Lancaster County Conservancy Long Range Protection Plan

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Lancaster County ConservancyLong Range
Protection Plan
2009 Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference
Prepared for
Lancaster County Conservancy117 South West End
AvenueLancaster, Pennsylvania 17608
Prepared by
RETTEW Associates, Inc.3020 Columbia
AvenueLancaster, Pennsylvania 17603
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Project Purpose

• To develop a process of how to evaluate what
  properties are important to the Lancaster County
  Conservancy for the protection of natural
  environments.

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GOALS

• Provide a balance between open space
  development
• Define Identify Natural Gems
• Establish Priority Protection Areas
• Identify Potential Green Infrastructure
• Initiate a Preservation Partnering Structure with
  Other Entities
• Inform County Municipal Planning

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Lancaster County Growth Boundaries
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Landscape Perspective
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Parcel Based Perspective
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Process Components
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Partnering Tool (database)

• Microsoft Access database to record and track
  information on parcel basis
• Contains information of protected lands by other
  organizations (i.e. Pennsylvania Game Commission)
• Includes protected land and targeted lands
• Identifies potential partnership opportunities

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Partners of the Conservancy

• Contacted over 100 agencies/organizations
• Lancaster County Planning Commission
• PADEP/DCNR/PAFBC/PAGC/USFWS/PHMC
• Natural Lands Trust / 7 Conservancies
• 7 Colleges
• 29 Watershed Organizations
• 10 Historical Societies
• Trout Unlimited
• 60 Municipalities
• PA Audubon Society
• Chesapeake Bay Foundation

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Development of the Partnering Tool
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Process Components
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Protection Tool (GIS Analysis)

• Link to Lancaster Counties GIS Database

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Protection Tool

• Identifies Natural Gems using GIS
• Based on 7 environmental attributes of importance
  to the Conservancy
• 65 parcels identified 12,133 acres

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Defining Natural Gems

• Step 1 Identify Important Attributes
• Develop Rating System
• Step 2 Build GIS Datasets and Test
• Step 3 Run GIS Analysis and Obtain Scores
• Step 4 Run QA/QC Data
• Step 5 Analyze GIS Output and Determine
• Gem Cut Off
• Step 6 Run Final Analysis

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Natural Gem Rating
Attribute Unique 7 Points Above Average 5 points Average 3 points Below Average 1 point N/A O Points
Water bodies Rated Exceptional Value and/or wild trout waters Rated High Quality and/or stocked trout waters and/or wild bass waters Simply rated as warm or coldwater fishery Impaired trumps HQ No water resources
Wetland Wetlands with PNDI hits NA Common wetland community NA No wetland present
Forestland 200 acres 50 199 acres 20 49 acres 1 19 acres 0 0.99 acres
Grassland Grassland with PNDI hit NA Common plant community/grassland NA No grasslands present
Geologic Features Rare, fossil beds, caves, cliff community NA NA NA Nothing to observe
Plants Greater than 3 species of state listed concern 1 or 2 species of state listed concern Common plant community NA No plant community or species of concern
Animal (insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish and birds) Greater than 2 species of state listed concern and/or specialized habitat elements such as rookery or cave 1 species of state listed concern and/or highly diverse habitat supporting diverse animal community Semi-diverse habitat supporting common animal species no rare, threatened or endangered species NA No habitat or species of concern
Adjacent to other preserved tracts Adjacent to other Conservancy tracts Adjacent to State lands such as Gamelands Co. Parks All other semi-private preserves NA Not adjacent to other preserved tracts
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Example of Cocalico Creek Watershed
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Priority Protection Focus Areas

• Smoothed data to define large, contiguous
  regions, or clusters
• Clusters must have a score of 20 or higher for
  majority of area
• Must have an area of at least 15 square miles
• 10 areas were identified

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Priority Protection Focus Areas
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Furnace Run Focus Area Close-up
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Implementation Successes

• Ground Truthing
• Conservancy Needs to Determine Implementation
  Strategy
• Natural Heritage Inventory data update
• Weighting Development and Analysis
• Grant Infrastructure Plan Development
• Threat of Loss Analysis
• Partnering with County/TNC/Municipalities/Others

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Who will use data/tool?

• Can be used by multiple users by changing
  attributes or importance of attributes
• Similar tool could be developed for watershed
  groups, county planning commissions, and the State