Strategic Conservation Planning

A Framework for Understanding Conservation Development and Its Ecological Implications

2007
Organizations/Sources: BioScience
This article provides a review, analysis, and ecological critique of the four principal types of conservation development: (1) conservation buyer projects, (2) conservation and limited development projects, (3) conservation subdivisions, and (4) conservation-oriented planned development projects.
Last Modified
Mar 09, 2011
Viewed
4654 times

A Methodology for Valuing Town Conservation Land

1998
Organizations/Sources: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
This paper presents a methodology for rating existing or potential conservation land according to ten criteria weighted to reflect the needs of the local community in which the land is located. The ratings may be used to determine priority for public acquisition.
Last Modified
Feb 27, 2024
Viewed
4060 times

Evaluating & Selecting Conservation Projects

2007
Organizations/Sources: Land Trust Alliance
This is the second title in the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Curriculum series. Learn how to determine what land or easement transactions are appropriate for your organization and go through the steps in planning a successful project. Learn how to develop and apply sound project selection criteria; document the public benefit of transactions; create customized acquisition criteria and project planning forms; and so much more.
Last Modified
Nov 05, 2015
Viewed
5103 times

Growing with Green Infrastructure

2008
Organizations/Sources: Heritage Conservancy
This twenty page manual defines "green infratructure" and lays out a six step process for a community that wants to protect the critical open spaces needed for ecological, economic and human health.
Last Modified
Nov 05, 2015
Viewed
5758 times

Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment: A Comprehensive Strategy for Land Conservation and Restoration

2003
Authors: Ted Weber
Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment is a tool developed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to help identify and rank areas of greatest statewide ecological importance as well as those at greatest risk of loss to development. The methods developed are being applied at the multi-state, state, regional and local government levels to guide conservation efforts.
Last Modified
Oct 14, 2015
Viewed
5711 times

New York-New Jersey Highlands Regional Assessment Study

2002
This report addresses the implications of continued changes in land use for the natural resources of the New York-New Jersey Highlands. It concludes that land use change is transforming the Highlands directly through land conversion and indirectly through habitat fragmentation. The multiple parts of the report can be downloaded from the web page.
Last Modified
Nov 05, 2015
Viewed
3801 times

PA Rivers Registry - Online Rivers Conservation Plans

The PA Rivers Registry website contains links to full-length, on-line versions of PA Rivers Conservation Plans approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Each plan is a locally-developed, watershed-based land and water conservation strategy that includes maps and inventories showing zoning, land use patterns, existing natural, historic and other relevant resources, analysis of the current condition of land and water resources, descriptions of threats to local land and water resources.
Last Modified
Nov 05, 2015
Viewed
4408 times

Prioritization of Conservation Resources

2017
Authors: Nate Lotze and John Rogers
Prioritization tools help land trusts and municipalities make better decisions about where to focus conservation efforts and how to allocate limited resources. (Print version of CT Guide)
Last Modified
Nov 14, 2017
Viewed
2860 times

Prioritizing Implementation of Important Bird Areas

2008
Authors: Bryan Byrnes and John Rogers
The Important Bird Area (IBA) Program in the United States has grown to include over 2100 sites (National Audubon Society 2008), leading to the inevitable challenge of how to advance conservation at numerous sites with limited resources.
Last Modified
May 29, 2019
Viewed
4554 times

Protecting Open Space and Ourselves: Reducing Flood Risk in the Gulf of Mexico Through Strategic Land Conservation

2016
Organizations/Sources: The Nature Conservancy
Study identifying watersheds on the Gulf Coast vulnerable to flooding and the most important land in those watersheds to protect in order to reduce the risk of flooding and damage to communities.
Last Modified
Feb 27, 2024
Viewed
1455 times

Regional Vulnerability Assessment Program

2000
Organizations/Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program is an approach to regional scale, priority-setting assessment being developed by EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). ReVA will expand cooperation among the laboratories and centers of ORD by integrating research on human and environmental health, ecorestoration, landscape analysis, regional exposure and process modeling, problem formulation, and ecological risk guidelines.
Last Modified
Nov 05, 2015
Viewed
5054 times

Saginaw Bay Integrated Watershed Prioritization and Management System

This paper summarizes a set of prioritization, targeting, and optimization developments at the state, watershed, and sub-watershed levels for selecting specific conservation practices.
Last Modified
Aug 16, 2011
Viewed
3949 times

Schuylkill Priority Lands Strategy Development Threat Assessment

2008
The Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Strategy is a model that recognizes the land-water connection and identifies the highest priority lands to protect. GIS modeling was used to identify areas within the Schuylkill Watershed that are the most important to preserve for both ecological and drinking water source protection, further defined by development threat over the next 20 years. This website is designed to make the data, methodology, results and maps of the Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Strategy easily accessible to open space planners, land trust staff, municipal officials, funders and others for use in making strategic open space protection decisions.
Last Modified
Apr 14, 2017
Viewed
5792 times

Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Tool

This website is designed to make the data, methodology, results and maps of the Schuylkill Watershed Priority Lands Strategy easily accessible to open space planners, land trust staff, municipal officials, funders and others for use in making strategic open space protection decisions.
Last Modified
Feb 27, 2024
Viewed
4136 times

Smart Conservation

Organizations/Sources: Natural Lands Trust
SMARTConservationTM is a conservation planning tool for regional assessments. Policy-makers and conservation practitioners can use it to make educated decisions about prioritizing conservation projects. The tool evaluates a site’s ecological assets, conservation potential, and development threat using science-based criteria developed by the region’s best aquatic specialists, botanists, community planners, conservationists, herpetologists, ornithologists, and mammologists.
Last Modified
Aug 03, 2017
Viewed
6226 times

Smart Growth for Clean Water

2003
This 66 page publication is designed to help communities address the water quality impacts of sprawl. Smart growth is emerging as a key strategy for clean water. Topics covered include profiles of smarth gowth for clean water innovation and the top 10 actions for advancing smart growth for clean water.
Last Modified
Nov 19, 2015
Viewed
3986 times

Synthesis of U.S. Geological Survey Science for the Chesapeake Ecosystem and Implications for Environmental Management

2007
Organizations/Sources: United States Geologic Service
The purpose of this report is to present a synthesis of the USGS Chesapeake Bay science related to the Chesapeake Bay Program's 2001–06 goals and their implications for environmental management. The report provides USGS findings that address the science needs of the Chesapeake Bay Program's restoration goals and includes summaries of land-use change, water quality in the watershed (including nutrients, sediment, and contaminants), long-term changes in climate and estuarine water quality, estuary habitats (focusing on submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and tidal wetlands), and factors affecting fish and waterbird populations.
Last Modified
Jan 05, 2016
Viewed
4038 times

Threat Assessment for Smart Conservation

2003
The Development Threat Assessment for SmartConservation, which analyzed the 5-county area surrounding Philadelphia, was compiled by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission for the Natural Lands between 2002 and 2003. The data used was already partially or completely available, allowing the completion of an analysis that would have otherwise been too costly and time-consuming. Five subcomponents of data were used: trend friction map, employment center travel time analysis, building activity, vulnerability index & sewer service areas.
Last Modified
Jun 27, 2017
Viewed
5769 times

Virginia Conservation Lands Needs Assessment: Virginia Vulnerability Model

2006
The Virginia Vulnerability Model maps predicted growth in Virginia, which can indicate potential land use change to an urban or suburban use.
Last Modified
Oct 20, 2009
Viewed
3519 times

Virginia Development Vulnerability Model

2014
This web page gives an overview of the Virginia Development Vulnerability Model, which was developed in an effort to map predicted growth in Virginia. This model can be integrated with other datasets, such as the VCLNA Cultural Model or Ecological Model, to identify which cultural and ecological cores are most at risk to growth pressures. The model may be used to help guide local land use planners in the development of their comprehensive plans in an effort to control growth and subsequent development within their jurisdiction. It allows users to look at the landscape as a whole and assess how growth may impact the environment, what remaining farmland or timberland is available and how water quality will be affected before more development is introduced.
Last Modified
Apr 14, 2017
Viewed
7188 times