Field investigations: Locating boundary markers - Photo by Rick Muehlke

Easement Monitoring

Good land stewardship practices require that land trusts and municipalities holding Conservation Restrictions (MA) or Conservation Easements (NH)-- we’ll use CRs to refer to both here-- monitor their CR properties to ensure usage is compliant with the language of the CR and to document the overall condition of easement properties. A CR is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits uses of the land, detailing allowed uses, in order to protect its conservation values.

The NRWA’s professional staff is qualified to monitor CR properties, using “boots on the ground” inspection, GIS mapping technology, and photography to develop reports on the condition of CR properties. We also offer educational workshops on management and monitoring of CRs.

The City of Nashua contracted with the NRWA to monitor conservation easements within the City. NRWA conducted extensive field investigation and provided the City with approximately 70 monitoring reports and maps. The reports have been used by the Conservation Commission to target conservation land for remediation, clean-ups, and investigation of invasive species.

If you hold CRs and are interested in working with NRWA to monitor those properties, please contact Al Futterman, NRWA Land Programs Director, at (978) 448-0299, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..