Survey, Mapping, Assessment and Analysis
Services for Landowners and Land Trusts
Baseline is a scientific term meaning what conditions are in the beginning. In business strategic planning baseline metrics are essential in order to measure performance on any goal. Unless performance goals are dictated in a Conservation Easements (CE) (a highly inappropriate usage of a perpetual real estate conveyance), CEs are different.
Conservation Easement Baseline Reports
CE Baselines are required to accompany any qualified (as per the US Treasury Code) CE. The code requires that the condition of public trust values associated with restrictive conveyances in a CE are ‘baselined’ in a report, the “Report”. CE grantees utilize the Report for monitoring (also required by the US Treasury Code) as a staff reference guide for knowing what to monitor.
Report components are negotiated between the landowner and the grantee. Land trusts and CE funding agencies often want more than documentation of restriction conveyances. Grantees often want Reports that document baselines that look like strategic plan baselines even when no performance requirements are present. It’s a significant mistake for three fundamental reasons:
- significantly increases the complexity of monitoring and so increases costs; good for the monitoring entity NGO and the consultant who drafts it (e.g. Agland), but bad for the grantor who pays for monitoring. And, bad for the public agency who pays for the report.
- complicates the role of monitoring by the dichotomy between the Report and the actual CE Restrictions.
- creates inappropriate expectations that cause conflict. As NGO and government agency attrition and landowner succession swaps out relationships, the conflict leads to inevitable litigation.
Agland’s Baseline Services
Baseline fees are quoted or proposed based on contract deliverables. If a land trust needs help with drafting deliverables, Agland can help with that as well.
Specific Assessment Services
Agland specializes in the following that may be a component of the CE baseline report or may be contracted individually:
- Road mapping, assessment and reporting
- Other agriculture infrastructure mapping and analysis
- Soil & vegetation mapping & analysis
- Watershed mapping and stream stability analysis
- Stream habitat assessment for restoration feasibility
- Riparian habitat assessment & mapping for restoration feasibility
Specific Monitoring Services
- Lease services: soil, pasture and range monitoring and reporting
- Road crossing inspection & reporting
- Northern Spotted Owl surveys
- Amphibian surveys
- Bat surveys
- Terrestrial predator surveys
- Salmonid Spawner Surveys