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Although the Municipal Land Use Law technically gives New Jersey municipalities the right to protect biodiversity and habitats, habitat conservation, endangered species, and biodiversity are barely mentioned in only a handful of town ordinances around the state, and studies have shown that municipalities in this state generally do not regulate land with this purpose. However, there are some cases worth nothing in other parts of the country.
Monroe County, Pennsylvania
(This case study has been modified from Alternative Futures for Monroe County, Pennsylvania: A Case Study in Applying Ecological Principles, by Carl Steinitz and Susan McDowell. The article appeared in Applying Ecological Principles to Land Management, edited by Virginia H. Dale and Richard A. Haeuber.)
Monroe County, in the Pennsylvania Pocono mountains, is the second-fastest-growing county in Pennsylvania. An estimated 90,000 additional people are expected to locate there by the year 2020, doubling the current population. Realizing the need to balance conservation and development, the County teamed up with the U.S. EPA and the Harvard Graduate School of Design to study the area and enable the county to visualize the ramifications of its land-use policies, development patterns, and transportation strategies and their subsequent impact on the conservation of its natural diversity and landscape features. The study also considered the realities of the State's Home Rule (NJ has a similar Home Rule policy).
The study was called for because the social processes like population growth, transportation advances, and the economy of land use and ownership were changing at a rapid rate, far outstripping the rates of change of geologic or biologic processes. From a planning perspective, 25 years is a long-term horizon for decisions and investments; instead of the hundreds of years involved in the successional change of a forest, the study group was faced with large changes in the built environment occurring in a decade or two. It was clear that, to preserve the landscape elements that change at geologic time scales, action must focus on the forces acting at the greatest rate of change.
The EPA has identified Monroe County as one of the areas of highest biodiversity in the Middle Atlantic Region of the United States. One strategy to keep plants and animals off the Endangered Species List is to preserve areas of existing species richness as a part of landscape planning rather than to engage in crisis management after a species has been identified and threatened. This strategy meshes with the ESA principles and guidelines to preserve rare landscape elements and associated species. The biodiversity evaluation for Monroe County is based on estimates of species richness and was derived from interpreted satellite data of ground cover and a model of habitat capability.
Of special importance to Monroe County is the black bear. Because of this, bear habitat, which consists of wetlands and low shrub areas, was included as a special concern in the biologic-landscape analysis. The County worked with local experts and used GIS to combine all known bear habitats with all similar habitat areas in Monroe County. The analysis resulted in a patchwork habitat pattern, which must be connected in a network of movement corridors. Most of the wetland habitat is regulated, but the linking corridors, which are essential for bear survival, are seriously threatened by development pressure. The resulting pattern identified key areas needed to maintain the bear's existence. They were typically stream corridors, wetlands, large and diverse habitat areas, and connection corridors for wildlife movement.
Another source of biologic analysis was the Natural Areas Inventory, which was previously prepared by the state and county. For example, the pine woodland on the Pocono Plateau has been identified as the only mesic pine barren in the world that is partially dry and partially wet.
Much concern was placed on the preservation of plant and animal species, and the study noted that the game fish, large mammals, low-lying vegetation, and forests play an important role in the economic and social life of the county. For example, the bear habitats not only allow for the survival of the species, but these same ecological features also contribute to good water quality, flood retention, and recreational opportunities in the region.
Six possible alternative futures were derived from alternative policy/plan actions. For each alternative, the 2020 land-use pattern and a computer-produced aerial view of the future landscape are shown. None of the alternatives studied was designed with the intention of limiting Monroe County's growth or limiting expected population growth.
The study was useful to the County because it encouraged land managers to examine the ecological impacts of their local decisions within a regional context. The case study also illustrates the difficulty in implementing this principle. The public and private decisions that accumulate to form the 2020 alternatives are almost all local, because the level of government responsible for land-use planning in Pennsylvania is the township and the borough. The allocation of future land use in the six alternatives was guided by local zoning, sewer, road, and conservation proposals.
The scenarios that the study designed provided the county with visions of a future with more environmental degradation, traffic congestion, and fragmented habitats, as well as alternatives. As a result, the studies inspired changes. Recommendations from the project encouraged:
The study integrated natural-resource, demographic, land use, infrastructure, and fiscal data, which gave the county an opportunity to see into the future based on existing conditions and projected trends.
- Direct growth and development along the existing infrastructure corridors and centers of population
- Environmentally friendly economic enterprises to locate in the county
- Recycle vacant and underutilized buildings and sites
- Implementation of the Open Space Policy, which specifies additional lands to be protected or added to the open-space inventory
- Improving the visual character of the county through landscaping and signage-improvement measures
Sourlands, New Jersey
The Sourland Mountains cover an area of about 60 square miles in central New Jersey. The region is geologically unique in the area and, unlike most of central New Jersey, remain largely undeveloped and remain forested. They now comprise the largest contiguous forest in central New Jersey, and because they have not been cleared, many of the plant and animal species that were present hundreds of years ago still exist.
However, there is an increasing threat of development in the Sourlands. Because of this, a coalition of environmental and municipal government organizations formed to preserve the mountain habitat. The coalition includes the Sourlands Regional Citizens Planning Council, the Delaware and Raritan Greenway, Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, West Amwell Township, and Hopewell Township.
The coalition applied for, and was awarded a $150,000 Smart Growth Grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA). The grant provides funds for a regional planning project aimed at preserving the character and natural resources of the Sourlands Mountains area. DCA's GIS Center will conduct the GIS work for the project. The Sourlands Planning Council will coordinate the project in partnership with the Townships of Hopewell, East Amwell, West Amwell, Hillsborough, and Montgomery and the counties of Mercer, Hunterdon, and Somerset. Banisch Associattes, Inc., a planning consultant firm, will provide planning services, and the Delaware and Raritan Greenway will assist in prioritizing preservation areas.
The project has three primary goals:
While this project has only recently begun, it is an interesting case study because it is a good example of multiple municipalities and organizations thinking about the region-wide impacts of development and making an effort to work together to preserve the area's natural resources.
- Characterization of the area, including an evaluation of environmental resources and critical habitats. Existing guidance, ordinance, and regulations will also be reviewed.
- Evaluation of land use trends, build-out analyses, and evaluation of the likely impact of development on the Sourlands' water, environmental, and cultural resources.
- Development of a comprehensive management plan with recommendations to preserve natural and cultural resources and encourage consistent land use strategies in the Sourland Mountains for local, county, and state government.