[APWG] Forest Stewardship Plans removing non-native invasive plants.
ialm at erols.com
ialm at erols.com
Wed Nov 28 08:45:12 CST 2007
Most states have a program similar to Maryland's for landowners
to preserve their land or restore it to its natural state for
future generations? For doing this, they get a property tax
reduction on the land, assessed on its value set at about
$150 per acre. Some plans consist entirely of removing
non-native invasive plants.
Forest Stewardship Plans Offer Landowners Tax
Breaksand More
Landowners, do you want to preserve your land or restore
it to its natural state for future generations? For doing this,
you can get financial assistance, including a property tax
reduction on your land, assessed on its value set at about $150
per acre. The current value depends on the current market
based assessment.
Heres the catch: Working with a state forester,
you must develop a Forest Stewardship Plan, and the
Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must
approve it. After DNR approves the plan, you become part of the
Maryland forest stewardship program. All aspects of
forest resource management are considered by DNR,
andthe good news is that you do not have to harvest
trees. Some plans, for example, consist entirely of
removing non-native invasive plants.
Another option is submitting a forest management plan to the
Sate Tax office which will give the landowner a tax reduced
assessment called the forest management agreement. The
assessment is about $50 per acre higher The landowner
doesn't have to pay any fees for entering either.
For either program there are inspections required too,
every 5 years for the FCMA and every 3 years or the
Forest Management Agreement
The options offered by DNR for forest resource
management include fish and wildlife, natural heritage
and recreation, soil and water, and forest products.
The natural heritage and recreation aspect, for example,
focuses upon restoration of mature old growth with
natural biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services
(such as water retention) to prevent downstream flooding,
crown-fire control, and climate-change mitigation.
Expert Help Required
The stewardship program has a few eligibility requirements,
but the most critical consideration is to select a forester
trained in ecosystem management and conservation
biology to include alien invasive species control,
fragmentation theory, herbaceous plants, endangered
species, and non-game biology. Most foresters who
write plans are trained primarily in forest products.
Your forester should be primarily trained in ecology
and be supportive of your values.
Heres what DNR has to say about the topic
(www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/fcmp.pdf). "Any owner
of 5 or more contiguous acres of forest land may enter
the Forest Conservation and Management Program.
the forester, with assistance from other natural resource
professionals, must match the objectives of the owner
to the biological requirements of the forest. Your
acceptance in the Forest Conservation and Management
Program will depend upon the specific prescription of
stewardship practices
You must have your forest
stewardship plan prepared by a registered professional
forester [state, private, consulting, or industrial] and
approved by the Director of the Forest Service. The
plan must contain a detailed schedule of practices to
be accomplished and their completion date."
The Tax Break
Landowners also can obtain a Forest Conservation
Management Agreement (FCMA) through the Maryland
Department of Assessments and Taxation. DNR
describes it as a legal agreement recorded in land
records, binding for fifteen years, and renewable for
a minimum of five years.
With an FCMA, the landowner can add or delete acreage,
add or delete owners, and sell all or part of the parcel.
In return, says DNR, the property is assessed at
[~] $150/acre regardless of its location in Maryland. The
assessment is frozen at that level for the fifteen years
of the agreement. The FCMA involves fees for developing
the management plan, entering the program, and
periodic inspections.
For more information on this topic, go to
www.naturalresources.umd.edu.
Sierra Club Activist Tool Kit
Citizens across Maryland frequently observe a new or ongoing threat
to their forests and other natural areas. Their neighboring woods or
stream is often being destroyed. The Sierra Club receives enquiries
at to what the citizens can do to stop or reduce the destruction of
their favorite woods, meadows, wetlands or creeks. The Sierra Club
Activist Tool Kit has been prepared to provide citizens with a wide
variety of tools that have assisted us successfully across the state.
The regional examples and case histories are models of comparable
programs across the State of Maryland. For instance, examples are
provided for Transfer Development Rights in Montgomery, Charles
and Calvert Counties which varies in effectiveness across the State.
One of the most successful approaches has been to save an area before
it is owned by developers. One of the most common and unnecessary
causes of transfer of natural areas to development has been lack
of awareness that there are many ways to reduce property taxes to
affordable levels. This is particularly important when descendents
receive land their parents wanted to preserve but have difficulty
in paying the inheritance and property taxes.
After developers own the land, natural areas recognized for their
high quality have been purchased by organizations such as The
Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Lands and by the
State of Maryland as Program Open Space. We have more successfully
reduced, rather than stopped, the impact of development elsewhere.
When citizens investigate actual adherence to regulations they
greatly increase compliance with the law. A dramatic example has
been citizens reporting inadequate placement of silt fences to
prevent sedimentation from entering our water ways. Maryland
Department of the Environment (MDE) officials typically investigate
in a few hours and the developer corrects the problem in the same
day.
Threats to natural areas not being developed include deforestation,
invasion by non-native invasive species such as Kudzu, water and air
pollution, erosion, storm water and sedimentation.
Tool Kit
Programs to avoid development:
Conservation Easements
Program Open Space
Forest Conservation Plans
Transfer Development Rights
Conservation Reserve Program
Survey and Assessment tools:
Endangered species and rare habitat surveys
Wetland Surveys
Compliance with sections 404 and 401 of the Clean Water Act
Compliance with NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination
System) permits
Establish and Maintain Greenways to Avoid Fragmentation
Smart growth regulations:
Zoning regulations
Smart growth alternatives to new highways
Programs to reduce impact of development:
LID Low Impact Development
Stormwater retention regulations
Threats to natural areas not being developed:
Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC)
Non-native invasive species control
Erosion and sediment control
Respond effectively to damage caused by off-road vehicles
Respond effectively to damage caused by deer browse.
Part 2 Enclosures:
Part 2a Programs to avoid development:
Conservation Easements
Conservancy for Charles County (See web site) An excellent article on
conservation easements and donations of natural areas appears in the
spring, 2007, issue of NATURE CONSERVANCY vol. 57 No. 1. on page 16.
LAWS FOR THE LAND, New Federal Tax Law helps Families Preserve
Their Properties.
Program Open Space
Consult www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/greenprint/ to see if the natural
area proposed to be purchased is already recognized as a priority area.
If it is not, conduct a survey with biologists for high quality natural
features including wetlands. Offer to compensate the biologists if
possible since many of these individuals, while often volunteering,
are swamped with such requests. Compensation will enable the field of
available experts to expand for all the citizens of Maryland.
See www.dnr.state.md.us/pos.html to persue the application process with
local government agencies.
Part 2b Programs to reduce impact of development:
________________________________________
What do most citizens do when their neighborhood or environment is
threatened by a development project?
Many react by hiring a lawyer.
Yet studies just completed by CEDS show that this is seldom the best
first step. The reason is that most citizens resolve their concerns
through a negotiated agreement with the developer or regulatory
officials; not by stopping a project. The key to a successful
negotiation lies in identifying reliable ways of resolving citizen
concerns that allow the applicant to get most of what they want. Few
attorneys have the technical expertise to identify these equitable
solutions.
A new CEDS factsheet, Strategies for Winning Land Development Battles,
describes how citizens can dramatically increase their rate of success
while greatly reducing lawyer and expert witness fees. The factsheet
is posted at the top of the left-hand column of the CEDS website at:
www.ceds.org.
CEDS research shows that only 1% of all contested development projects
are stopped. In those cases where excessive impacts cannot be
designed away, a lawyer is frequently critical. Yet not all attorneys
are equally equipped to represent citizens in these disputes.
However, CEDS can help here too through our nationwide network of 135
attorneys who specialize in representing citizens in land use, zoning,
and environmental cases.
I would deeply appreciate it if you would consider mentioning the
factsheet to citizens who contact your group about a development
issue.
To see an example of one of the CEDS studies referenced above visit:
www.ceds.org/BaltimoreCounty/A Citizens Perspective on the
Baltimore County Development Review Process.pdf
Richard D. Klein
Community & Environmental Defense Services
811 Crystal Palace Court
Owings Mills, Maryland 21117
410-654-3021
410-654-3028 Fax
443-421-5964 Mobile
Web Page: www.ceds.org/
Establish and Maintain Greenways to Avoid Fragmentation:
Example for the Mattawoman Watershed in Prince Georges and Charles
Counties. Testimony on the Cross County Connector Extension proposal.
The critical importance of preventing habitat fragmentation by
maintaining greenways is now widely documented and understood. Living
forms native to the area, both animals and plants, depend on the
availability of sufficient space and food sources and shifting
locations of habitat and food sources in order to be able to thrive
and even to survive. Natural areas on opposite sides of Billingsley
Road and on the proposed route north of Billingsley Road as shown on
the attached map represent a cumulatively significant contribution in
this regard, not only because the road is presently relatively narrow
in width between these natural areas of significant size, but also
because of their proximity to other publicly held areas in western
Charles County that have been restricted from development, including
the Mattawoman Wildlands and the Mattawoman Natural Area.
General management principles include providing wildlife migration
corridors for re-colonization between natural areas following local
extirpation due to seasonal, man-made, or climatic stresses. Stresses
include natural disturbances such as the mosaic pattern of storm
events, drought, diseases, fire, competitors, predators, prey,
succession, floods and seepages. Some populations of plants and
animals are "sources" of individuals which migrate out and replenish
other populations known as "sinks". In addition, sufficient space is
needed for large animals with large home ranges.
For example, in the general region proposed for the Cross County
Connector Extension spotted salamanders utilize vernal pools and ponds
that are temporary over time. Many semi-aquatic insects, salamanders,
frogs, snakes and turtles utilize aquatic and terrestrial habitats in
their life cycle. The buffer zone for 95% of a population of
salamanders would extend 534 feet from the wetland edge into the
closed canopy terrestrial habitat.
The maximum corridor width which most birds and many mammals, plants
and invertebrates cross roads sufficiently to reproduce and maintain
populations is two lanes. The proposal to widen the road as a cross
county connector and build a 4 lane northern road has a cumulative
impact which requires being addressed in an Environmental Impact
Statement. Section A and B harbor high quality natural areas. I saw a
dead raccoon road kill at Section C today, April 26, 2005. Sections E
and F have some legal protections as Waters of the State and Wetlands
of Special Concern. However, all environmental impacts including
terrestrial, as well as aquatic, are legally required to be studied
in the environmental impact studies, not just those requiring actual
environmental protection or mitigation. Fully informed decision making
is required by law. About half of Section G has high quality natural
area on both sides of Billingsley Road and two thirds of Section H.
A forest reserve primarily requires protection of the forest interior
for birds including the area sensitive species and wide ranging
species such as raptors. 6,000 acres may be the minimum that supports
all forest breeding species in the Mid-Atlantic. This roughly
includes Chapman Forest and the contiguous Mattawoman Natural Area,
Wildlands, etc.
"The Mattawoman is forty times more productive of anadromous fish than
the seven other Chesapeake tributaries repeatedly monitored by DNR"
including blueback and alewife herring in Chapman Forest. Lack of, or
inadequate culvert placements at stream crossings block fish passage
and isolate them from runs.
The proposed solution to fragmentation is to maintain and establish
greenways between natural areas and to maintain corridors such as
roads and trails as narrow as feasible. Native plant vegetative
covers along roads would follow the guidance found in "Roadside Use of
Native Plants", Bonnie Harper-Lore, et al, Federal Highway
Administration.
Marc Imlay, PhD
Board member of the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council,
Vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society
Chair of the Biodiversity and Habitat Stewardship Committee
for the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Part 2c Threats to natural areas not being developed:
Certification by the Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC):
http://www.audubon.org/chapter/ny/ny/PDFs/forestry_manual.pdf
is a good regional example of carrying out a Forest Stewardship
Council certification program.
Maryland Native Plant Society
P.O. Box 4877
Silver Spring, Maryland 20914
www.mdflora.org
February 14, 2007
The Honorable Martin O'Malley
Office of the Governor
State of Maryland
100 State Circle
Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1925
Dear Governor O'Malley,
The mission of the Maryland Native Plant Society is to increase
awareness and appreciation of native plants and their habitats,
leading to their conservation and restoration. We are contacting you
about measures that the State of Maryland can undertake to conserve
public lands and natural resources.
We want to encourage the State to manage public lands in a way that
benefits both the public and the natural resources contained on those
lands. Projects that alter public lands, such as road-building or
logging, may remove native plants, allow the encroachment of invasive
species, degrade the streams and remove wildlife habitat. Before
alterations to public lands are made, analysis of loss of forest
"services" should be conducted, and the public should have an
opportunity to participate in decisions that affect public lands.
If after analysis and public input, it is determined that logging
public lands is in the best interests of the public and forest
management, logging should take place only after certification by the
Forest Stewardship Council program (FSC). This certification program
is supported and approved by major environmental organizations. The
Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) is another certification program
controlled primarily by the forest industry and, in our judgment,
should not be used as a valid alternative for certification.
We would encourage the passage of legislation to change the practice
of the Department of Natural Resources' retention of revenues from
logging contracts. The current situation constitutes a conflict of
interest for an agency that is supposed to protect natural resources.
The Maryland Native Plant Society has a particular interest in old
growth forests in Maryland. DNR has already inventoried these rare
areas, and they should be designated Wildlands to permanently protect
them.
Finally, we have been encouraged by the adoption of Green
Infrastructure Master Plans in Prince George's and Anne Arundel
Counties, and would like all of the counties to follow suit. A Green
Infrastructure Master Plan gives guidance to county planning and
zoning departments so that important ecological areas will be
protected from development. Anything the State can do to support
local Green Infrastructure plans would be welcome.
We look forward to a partnership with the State of Maryland in better
protecting the natural resources found on public lands in our State.
Sincerely,
Cris Fleming, President
Maryland Native Plant Society
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