November 2013 EVALUATING AND CONSERVING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE: A Practitioner’s Guide North Carolina By Karen Firehock EVALUATING AND CONSERVING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE ACROSS THE LANDSCAPE: A Practitioner’s Guide By Karen Firehock, Chapter Seven by Charles Kline The Green Infrastructure Center Inc. © 2013 The Green Infrastructure Center Inc. All rights reserved. Published in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Full guide by Karen Firehock, Chapter Seven by Charles Kline Manuscript Editor: Tim Lewis Select Illustrations: Reed Muehlman Book Design: Whitney Glick Funding: Funding for this project was provided in part through an Urban and Community Forestry Grant from the North Carolina Forest Service, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, Southern Region. The Blue Moon Fund supported chapters one through four of the guide. The North Carolina Natural Heritage Program also provided review and technical advice for the guide. To order copies of the book direct from the publisher contact: Green Infrastructure Center Inc. P.O. Box 317 Charlottesville VA 22902 434-244-0322 www.gicinc.org This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re- sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the GIC in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without prior written permission from the GIC. First Virginia Edition published December 2012, New York Edition published April 2013, Arkansas Edition published October 2013 and the North Carolina Edition published November 2013. ISBN: 978-0-9893103-2-1 PREFACE This guide is based upon seven years of research and field tests by the Green Infrastructure Center Inc. (GIC) that sought to evaluate, prioritize and map natural and cultural assets. The GIC is a nonprofit organization which serves federal, state and local government agencies, conservation groups, land trusts and other associations and helps them to make better informed decisions about how to balance growth and development with conservation of their highest quality natural assets. The GIC seeks to insure that land-use decisions about what to conserve and how to do it are well informed by the best possible data and objective information. Its overarching goal is to focus development into those patterns that maximize resource conservation and economic efficiency. This guide is intended to help people make land management decisions which recognize the interdependence of healthy people, strong economies and a vibrant, intact and biologically diverse landscape. Green infrastructure consists of our environmental assets – which GIC also calls ‘natural assets’ – and they should be included in planning processes. Planning to conserve or restore green infrastructure ensures that communities can be vibrant, healthful and resilient. Having clean air and water, as well as nature-based recreation, attractive views and abundant local food, depends upon considering our environmental assets as part of everyday planning. While there are other books and guides about the benefits of green infrastruc- ture planning, this guide provides practical steps for creating green infrastruc- ture maps and plans for a community. It draws from twelve field tests GIC has conducted over the past six years to learn how to evaluate and conserve natural resources. These field tests were conducted in a diversity of ecological and po- litical conditions, at multiple scales, and in varied development patterns – from wildlands and rural areas to suburbs, cities and towns. During these field tests, the GIC determined three things: • How to create green infrastructure maps that highlight the most significant resources for conservation. • Steps to integrate those maps into local and regional plans. • How to communicate the importance of this work to local officials, plan- ners, developers and others. While we also drew upon outside case studies, the steps and advice offered here are the GIC’s own interpretation of the most effective ways to evaluate and con- serve natural assets. We hope our advice and practical tips can help you become even more effective in your work. 1 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Karen Firehock Karen Firehock is the author of this guide. She is the executive director and co-founder of the GIC and is on the adjunct faculty in Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. In 1999, she became certified as a mediator to help groups realize common visions for their environmental plans. She also served as the national Save Our Streams program director at the Izaak Walton League of America, where she directed stream and wetland conservation and education programs. She has been the recipient of numerous local, state and national awards for her work, such as a National Greenways Award, a Renew America Award, a United Nations Environment Programme Award and a Virginia River Conservationist of the Year Award, among others. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources Management from the University of Maryland and a Master of Planning Degree from the University of Virginia. Charles Kline Mr. Kline is the Geographic Information Systems Analyst and Modeler at the Green Infrastructure Center. He is a geographer and urban and environmental planner. He manages GIC’s mapping and land planning and provides technical assistance to local governments, regional planning agencies, communities, land trusts and conservation groups. He has worked in Arkansas, New York, North Carolina and Virginia. Prior to coming to GIC, Mr. Kline was a data management specialist at the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), where he processed and controlled the quality of field data for DCR databases, conducted literature reviews and case studies, and assisted field biologists with site surveys, including species diversity transect lines and plots, canopy cover analysis and element occurrence (rare species) evaluation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from the Department of Environmental Studies and also in Geography and the Environment from the Department of Geography at the University of Richmond. He holds a Masters Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. SPECIAL THANKS The GIC wishes to extend special thanks to the many partners and colleagues without whom this guide would not be possible. While we cannot thank everyone who has supported the GIC – there have been many – we want to specifically acknowledge the GIC’s past and present Board of Directors and the states of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and New York who were the first recipients of this planning guide. This guide and its accompanying training program were funded by the Blue Moon Fund and the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Region. These groups also funded several of the field tests. Other field tests were funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Healthy Watersheds Initiative, the Chesapeake Bay Program, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the Robins Foundation, the Oak Hill Fund, the Altria Group and others. Each state chapter has been funded by its respective state. These partners, as well as community members of the regions, counties and towns in which we worked, have made this planning guide possible. 2 REVIEWERS Jason Bulluck, PhD, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage. Patti Erwin, Urban and Community Forester, Arkansas Forestry Commission Bill Jenkins, Director, Office of Environmental Information and Analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III. Buck Kline, Director, Forestland Conservation Division, Virginia DOF Alan Moore, Regional Urban Forestry Specialist, North Carolina Forest Service Paul Revell, Urban and Community Forestry Coordinator, Virginia DOF Richard Roth, PhD, Professor and Chair, Geospatial Science Department, and Director, Radford University Environmental Center, Department of Geography. Nancy Stairs, Urban Forestry Program Coordinator, North Carolina Forest Service Allison (Schwarz) Weakley, NC Natural Heritage Program, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources 3 INTRODUCTION Imagine a world where clean water is plentiful, air in our towns and cities is clean and fresh, native species of plants and animals are abundant, access to out- door recreation is plentiful, natural beauty and verdant landscapes envelop our communities, historic landscapes are well preserved and protected and locally grown food is easily accessible. And imagine that these resources are available to everyone, regardless of income or social status. While this vision may seem difficult to achieve, it is not impossible. However, it requires greater awareness and more thoughtful attention to how we plan our communities and care for our natural resources. We can have communities that are healthful and people that are healthy – but only if we plan for it. And the time to do that is now. As far back as 1863, George Perkins Marsh, long considered the father of America’s conservation movement, cautioned in his book Man and Nature that, “The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest inhabitant…[and]…to threaten the depravation, barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the species.”