 Baseline Assessments & Natural Resource Inventories for Land Trusts
Perhaps your organization has decided to reclaim and/or preserve an area that has already been cut or otherwise altered. If so, you will want to have a record of proof that reclamation is proceeding in an ecologically benign way, invasive species are under control and not colonizing new areas, and natural forest regeneration is promoting new native and indigenous species.
Or perhaps you are preserving a more pristine area for posterity and need an inclusive and thorough Natural Resource Inventory in order to assure the native landscape continues undisturbed in its succession towards maturity and that management plans are on track.
We achieve this through Conservation Easements, which permanently ensure that our treasured waterscapes and landscapes will be passed down forever from generation to generation.
A Baseline Documentation Report is a critical component of a Conservation Easement. It provides a photographic and written record of the existing features on a potential holding, which is then used to determine if it would fit the criteria as written in the Trust's Mission Statement. It serves as an invaluable reference to assess the property's environmental integrity before closure. The cover page for one of three Baseline reports that we conducted for the Landmark Heritage Trust is shown on the left.
A Natural Resource Inventory is a more intensively conducted investigation to document, in detail, the ecology or other agreed upon resources at a property. While it could be custom designed to fit a particular need (as, for instance, the Plant Survey brochure done for the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, also shown on the right), the report will normally include the following:
- Zoological/Botanical Assessments
- Rare and Endangered Species lists
- Invasive Species Assessments
- Representative photographs and maps, and
- A Management Plan.
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