Natural Heritage Committee: Difference between revisions

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*Anne Bedarf - Term Expires 09/30/2011
*Anne Bedarf - Term Expires 09/30/2011


== Notes ==
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[[Category: Other groups]]

Revision as of 13:06, 1 April 2009

The Natural Heritage Committee (NHC) is an advisory committee that maintains the County's Biodiversity Assessment, advises the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission, and County staff on applying biodiversity information to land-use decision-making, and supports biodiversity education in the County. The committee was created in 2005 to assess the county’s biological assets in an effort to come up with a sustainability plan.

The committee meets on the first Monday of each month.

The Board of Supervisors appoints between ten and twelve members. Members do not have to be residents of the County.

Committee History and Actions

The roots of the NHC date back to the |Albemarle County Comprehensive Planadopted in 1999, which recognized “the importance of protecting biological diversity… for the ecological, aesthetic, ethical and economic benefits to the community.”

In 2002, the county formed a temporary biodiversity committee to come up with an initial assessment of Albemarle’s natural biological assets. In 2005 the panel was formalized as the Natural Heritage Committee.

On June 6, 2007, the Committee presented its first annual report to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. As part of that report, the NHC is creating an additional layer for the county’s Geographical Information System to give county planners more information on biological resources when making land use decisions. Olivier said both the Nature Conservancy and Stream Watch have agreed to help fund this effort.

More importantly, the NHC will develop and implement a “Rapid Conservation Plan” to help protect areas that are under threat. Long-term, the NHC will develop a “Strategic Conservation Plan” to protect biodiversity at “a landscape scale.”

To that end, committee member Tom Olivier told the board that six sites should be considered as “priority conservation targets.” They include three wetlands (Campbell, Preddy Creek, and Pinkerton Slash”, ), two river bluffs (Key West Rivanna and North Fork Rivanna Bluffs), and a large forested area in the southwest portion of the county that Olivier called Southern Albemarle Mountains.

The Pinkerton Slash area is already covered by a conservation easement, but Olivier says that doesn’t necessarily mean that the biological diversity of the areas will be protected. He recommend county staff develop a program similar to the Acquisition of Conservation Easement (ACE) program to protect the fauna and flora in targeted areas.

Olivier also said the committee wants the county to create a plan to help landowners understand the importance of these areas, and to also offer options for how stewardship programs might work.

Members

  • Richard H. Odom, Jr. - Term Expires 09/30/2008
  • G. Carleton Ray - Term Expires 09/30/2008
  • John Murphy - Term Expires 09/30/2008
  • Herman (Hank) Shugart - Term Expires 09/30/2008
  • Michael Erwin - Term Expires 09/30/2009
  • Thomas Olivier - Term Expires 09/30/2009
  • Peter Warren - Term Expires 09/30/2009
  • Linda Wells - Term Expires 09/30/2009
  • Jan Ferrigan- Term Expires 09/30/2011
  • Diana Foster - Term Expires 09/30/2011
  • Phil Stokes - Term Expires 09/30/2011
  • Anne Bedarf - Term Expires 09/30/2011

Notes