"Earth Day News: WCS Launches Plan to Fight Sprawl"

Working with four towns in Westchester and Putnam counties, the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released today a four-year, collaborative plan that identifies 19 areas in the region vital for maintaining wildlife habitat, and recommends guidelines for protecting these areas from the effects of sprawl, while allowing for sustainable development.
 
Generated by the Metropolitan Conservation Alliance—a program of the Wildlife Conservation Society—in partnership with the towns of Cortlandt, New Castle, Putnam Valley, and Yorktown, the Croton-to-Highlands Biodiversity Plan (CHBP) is a multi-town regional approach to connect the remaining wild lands within the four towns. Most importantly, the plan does not oppose development. Instead, it supplies guidelines to reduce development impacts on the region’s most ecologically important sites.

“Our plan provides a means of striking a balance between ecological health and economic prosperity, and includes a roadmap to achieve these dual goals,” said Dr. Michael W. Klemens, senior conservationist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and director of WCS’s Metropolitan Conservation Alliance. “By integrating these recommendations into town master plans and inter-municipal agreements, we can achieve this better land use balance.”

According to the report, a wide array of wildlife species—many of which are indicative of healthy ecosystems—are found in the myriad habitat types of the region, including marbled salamanders, wood turtles, hognose snakes and a variety of imperiled bird species such as goshawks and brown thrashers.

CROTON-TO-HIGHLANDS
The Croton-to-Highlands Biodiversity Plan is a regional analysis on the variety of habitats important to local biodiversity in the four towns. The plan incorporates the habitat requirements of wood frogs, box turtles, and other development-sensitive species into a geographical information system (GIS) map. The map was then used to identify “hubs,” areas where development-sensitive species can persist in the long-term, and corridors, such as the landscape running between Canopus Hollow (running along the western edge of Putnam Valley) and Fahnestock State Park. This particular corridor is critical for many species, including Jefferson and dusky salamanders, and forest interior birds such as hooded, black-throated green, and Canada warblers.

The analysis also incorporates information on roads, buildings, protected and unprotected areas, which is then used to identify constriction points, where the critical connectivity between important conservation areas is in danger of being severed by current or proposed development.
 
The plan emphasizes the importance of maintaining wildlife diversity for the numerous—and frequently overlooked—benefits to human communities. Human health is adversely impacted as a result of wildlife loss, which, for instance, results in the increase of development-associated species such as the white-footed mouse, a primary reservoir for the Lyme disease bacterium. Protecting biodiversity in the Croton-to-Highlands region also will complement efforts to protect a critical resource for millions of residents in New York City—water from the Croton Reservoir. Recreational opportunities in the form of hunting, fishing, hiking, bird watching and other activities add yet another reason why biodiversity should be a central consideration in any land use planning in the region.
 
“Conservation and development are generally regarded as being at odds with one another, but with the application of scientific data and the understanding that both conservation and development are legitimate land use goals, the two can coexist for the benefit of biodiversity and the human communities supported by biodiversity,” added Klemens. “The plan will help these towns make informed, science-based decisions on development that will maintain the region’s rich wildlife heritage.”

Click here to view the Croton-to-Higlands Biodiversity Report

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