Fish, Wildlife & Biodiversity Conservation

Project Leader: Scott Jackson

General Information

Massachusetts is the third most densely populated state in the nation. The rate of land consumption for residential development is steadily increasing far out of proportion to its population growth. Haphazard growth has impacted water resources, natural resource-based enterprises, open space, wildlife habitat, and community character. Nearly half the state's communities lack professional planning staff. Volunteer boards struggle with increasing levels of responsibility, liability, time demands and public mistrust. Land and water resource protection are increasingly perceived to be in competition with affordable housing needs.

Land Protection

The window of opportunity for effective land conservation in southern New England may be only 10-20 years. After this time, the unprotected landscape is likely to be too fragmented to be of much value for supporting wildlife. Private landowners with an average age of over 60 years own 2.2 million acres, over 75% of our state's forests. Within the next 10-20 years much of this land will be passed on or sold.

A team of scientists and Extension educators at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst has developed the Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System (CAPS) to provide an objective, dynamic, and flexible tool and approach for assessing biodiversity value and ecological viability. CAPS is the cutting edge in landscape-based ecological assessment and is unlike any other tools currently available.

This program will work with local and regional planners, land trusts, agencies, and municipalities to develop and implement integrated land protection strategies based on CAPS analyses and natural resource inventories. The Forest Conservation project will develop educational products and approaches for working with large forest landowners in high priority areas for conservation in order to encourage land protection. The Land Protection project will work with land trusts and municipalities to help them better understand and utilize various tools for protecting important conservation land as well as the practical and legal requirements for monitoring and enforcing conservation restrictions.
Ultimately this program will facilitate more targeted land conservation to effectively preserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem integrity over time. Conservation organizations and agencies will be more targeted in their land protection efforts and will integrate efforts at various scales.

Minimizing and Mitigating Development Impacts on Ecosystems

Minimizing the impacts of development projects begins with the identification and protection of high-valued ecosystems and directing development to areas of lesser importance. As a quantitative approach for evaluating ecosystem integrity, CAPS can be used to evaluate and compare various development scenarios, such as alternative alignments for highway or utility projects. CAPS can also be used to quantify the indirect impacts of development projects on the surrounding, undeveloped landscape.

Design and Best Management Practices can be used to minimize or mitigate impacts on ecosystems. These range from "conservation subdivisions" to the use of appropriate stream crossing structures, wildlife passage structures, and appropriate storm water management systems. A properly conducted habitat evaluation can provide important information that can be used to design projects to minimize impacts to habitat and ecosystems.

The Fish, Wildlife and Biodiversity project will continue to work with faculty to conduct CAPS analyses throughout Massachusetts and disseminate the results. Educational programs will help local and regional planners, land trusts, agencies, and municipalities understand how CAPS works and how to use the outputs of CAPS analyses for prioritizing land for conservation or development, alternative analysis, project review and targeted ecological restoration. This program will provide information based on ongoing research on wildlife habitat evaluation and the mitigation of impacts of development projects on wildlife and ecosystems. Conservation Commissions, state and federal agencies will have access to new information and techniques that can be used to review and permit development projects.

Land and Resource Management

Working with people who own and manage both land and the resources supported by the land is a critical element of ecosystem management, protection and restoration. UMass Amherst has substantial research capacity in the management of agricultural land and intensively managed landscapes, as well as forest, freshwater and coastal ecosystems. UMass Extension has long maintained programs that provide information and technical assistance to a variety of audiences that work directly with the land and its resources.

The Fish, Wildlife & Biodiversity Conservation project will provide people who manage natural systems with up-to-date information on ecosystems and ecological processes, as well as tools and approaches for land protection and management to achieve their goals. Audiences engaged in the management of natural systems for multiple objectives, including the harvesting of resources as well as the protection of environmental quality, will receive information on sustainable resource management and best management practices. The Fish, Wildlife & Biodiversity Conservation project will provide managers of land-based production systems (agriculture) and highly managed landscapes (golf courses) information on the unintended consequences of management practices on nearby natural systems as well as approaches to minimize those impacts.

Extension program related to this project: Natural Resource & Environmental Conservation