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Policy Tools For Smart Growth In New England, New England Environmental Finance Center

Smart Growth

Across New England communities have been experiencing a rapid outward surge of development away from our community and downtown centers. Effects of sprawl include a loss of wildlife habitat, farm and timber lands; increased costs of community services and higher taxes; auto-dependency, longer commutes, and increased congestion; increases in air and water pollution; a sedentary lifestyle and increased obesity; and losses to one’s sense of place and social ties.

State-level responses to sprawl have surfaced throughout New England in recent years. This report describes 11 examples of these responses, representing all six New England states and a diversity of recent …

Realizing The Potential Of Family Forests: Tools To Facilitate Habitat Conservation, Drue Deberry, Julie H. Moore

11th Triennial National Wildlife and Fisheries Extension Specialists Conference (2006)

The management of family-owned forests is discussed in light of conservation issues and development pressures. Safe Harbor Agreements and Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances are voluntary tools that can be used to protect conservation values, particularly habitat for threatened or endangered species. A case history of forest management practices to sustain the gopher tortoise in the Southeast is given.

Sage-Grouse Restoration Project: Evaluating The Effects Of The Farm Bill Conservation Practices On Sage-Grouse, Terry A. Messmer

11th Triennial National Wildlife and Fisheries Extension Specialists Conference (2006)

The Office of Management and Budget is demanding increased accountability of funds used to implement conservation practices and strategies. Although current Farm Bill policy provides priority funding for projects that are designed to enhance species conservation, it does not allocate funds to conduct the evaluations needed to document the effect of conservation practices on wildlife. The Sage-Grouse Restoration Project (SGRP) is a cooperative agreement with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), designed specifically to facilitate evaluations to determine the effect of conservation practices and technologies implemented under the 2002 Farm Bill on restoring or enhancing sage-grouse habitat on private lands. …

Amherst Ma: A New Village Plan For Atkins Corner, Maggie Jones, Richard Barringer

Planning

The case study describes a successful smart growth initiative in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, at an intersection known as Atkins Corner. The initiative grew from two motivating factors: the necessity of realigning Route 116, a major north-to-south artery through the town, to decrease traffic accidents at the intersection and improve pedestrian safety; and a desire on the part of Hampshire College and the Town to create a village center at the intersection. Through a consensus-building process involving key town officials, Hampshire College, neighbors, and the design firm of Dodson Associates, agreement on the project was reached with local stakeholders …