What Does Hilltown Land Trust Do?
 

Contract monitor Caroline Raisler and board member Waino Tuominen, using a GPS to mark where they've traveled during a 2008 monitoring visit .

Besides providing information to landowners interested in preserving their land, the Hilltown Land Trust is responsible for regularly monitoring the land on which we hold conservation restrictions. This ensures land under restriction is not being used in ways it shouldn't (such as the owner erecting buildings or clearing land in places the restriction doesn't allow).
 

(left-to- right) Hattie Plehn, owner Plehn CR, and Katie Eiseman, volunteer monitor

Monitoring is done in the spring and fall, when visibility is best because the trees have no leaves and there is no snow on the ground. Volunteers and a specialist monitor HLT's conservation restrictions by visiting with the landowner and walking the property. With more than 20 properties, that takes quite a bit of time. In 2006, pilot Norman Baker of Windsor donated his services and the use of his Piper Cub, taking HLT Director Eric Weber on an overflight, providing an aerial overview of several properties. If you would like to volunteer to help monitor properties, contact HLT.

If you are interested in preserving your land, please visit the Land Protection Tools page for general information and ways to contact the Hilltown Land Trust. If you want to read what others have done, visit the Conservation Stories page. You can also support the work we do by joining or volunteering.