Concurrent Session L. New approaches to integrating wetland conservation into land-use planning

Afternoon session

* 2 AICP CM credits are available for this session.

Conserving wetlands using innovative approaches that foster both economic and ecological vitality through use of new regulatory tools, new partnerships and stakeholder initiatives, models of resilient landscapes, and any other innovative approaches to wetland protection.

Session Co-chairs:
Aram Calhoun
Professor, Wildlife, Fisheries & Conservation Biology and Mitchell Center, UMaine

Elizabeth Hertz
Planning Consultant

Overview:

This session will offer short introductory talks (10-15 mins) by each of the panelists followed by a facilitated discussion of the session topic.

Panelists:

• Alex Mas, The Nature Conservancy
• Kristen Puryear, Maine Natural Areas Program
• Jeremy Bell, The Nature Conservancy
• Jane Ballard, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
• Liz Hertz, Planning Consultant
• Aram Calhoun, Wildlife, Fisheries & Conservation Biology, UMaine

The Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program
Alex Mas, The Nature Conservancy; maineresources@tnc.org

The Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program (MNRCP) awards competitive grants to projects that restore and protect high priority aquatic resources throughout Maine. MNRCP was created to manage the allocation of funds collected through Maine’s In Lieu Fee Compensation Program, a voluntary program that allows entities impacting natural resources, primarily wetlands, to make a payment directly to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as an alternative to traditional mitigation methods. MNRCP is a potential funding source for a range of preservation and restoration projects throughout Maine. Any Maine conservation organization, land trust, city, town, or public agency may be eligible for a grant from MNRCP.

Integrating Sea Level Rise into Land-use Planning
Kristen Puryear, Maine Natural Areas Program, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; kristen.puryear@maine.gov

Maine’s tidal marshes provide vital habitat for a variety of animals and plants and important functions including mitigating storm surge, filtering pollutants, and supporting fisheries and recreation. And yet the potential for sea level rise, along with existing coastal development patterns, have made tidal marshes one of the most threatened habitat types in Maine. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is predicting an average sea level rise of between 28 cm and 98 cm by 2100 (IPCC 2013). If conditions are ideal, salt marshes have the ability to “migrate” landward in equilibrium with sea level rise-induced changes in shoreline position (U.S. EPA 1995). Tidal marshes will either be inundated by rising sea level or migrate to new areas where geomorphic conditions permit.

The Maine Natural Areas Program (MNAP) has recently issued new data sets based on the Maine Geological Survey’s sea level rise scenario modeling. MNAP’s Marsh Migration and Coastal Undeveloped Blocks data layers are intended to help inform land management planning to support future tidal marsh migration on multiple scales. These new products highlight currently undeveloped areas where marshes have the potential to expand, and landscapes that can support marsh habitats and valued ecosystem services.

Marsh migration data will be reviewed, and examples of integration or application of these ecological data into decision-making will be shared.

The Maine Coastal Resilience Tool
Jeremy Bell, The Nature Conservancy; jbell@tnc.org

Coastal wetlands play a critical role in habitat for wildlife and ecosystem services for people, while also bolstering the natural defenses for our coastal communities in the face of sea level rise and other impacts of climate change. Maine’s coastal communities need tools and assistance to better plan for uncertainty. The Nature Conservancy is working with partners to build a coastal resilience tool for Maine based on a template (www.coastalresilience.org) already in use in more than a dozen places around North America and the Caribbean. When complete, this tool will help stakeholders such as state and local governments, land trusts, and private citizens plan not only for salt marsh conservation in the face of sea level rise, but would help communities plan more effectively around coastal infrastructure security. The presenter will describe this work, as well as planned outreach to help communities create solutions for the future.

Let’s Talk Wetland Benefits – New Approaches to Land-Use Decisions, Using Ecosystem Service Information and NOAA Digital Coast Tools
Jane Ballard, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve; jane.ballard@nerra.org

Already, studies and tools abound that value the benefits of wetland conservation, but the integration into land-use planning is lacking. This presentation explores the disconnects between the availability, need, and use of existing ecosystem service valuation information. Determining what decision-makers need, and can use, is the basis for my NOAA Digital Coast fellowship with the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association.

I will present examples of current findings including identified priority areas of communities and how linkages with wetland benefits can address these priorities in specific land-use decisions. Examples will be provided outlining when and how the valuation information and tools fit into the three components of the decision-making process. Through this I will identify gaps and potential barriers to use, including difficulties with applying the tools at relevant scales.

This will give the audience an idea of what biophysical and economic information is already available and will highlight the applicable tools to better inform and support conservation and coastal management decisions.

The Maine Vernal Pool Special Area Management Plan
Aram Calhoun, Wildlife, Fisheries & Conservation Biology, UMaine; calhoun@maine.edu
Elizabeth Hertz, Planning Consultant; hertzmaine@gmail.com

The Maine Vernal Pool Special Area Management Plan (VP SAMP) was approved for use by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in September, 2016. This innovative mitigation tool is the outcome of a six-year stakeholder process during which regulators, ecologists, developers, planners, municipalities and land trusts worked together.  It represents a unique public/private partnership focused on landscape-scale conservation of vernal pools and the adjacent amphibian post-breeding habitat while also providing benefits for developers, municipalities, land trusts, and local landowners.

The VP SAMP is voluntary mitigation mechanism for impacts to vernal pools that allows a municipality to collect a fee for impacts to vernal pools in designated growth areas in exchange for conservation of vernal pools and surrounding undeveloped areas embedded in the rural landscape. The municipality transfers the fee to a land conservation organization who undertakes the conservation of vernal pools based on the Vernal Pool Conservation Criteria found in the VP SAMP at a rate of 2 pools and 70 acres for each vernal pool impacted.