Volunteer Easement Monitoring Program Expands

To help the Easement Stewardship team monitor thousands of acres of conservation properties, the Volunteer Easement Monitoring Program (VEMP) was started in 2016. Since then, the program has been gradually expanding.
Easement Stewardship is responsible for monitoring the Forest Society’s 700+ conservation easements and deed restrictions every year by air and every couple of years on the ground to ensure compliance with the easement/restrictions. These mostly privately-owned properties are scattered throughout NH and range from under an acre to over 10,000 acres. Volunteer easement monitors, as part of VEMP, had their busiest year this year.

During the 2019 field season, 13 VEMP volunteers successfully completed a day-long training in early May and conducted 43 monitoring visits throughout the summer and fall, spanning over 18,000 acres. This year we had the highest number of VEMP participants and monitoring visits, both which are expected to grow in the upcoming years!

The 2020 VEMP training is mandatory for new volunteer easement monitors and optional for returning monitors. (See update above). If you would like to explore conservation properties and enjoy the challenge of navigating off-trail in the woods, VEMP might be a great fit for you!

We greatly appreciate and thank our returning volunteers!

Please contact vemp@forestsociety.org if you are interested in becoming a volunteer easement monitor! You must be available on for the full-day training. Check out our other volunteer opportunities at forestsociety.org/volunteer.