Aerial monitoring

2009-10-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

I began as the new stewardship coordinator in May 2009, and one of my first tasks was to become acquainted with the 5,000+ acres of lands that the Trust protects through ownership and conservation easements. Though I grew up on the Peninsula, I am very-much a Blue Hiller. And as many of you know, there's nothing straight-forward about our roads: you could drive them your whole life and still not figure out how to "git there from heah". So we contracted with a pilot through Light Hawk, a non-profit organization that provides free flights for conservation organizations. Jim and I would fly over the Peninsula as part of our annual conservation easement monitoring, and I would get to see how our properties and easements fit into the larger peninsula landscape.

I have flown on conservation planning flights before and I know how disorienting it can be to see even the most familiar landscape from above. Also, planes move fast! I knew I wouldn't have much time to inspect, photograph and check off each property as we zipped by.

So to help orient myself while in the air, I created a series of maps using the black and white "orthoimages" (low-resolution aerial photographs taken by the State of Maine in 2006) and the GPS boundary points of BHHT properties. This map project was a good reintroduction to ArcGIS, which I hadn't used since completing my master's in 2002.

So on a lovely sunny (though hazy) spring morning we met our pilot Pat Andrews, at the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport and took off to traverse the Blue Hill Peninsula.The flight itself was terrific, though we headed back a little earlier than anticipated due to some technical problems with the engine (we weren't worried about the siren and red-flashing lights on the dash, because before take off Pat had informed us that in the case of emergency, the rocket-propelled safety parachute that would launch and gently float the plane down to earth at 10mph . . .) Of course there was no such drama on our flight, and we landed safe and smooth back in Trenton.

Seeing the Peninsula from above gave me a mental map that I used during for the rest of the summer during my conservation easement visits. But it also reminded me of why I wanted this job in the first place: The Blue Hill Peninsula is still wild, woody and rural. And I for one, like it this way!
Here's one of the many images I took that day, and I love it because it is a great snapshot of the diversity of landscapes found within the Peninsula. We are looking north from Sedgwick toward Blue Hill (That's Rt. 172 and Hales Hill Rd.) The Salt Pond is on the right and in the foreground is the "Great Meadow" on which BHHT holds a conservation easement. You can also make out Frost Pond (completely undeveloped) and some recently burned blueberry fields just beyond. By the way, we often have this kind of hazy day when there is a southwest wind. It is air pollution (and the resultant ozone) carried up from the big cities and refineries in the Midwest and Southeastern U.S.

Blue Hill Heritage Trust

Aerial monitoring