Natural Resource Inventory: a tool to conserve Natural Areas and Wildlife in your community

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Natural Resource Inventory a tool to conserve
Natural Areas and Wildlife in your community
Karen Strong Cornell University NYS DEC Hudson
River Estuary Program
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Talk Outline

• Why ecological landscape important
• Which natural resources
• Inventorying Natural Areas and Wildlife
• Examples

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• Ecological landscapes are natural systems that
  support natural areas and wildlife.

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People depend on the same ecological landscape

• Clean Water
• Clean Air
• Food
• Quality of Life
• Recreation

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Connections maintain Ecological landscapes
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When connections are broken, it affects natural
areas and wildlife
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As well as people
3 BR, Forest Vu May have Added Feature Lyme
disease Risk The New York Times, April 3,
2003 Study Links Lyme Disease with
Sprawl Poughkeepsie Journal, January 29,
2003 Car-Deer Accidents on the Rise The
Journal News, October 16, 2004 How Sprawl and
Cars Create an Era of Abundant Roadkill Wall
Street Journal, August 1, 2002
Sprawl Adds to Drought, Study Says The Los
Angeles Times, August 29, 2002 The Forgotten
Forest Product Water The New York Times,
January 3, 2003 Fixing water problems comes at
soaring cost The Journal News, December 14, 2004
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Natural Resource Inventory

• Steep slopes
• Water supply
• Bedrock Geology
• Protected Lands
• Agricultural Lands
• Wetlands and streams
• Floodplains
• Natural Areas and Wildlife

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Natural Areas and Wildlife

• Identify Town wide (or watershed, county)
• use existing info to identify ecological
  landscape for plans and zoning at municipal scale
• Identify at site scale
• New surveys to address any issue at on a
  particular site

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Identify Your Ecological Landscape

• Known locations of rare plants, rare animals,
  significant ecosystems
• Wetlands
• Streams, corridors, and floodplains
• Significant Forest Resources
• Open grassland or agricultural areas
• Species-specific info
• Local colleges or naturalists
• Public meetings

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Data resources available from DEC
Known Important Areas
NY Natural Heritage Program
Amphibian Reptile Atlas
NY Department of Environmental Conservation
Breeding Bird Atlas
NY Department of Environmental Conservation
Moodna Creek Watershed
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Orange County Open Space Plan
Orange County Planning Orange County Land
Trust The Nature Conservancy Wildlife
Conservation Society
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Orange County Open Space Plan
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Orange County Open Space Plan
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Town of Blooming Grove
Comprehensive Plan

• Project review and design
• Open space conservation
• Overlay district
• Site surveys
• Maintain connections
• Town-wide biological inventory

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• Habitat assessment guidelines
• Provides guidance on habitat evaluations to be
  performed by applicants to the planning board
• Fosters cooperative relationship between
  Planning Board, Citizen Advisory Committees and
  Project Applicants
• Streamlines site plan review process
• Protects towns watershed and significant
  biological resources

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Town of Milan Habitat Assessment Guidelines
Town of Milan Planning Board Greenplan Hudsonia,
Ltd
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Town of Milan www.milan-ny.gov
Habitat Assessment Guidelines

• done early in development review process
• reduce conflicts
• streamline environmental review
• help planning board and CAC better evaluate
  impacts by defining how the applicant should
  complete the assessment
• Identify significant habitats using approved
  method
• evaluate habitat quality
• standardized reporting

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Take home points
Ecological landscapes provide many community
benefits Defining the ecological landscape is
essential to conserving its community benefits
Communities in NYS are already doing this
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Karen Strong Hudson River Estuary Biodiversity
Outreach Coordinator NY Coop. Fish and Wildlife
Research Unit, Cornell University NYS Department
of Environmental Conservation Hudson River
Estuary Program klstrong_at_gw.dec.state.ny.us 518.40
2.8860