March was a busy month for our stewardship staff! Sarah Brazil, Stewardship Assistant and newest team member, shares with us a few recaps from her conservation easement monitoring in the southeast region of coastal North Carolina. In addition to monitoring, Director of Land Protection Janice Allen, has also been busy working on restoration projects in between land deals. Read on to learn more about what they’ve been up to in the Facebook series below:

  • Protecting and conserving land does not stop after the deal is done. Often, projects require ongoing efforts such as monitoring, maintenance, and/or restoration. Janice recently led an Atlantic white cedar planting project at the Bern Preserve in Craven County. We’ve previously planted Atlantic white cedar on one of the Waccamaw preserves as well. Atlantic white cedar, a native coniferous tree (aka “juniper”), grows in dense stands on acidic wetland soils, sometimes growing as tall as 75 feet. This majestic tree has fan-like scaly, flattened green or bluish-green leaves that are highly aromatic. While Atlantic white cedar was once common along the NC coast, it now occurs only in small patches. This once highly valuable lumber species has declined significantly across its historic range along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast to Mississippi with the acreage estimated to be less than 5% of its original extent.
  • Sarah Brazil joined our team in February and hit the ground running (or should we say monitoring) in March. Her first visit was to a property along the Cape Fear River, along with Americorps Resilience Members Bryce Tholen and Maddie Woodard, to get an introduction of what our monitoring process entails. Generally speaking, the purpose of most site visits are to ensure that the conservation values of the property are being upheld. This includes walking the entire property to check for potential violations or anything that may go against the restrictions in place. The Coastal Land Trust has over 130 conservation easements in our care, and each one of them must be monitored yearly to maintain our status as an accredited Land Trust…it’s no small feat! On this day, they had the pleasure of seeing a cottonmouth curled up along the banks of a creek, but don’t worry, they kept a safe distance!
  • Out on her own, Sarah then had quite the adventure – it was a muddy boots kind of day! Sometimes monitoring conservation easements is a little less glamourous than seeing exciting wildlife and pretty landscapes. First, she misjudged the depth of a wet area she was trying to cross, went in up to her knee, and completely soaked her boots (see video linked below!). She also experienced some technical difficulties and lost access to the map – thus having to retrace her steps. We’re excited to have Sarah on the team this spring and hope this day of “adventure” offers a fun welcome!
  • Towards the end of the month, she had more wildlife fun though. This latest conservation property consisted of a large forest with a few bogs (which she did not accidentally step in this time!), creeks, and wildlife. For most visits, like this one, she used an iPad and GIS FieldMaps application to take photos of roads, boundaries, trails, and any potential violations or points of interest. She saw some wild turkeys, lots of sundews, and an animal skull…could it be a deer skull?

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more of what our team is up to this Spring!