Project Detail

GENEVA LAKE CONSERVANCY: Geneva Lake Conservancy Priority Areas Inv. & Prot. Plan

Purpose

The Geneva Lake Conservancy will be creating a Priority Area Inventory and Protection Plan. This will be a long term plan to guide the Conservancy in its conservation efforts and will also be useful to local governments and other land trust and lake organizations. Goals and objectives are: Develop a series of maps, interview and meet with landowners for willingness in their protection of certain land parcels, select and prioritize parcels, recommend site management plans for chosen areas, and develop a long range plan and innovative vision that provides specific tools and timetables for protection efforts.

Objective

The goals and objectives of the entire project are as follows: To develop a series of maps useful for long-range conservation planning. 1) To develop a series of maps useful for long-range conservation planning by developing a rich set of GIS data that contains as much information as possible about the natural resources and land use plans of the project area. Minimize cost by utilizing publicly available data sets when possible. 2) Interview and meet with landowners, farmers, developers and local government officials individually and in small focus groups to gauge their willingness to participate in the protection of certain land parcels through a variety of conservation tools. Obtain community feedback through a series of presentations and meetings across the entire project area. 3) Select and prioritize areas (Priority Landscapes) for various forms of protection with a simple, flexible, and transferable model that provides a “big picture” sense of where lands significant to the mission of the Geneva Lake Conservancy are located within the project area. Identify a process for prioritizing parcels for land protection initiatives (i.e. the model). Train GLC staff with enough GIS capability to adjust the model and approach GIS analysis from a process-oriented viewpoint. 4) Recommend management plans for chosen areas. Examples of the specific objectives for watershed and land use a) reduction of sediment loading, b) acquisitions and a purchase of development rights (PDR) program, c) lake/land management ordinances, d) management plans for chosen wildlife habitat sites, e) development of a county conservation subdivision ordinance and assisting developers in planning and implementation, f) encouraging shoreline buffer zone plantings. 5) Develop a long-range plan and innovative vision that provides specific tools and timetables for protection efforts. Share the vision with others. Follow up through acquisition, easement, farmland preservation and other efforts to implement the vision. This phase would likely become a permanent part of the Conservancy’s work. Document the progress and prepare a final report for the DNR, project partners and other interested parties.

Outcome

Conclusion The project provided GLC with a flexible, inexpensive, and transferable analytical tool that will allow the staff to efficiently focus their conservation efforts. GLC is pioneering the use of GIS among the land trust and conservation communities in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and is making every effort to encourage their adaptation of the technology. The process-oriented approach to development of the model and training of the GLC staff empowers GLC with the ability to adjust to changing land use, update and integrate new data and create new program initiatives. In addition, the products will aid land protection and fundraising efforts by helping to communicate the GLC mission and activities, assisting landowners with visualization of land use possibilities, and conveying the spatial distribution of important land characteristics.

Project Type

Lakes Grant

Project Sub Type

Large Scale Lake Planning

Project ID

LPL-832-02

Year Started

2002

Status

Complete

Reports and Documents

Geneva Lake General Information