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Rockingham County Conservation District briefs Brentwood commission on monitoring, easement services and stewardship challenges
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Summary
RCCD’s Tracy Degnan told the commission about county conservation services — from equipment rental and farmer assistance to easement monitoring (RCCD holds roughly 104 easements countywide, about 11 in Brentwood) — and warned stewardship costs are rising and some easements may need alternate stewardship arrangements.
Tracy Degnan, assistant district manager of the Rockingham County Conservation District, briefed the Brentwood Conservation Commission on the district’s services, monitoring program and funding constraints.
Degnan said RCCD provides equipment rental and technical assistance for farmers, runs cover-cropping and resilience grant programs (roughly $35,000 annually under the climate-resilience program), and offers municipal services such as septic-plan review and engineering assistance for large developments. "We were enabled by an RSA in 1946," she said, noting the district’s long-running statutory role in county-level conservation work.
On easements, RCCD reported managing about 104 easements across the county, with roughly 11 easements in Brentwood totaling about 393 acres. The district combines on-the-ground monitoring (typically every three years) with annual aerial imagery for some easements and uses contracted monitoring when needed. Arianna, RCCD’s conservation stewardship manager, described using aerial imagery vendor Upstream Tech Lens for annual comparisons and a GNSS receiver to collect submeter-accuracy boundary points to improve maps and identify possible encroachments.
Degnan told the commission that stewardship funding has become a strain: earlier easements were sometimes accepted without stewardship fees, and the ongoing monitoring and legal obligations create perpetual costs. The district said it now sometimes refers easement stewardship to other local organizations and is open to contracting with towns for monitoring services.
Commissioners asked about baseline monitoring, retracement and whether the GNSS tool can substitute for licensed survey work; RCCD staff said the device helps narrow uncertainties but a licensed surveyor may still be required for litigation-grade boundary determination.
RCCD offered to share reports and the presentation with the commission and encouraged the town to discuss a stewardship fund if it plans to accept more easements.
