Working with the ATC Land Trust

The week before Thanksgiving, Sally & I went up to New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with Caroline Dufour, ATC's Land Resources Coordinator. One of Caroline's job duties includes making sure that the properties that the ATC holds in conservation easements are being properly managed. These properties usually abut the corridor. Therefore, it only made sense for all of us to go together and get two things done at once. In addition to assisting Caroline with locating the ATC easement property boundaries, talking with the easement owners, and walking their properties with them, we were also able to assess field conditions along the shared boundaries with the NPS corridor lands. Likewise, the opportunity for us to meet face to face with our trail neighbors is highly beneficial to all, especially in areas like these where the threat of development continues to inch ever closer to A.T. lands. Whether ATC field staff or a volunteer corridor monitor with the local trail club, building these relationships not only helps to promote the Trail community, but also provides neighbors with a point of contact if they notice misuse on A.T. corridor lands.

Talking with an easement owner:

Walking the properties:

These two guys didn't want to stay back at the house since walking a conservation easement is just too much fun:

We got Adam Brown (ATC's N. Eng. Trail Resource Mgr.) in on the land trust fun. Here he and Caroline are looking at the conservation easement file in S. Egremont, MA.

Later, Sally utilized Adam's height to get a "No Hunting" sign up nice and high on the NPS corridor lands across from the Kellogg Conservation Center.

Here Sally's proving that she can hang signs even higher than Adam. Wait, is that a ladder she's standing on - that's cheating!