The Nature Conservancy and the Big Sur Land Trust (San Luis Obispo and Monterey counties).
Jodi McGraw Consulting prepared separate baseline documentation reports for five conservation easements secured by the Nature Conservancy on the Andre, Eng, McKinsey, Mueller, and Violini ranches, and two easements conveyed to the Big Sur Land Trust for the Vierra and Colinas ranches. Completion of these projects involved the following:
- Reviewing the conservation easement terms and the conservation values to ensure the report provides the necessary baseline information;
- Implementing literature and database research as well as interviews with landowners and others, to obtain information about the property;
- Conducting field assessments of the properties, which ranged in size from 920 to 10,500 acres, to map biological systems including vegetation, rare species, and exotic species; inventory anthropogenic features including all buildings, utilities, and other infrastructure; characterize conservation values, including for biodiversity, working lands, and scenic resources; evaluate condition of the land; and establish photomonitoring stations;
- Preparing detailed reports (100-200 pages each) documenting the ranch values and conditions, including narrative text, tables, GIS-based maps, and a photolog, and then revising the draft reports based on feedback from the easement recipient, funder, and landowner;
- Preparing a project GIS database featuring a thematically-organized map file, and all spatial data layers (with metadata) developed or synthesized during preparation of the report, including the photopoint shapefile with hyperlinked photographs, to facilitate easement monitoring.
JMc has also assisted TNC and the Big Sur Land Trust with monitoring their easements, by reoccupying photopoint stations and taking other steps to evaluate changes in the conservation values over time.