Application of geospatial technology to monitor forest legacy conservation easements

Abstract

Remote sensing and other geospatial took are being applied to monitor large working forest conservation easements and to assist office and field users to improve the efficiency of required monitoring. Two USDA-Forest Legacy Program conservation easements in northern New England are included as case studies to describe how to acquire geospatial data and apply these took to monitor selected easement features. Much of the remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) data are free or low cost and functional software capable of viewing, querying, and making measurements on images and maps can be acquired from public sources. A high-resolution, digital image management system linked to satellite imagery and the GIS database is presented. Finally, the geospatiol monitoring took on a handheld personal data assistant device for field users are demonstrated.