Sunday, March 31, 2013

CILT Goes Digital

Map of CILT Properties

The Conanicut Island Land Trust (CILT) was formed in 1984 and is incorporated as a private, not-for-profit, tax exempt organization to promote the preservation of natural resources in Jamestown, Rhode Island. CILT is structured with a 14 member board of directors who serve on a volunteer basis. It has no paid staff. The Land Trust owns or has conservation easements on over 150 properties totaling approximately 500 acres.

In an effort to promote more comprehensive and efficient management of CILT's properties, the Land Trust has gone digital. Board member Jim Turenne has been working for over a year to develop protocol and methods to monitor and steward the properties more efficiently. “Jim has worked very quietly on this project with no fanfare and surprised the entire Board with a comprehensive finished product that revolutionizes our ability to access property information,” said Quentin Anthony, President of the Conanicut Island Land Trust.

The first step in the process involved assembling paper copies of 150 ± deeds and easements constituting the inventory of CILT land. Each deed was scanned and converted it to an electronic document. A database was then created which linked each digital deed to the corresponding parcel boundary on a geographic information system (GIS).

Inventory of CILT Property
With all the deeds and easements digitized, it is now possible to instantly access and review the terms of each deed to determine permitted and prohibited activities and other relevant information. The organization can then move from the easement language to an aerial photograph of the parcel in question and determine if any changes have occurred on the property in the course of the year.

According to Anthony, “Another remarkable accomplishment by Jim was the development of an online GIS mapping application that shows the property locations and deed information on a smartphone or tablet in the field. Having the digital map and the devices GPS allows for reasonably accurate property boundary locations allowing CILT to determine if there is encroachment of the easement requiring more investigation.” Another App allows field notes, photos, videos and voice recordings to be made while inventorying the property and store all the information on Google Earth.

In August, the Land Trust acquired easements to over 85 parcels on the Shores from the Town of Jamestown. Many of the parcels are small and scattered throughout the shores. Using this digital format will allow each of the properties to be efficiently and accurately monitored to assure the land is used for the intended conservation purposes. Property inventory began in January 2013 ans will continue until all lots are investigated and a stewardship report completed. Properties will be monitored each year and tracked electronically. For more information about this story email jimturenne@gmail.com 

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