SuAsCo Biodiversity Plan

Protection and Stewardship Strategy

This chapter provides a practical goal, objectives, and actions to inspire and involve municipalities, land trusts, other conservation organizations, state agencies, and concerned citizens in achieving the goal. The Strategy is outlined below.

Goal

To conserve and restore natural biodiversity in the watershed by protecting and managing natural communities and focal species habitat and by motivating and involving land trusts, conservation commissions, conservation organizations, and concerned citizens in accomplishing this mission.

Objectives

1. Focus community leaders, town boards, state agencies, and concerned citizens on the goal of protecting Biodiversity Sites on a regional scale.

2. Complete inventory of Biodiversity Sites to determine in more detail the types, quality, and locations of natural communities and Focal Species’ habitats, to connect more people with the Sites and Focal Species, and to gauge long-term success in protection of biodiversity.

3. Protect Biodiversity Sites and NHESP Priority Habitats using all available tools.

4. Buffer Biodiversity Sites where appropriate and feasible.

5. Link Biodiversity Sites by determining, augmenting, and managing corridors.

6. Manage Biodiversity Sites and other protected lands to preserve and enhance biodiversity values over time.

7. Promote the restoration of water quality and flow for biodiversity as well as for human needs.

8. Increase safety of wildlife living and moving throughout the watershed, not just in Biodiversity Sites and corridors. In particular, improve passage under or across highways, along streams and wetlands, and through neighborhoods.

9. Increase public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the need for activism in local and state politics.

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Elaboration of Objectives

1. Focus community leaders, environmental agencies, and concerned citizens of the goal of protecting Biodiversity Sites on a regional scale.

Distribute copies of the Biodiversity Protection and Stewardship Plan to land trusts, conservation commissions, and relevant state agencies and make copies available to other interested conservationists via the internet.
Conduct outreach programs on Biodiversity in the SuAsCo to communities upon release of the Plan.
Work with the SuAsCo Biodiversity Advisory Committee and the SuAsCo Watershed Community Council to determine partners and strategies to involve other individuals and groups to achieve the following objectives.

2. Complete inventory of Biodiversity Sites to determine in more detail types and locations of natural communities and Focal Species habitats, to connect more people with the Sites and Focal Species, and to gauge long-term success in protection of biodiversity.

Work with Massachusetts Audubon Society, New England Wildflower Society, and Sudbury Valley Trustees to train volunteers to conduct inventories of sites. This could be done, in part, in conjunction with Biodiversity Days.
Solicit birding groups, dragonfly and butterfly clubs, trackers, and other specialist groups to inventory Focal Species.
Hire qualified biologists, such as herpetologists, to survey sites for rare and sensitive species and communities. Some places and species are sensitive and require professional surveys in order not to harm populations.

3. Protect Biodiversity Sites as a top priority

With the leadership, coordination, and technical assistance of Sudbury Valley Trustees, the only regional land trust in SuAsCo, focus on regionally significant Biodiversity Sites and Natural Heritage Program Priority Sites for protection efforts. Essential partners include local land trusts and town conservation commissions. It is imperative that all work together toward regional biodiversity goals.
Permanently protect core areas and key values of Biodiversity Sites, including unfragmented natural community types and Focal Species habitats. Utilize the full suite of protection tools. Those habitats which require on-going management such as pitch pine forests or grasslands should ideally be under conservation ownership with the owners having the capacity to manage the habitat over the long-term.
Call upon state agencies, state-wide land trusts such as The Trustees of Reservations and Trust for Public Land, and state representatives for technical, monetary, and legislative assistance.

4. Buffer Biodiversity Sites where appropriate and feasible. Buffers around the core areas will increase the effective size of the habitats and buffer them from edge effects.

Use the full suite of protection tools including conservation restrictions, Agricultural Preservation Restrictions, Chapter 61/61A/61B, and cluster zoning on lands adjacent to Biodiversity Sites.
Enforce the state Wetlands Protection Act and local wetland by-laws to the maximum extent. Be particularly aware of preserving the hydrology of bogs and fens, the 300’ buffer zone of marshes where there are sensitive birds, and extensive vernal pool buffers.
Work to new conservation overlay districts which would reduce the density and impact of new development. These smart growth by-laws could be developed in conjunction with water protection goals limiting impervious, disturbed ground to less than 10% of an watershed sub basin. SVT’s “Greenprint for Growth” project can assist with this objective and provide additional options.
Develop a stewardship assistance program for private landowners who want to manage their land for biodiversity purposes over the long term.

5. Link Biodiversity Sites by determining, augmenting, and managing corridors.

Determine important wildlife corridors by developing volunteer tracking groups, such as Walden Keeping Track, and recording road kills.
Enforce the Wetlands Protection Act to maximize vegetated buffer zones along streams and wetlands, that are the prime corridors for many species; encourage removal of exotic invasive species and planting with native species in buffer zones.
Work with utility companies and the MDC on management techniques of utility rights-of-way and aqueducts so that at minimum animals can move through safely, and at maximum the corridors encourage safe passage.
Improve road crossings over streams and rivers
Reduce highway barriers
Reduce fencing throughout the corridor areas

6. Manage Biodiversity Sites, other protected conservation land, and Focal Species habitats. (Tentative actions, to be fully developed upon completion of the Stewardship Section.)

Promote cooperation among different land managers by involving them in the determination of key stewardship issues and best management practices.
Develop habitat management policies and techniques that help perpetuate the diversity of natural and rural community types in the SuAsCo Watershed: exotic species; deer and beaver population control; habitat management techniques for grasslands, forests, wet meadows, scrub successional habitats, and pitch pine habitat.
Develop compatible public use policies: dogwalking, motorized vehicle use, mountain biking, horse back riding, and other.
Develop a public stewardship trust fund to allow for consistent funding over the years for ongoing stewardship projects.

7. Promote the restoration of water quality and flow for biodiversity throughout the watershed to be furthered by watershed organizations such as OAR, the Community Council Water Quality Task Force, Riverways Program, and other state agencies working on water quantity and quality issues.

8. Increase the safety of wildlife living and moving throughout the watershed; in particular, improve passage under or across highways, along streams, and through neighborhoods.

Recruit garden clubs, New England Wild Flower Society, Tower Hill Botanical Garden, the Ecological Landscaping Association, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and others to promote ecologically sensitive landscape practices in the watershed.
Promote environmentally friendly golf course management programs through organizations, such as the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, OAR, and conservation Commissions.
Continue to encourage IPM practices of farmland by farmers.
Promote keeping cats inside and dogs in yards and on leashes to reduce harassment and death of small animals and birds.
Reduce public fear of and negative encounters with wildlife through “Living with Wildlife” programs and information.

9. Increase public awareness and activism:

Work through existing organizations, such as Massachusetts Audubon Society, New England Wild Flower Society, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, SuAsCo watershed groups, conservation commissions, and land trusts to educate the public on what lives in the watershed, the threats to its survival, and ways they can help to protect it. The lists of natural communities types and Focal Species in this report are a good starting point.
Encourage concerned citizens to become involved in local and state politics to promote policies, programs, and legislation to further the goals of this Plan. This commitment can include joining the town conservation commission or planning board, serving on an open space planning committee, supporting the Community Preservation Act, developing stewardship plans for conservation lands, organizing an Adopt-a-Stream Stream Team, supporting legislation to control exotic species, and soliciting funds from the legislature for land acquisition.

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