Help Identify Plainfield's Natural Resources! Wed. May 6th, 7-9pm
The Plainfield Conservation Commission needs your help!
Plainfield's Town Plan calls for zoning regulations which insure the town’s natural resources are protected. We are attempting to establish what significant natural communities exist in Plainfield, where they are, where to maintain connected networks of natural cover for them, and how to prioritize our regulatory and non-regulatory protection efforts.
The Plainfield Conservation Commission is holding a public forum on Wed. May 6th, as an integral part of the Natural Resources inventory project. The first forum will include both:
- a presentation of preliminary natural resource analyses and, - an opportunity for attendees to share their knowledge of area natural resources.
We will provide large town maps displayed on tables, and invite people to mark locations of natural features, species, or other relevant information.
We need help identifying:
• Forests & Flora mature forests of any kind, big &/or old trees, unusual forests or unusual tree species, rare plants
• Wildlife & Animals Important wildlife areas for different species, wildlife/animal sightings of note, critical wildlife habitat, such as vernal pools for salamanders
• Wetlands and Water Wetlands of any size, bogs or peatlands, Vernal or temporary pools (which may dry up in the summer), seeps, springs, natural pond shores relatively free or human intrusions; wild stream reaches; meandering/slackwater stream segments
• Physical/Geological Landscape Features Cliffs/significant ledges, waterfalls and cascades, ravines, stand out/unusual rocks, boulders, blocks or boulder fields, talus slopes, unusual/distinct soils or deposits: clays, sandy/gravelly, mucks & peats, glacial features: kame terraces, eskers, fluvial, lacustrine
This forum is being held Wed., May 6th, from 7:00 - 9:00pm at the Town Hall (Plainfield Opera House) Rt. 2
A little history on this project:
Plainfield’s town plan was revised over the past two years and readopted in February 2014. Several parts of the town plan specify the need for an inventory and map of significant natural communities. The plan also calls for zoning regulations that insure the town’s natural resources are protected.
Plainfield’s zoning regulations are being reviewed by the planning commission preliminary to a revision process that will bring them into closer agreement with the new town plan, including the specificity now required by the 2008 Jam Golf decision.
We want to plan effectively for future development, as well as prioritize and conserve important natural resources. In order to do so, we need to know and describe exactly what we have and where it is, in terms of significant natural communities.This project will provide the data the town needs to make solid, informed planning, zoning and conservation decisions.
To summarize, we need to know what significant natural communities exist in Plainfield, where they are, where to maintain connected networks of natural cover for them, and how to prioritize our regulatory and non-regulatory protection efforts. Roads, housing, mineral extraction, telecommunications, business and energy development – all have their impacts on natural communities, which in turn have impacts on our economy and quality of life.
Residents and visitors alike value Vermont ’s natural beauty and rich biological diversity. Our efforts to ensure the protection of Plainfield 's natural environment, while balancing conservation of plant and animal species with the economic diversity and viability of the town itself require this inventory.
Please join us!
For more information, please contact Jan Waterman (jmwinvt@hotmail.com)