By Tori Ramirez, 2026 DLC Stewardship Fellow
“Keys, wallet, phone, tablet, and photo points.”
As the Stewardship Fellow this season, that has been my checklist before I walk out of DLC’s office to monitor one of the organization’s 83 conservation easements. This summer, the Stewardship team has made a major push to ensure that the photo points from the original baseline documents are mapped in GIS using our tablet. By doing so, future monitors and volunteers will have an easier time observing and reporting on the condition of conservation easements each year.
The number of photo points in DLC’s easements ranges from just two to more than a hundred across protected properties ranging from 7 acres to 3,654 acres. While the effort to digitize all photo points can seem daunting, the support from landowners, rangers, and property managers have made the process significantly easier. Their eagerness to discuss and walk around the property with us has not only simplified the work, but led way to some of the most rewarding experiences this season. Working alongside the people who contain unparalleled knowledge of the land has reinforced how much care has gone and will continue to go into protecting these places in perpetuity.
The effort to digitize the photo points has also been made possible by DLC’s committed monitoring volunteers. Our volunteers’ excitement to assist the Stewardship team during monitoring visits was instrumental, contributing over 100 hours of volunteer support to the program. From bushwhacking through Gambel oak to matching twenty-year-old photo points across changing landscapes, we deeply appreciate all our volunteers’ good spirits and commitment to stewardship.
As the monitoring season winds down, the effort to digitize the photo points has proved rewarding. Individual points recorded across 82 properties now form a growing collage scattered across Douglas County and reaching into neighboring Elbert and Jefferson counties. Together, these points represent more than just the photo points collected this summer. They represent an ongoing commitment across the region to conserve and steward the natural character, habitats, ecosystems, and open spaces of Colorado’s Central Front Range.
