Photo above by Karie Boone during the 2025 annual monitoring visit to Boars Nest Ranch, Idaho County.
Each year, Payette Land Trust visits every property it helps protect through a conservation easement. Currently there are 21 properties! These visits are an essential part of ensuring these landscapes remain healthy, productive, and true to the terms of the conservation agreement. This process, known as conservation easement monitoring, helps maintain strong relationships with landowners and supports PLT’s long-term stewardship goals.
For a closer look at what this work entails, read on for an interview with PLT’s Stewardship Manager, Karie Boone where she shares what goes into a typical monitoring season.
Q. What’s the most unexpected/interesting thing you’ve ever come across while out on a property?
A. I was recently warned to steer clear of a spring box because it has undetonated dynamite inside. We’re still working with the landowner to get it removed by a professional.
Q. If someone tagged along with you for a day, what do you think would surprise
them the most?
A. It depends on the day. In general, it may be the diversity of skill sets needed to effectively do a site visit. There’s a high level of planning, communication skills, technology adeptness, agricultural, social, and ecological knowledge and maintenance of physical health that goes into each visit.
Q. Do landowners ever join you on these visits? What’s it like to talk with them?
A. We encourage landowners to join us on the walk. It allows us to build a relationship and maintain communication which are the foundations of successful easements that conserve land in perpetuity. I’m also generally curious what methods and strategies land managers employ so that I can share those with other interested landowners. I get to meet people across the political and social spectrum with varying life experiences. I’m fascinated by their stories.
This is Part 2 of a 2-part interview on land stewardship. Click here to read Part 1.