about 3,000 acres – he was only able to monitor part of the property in one visit. That’s changed now, thanks to Lens. Troy takes a hybrid approach to monitoring. He uses satellite imagery in Lens to monitor low-risk areas remotely, and focuses on the high-risk areas when he visits those same sites in person. This approach allows him to monitor 100% of a property and frees up more time for meaningful conversation with landowners during site visits.
Using remote monitoring to complement field visits, Troy is able to identify changes on an easement that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. For example, he once spotted a deer stand in a forested area. He never expected to catch something like that with satellite imagery, but the glare reflecting off the metal roof made it stand out in the imagery. Troy also noted that Lens has become invaluable for monitoring boundaries – areas he often can’t fully access during a site visit due to time, geography, or other constraints. This has helped him take note of disturbances along easement boundaries in advance and then follow up during his next site visit. Without previewing the sites in Lens, these issues could have been easily missed.
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Other opportunities for time savings for NWLT include verifying dock limitations, as well as monitoring forestry activities to get a birds eye view of how the property has changed. Both activities that require timely review, making clear, time-stamped satellite imagery a huge help.
Overall, hybrid monitoring allows Troy to focus on what matters most.
"A hybrid approach saves money and time, but more importantly allows me to see the whole property. If you look at what percentage you can actually monitor on the ground, it’s pretty minimal. Lens allows me to focus my efforts where I can actually be helpful.”
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Beyond time savings for NWLT, Troy explained how the land owners he works with have been impacted directly by remote monitoring and the surprising benefits.
For landowners who aren’t able to join Troy on his walks through the property during an in-person visit due to time or accessibility, Lens has made it possible for them to participate in the monitoring process more fully where their time interfacing with Troy would have been limited before.
“Some of the landowners may have physical limitations or be unable to walk as far and as fast as I can. With a hybrid approach, I can allow them to walk with me and see part of the property and then use imagery in Lens to view boundaries and encroachment along the outside we may not reach on foot. I get the best of both worlds, accomplishing my monitoring and spending more time with the landowner too.”
The vast majority of landowners that have land easements with Northwoods Land Trust have been on board with Troy using remote monitoring since he introduced Lens three years ago. As this is one of the most common questions we hear, we asked him to walk us through how he handled communicating his use of remote monitoring to landowners, and how they responded. Their approach was simple, straightforward, and successful. Troy included an informational message about Lens and NWLT’s plans to leverage remote monitoring in a newsletter including a questionnaire that asked about their comfort level and provided an opportunity for questions. By leading with transparency, over 75% of landowners were immediately comfortable with their properties being remotely monitored, and a smaller number needed more education on the process. Of the few holdouts who initially said they wouldn’t be comfortable with remote monitoring, Troy noted “at this point I think everybody has realized that technology and satellite imagery is pretty standard and commonplace."
By sharing his findings and the satellite imagery from Lens directly with landowners, NWLT has unlocked another unexpected benefit for all parties: a deeper understanding of the whole property and the joy of getting a big picture view of the land that you love. Satellite imagery is simply cool, and Troy sends it directly to landowners when he can. Some landowners even meet him at the Northwoods Land Trust office to review satellite imagery of their own properties. They love seeing the landscape from a new perspective and being more fully involved in the monitoring process.
“Landowners have conservation easements because they love their property and their land. Satellite imagery offers a view of the land they may not have seen before and they’re thrilled to see it from another perspective.”
Interested in learning more about how Lens might work for your organization? We’d like to hear from you! Get connected here or drop us a line at lens@upstream.tech.
