Aiding Conservation Efforts in Attleboro, Massachusetts

• Attleboro Land Trust: – Preservation of open space for public

enjoyment and conservation of biodiversity

• State Government:– Natural Heritage and Endangered Species

Program protects endangered (non-game) plant and animal species

Land Trust: Approaches

• Acquisition of land: donations, purchases, easements

• Designation of key habitat areas:– NHESP affords enhanced protection to certain

habitats• A main tool for citizen conservation is locating,

documenting, and submitting evidence of vernal pools for certification by the NHESP

– Potential vernal pool locations provided to citizens and developers by NHESP

Prioritizing Areas for Conservation

• Low:– Highly developed– Already protected:

• Open space areas• DEP wetlands and rivers• Priority and Suspected

Rare Species Habitat

• High– Important areas

identified by the NHESP • Core terrestrial and

wetland habitat • Supporting or “buffering”

habitat

Basic Procedure• Compile all layers and clip to Attleboro town

boundary• Select only the relevant features (Open Space

Lands protected “in perpetuity” and Hydro Features with “wetcode 4 and 5”)

• Buffer wetlands (25 feet) and streams (100 feet)

– Append the priority areas and Append the protected areas, creating just two separate features

Procedure, Illustrated:

Best Use of Maps

• Land acquisition: costly and infrequent– Tax parcel data needed

• Habitat Designation: easy, common conservation measure– Identify unprotected Potential Vernal Pools

in priority areas using the Select tool• From all potential sites, remove those

contained by protected areas, then select those contained by priority

Procedure, Illustrated:

“Making” Data

• Information for relevant sites will eventually be added to NHESP’s database (exact GPS coordinates collected and layers updated)

• Next Step: make maps for citizen use – Add orthophoto tiles to relevant areas

• GeoReferencing not needed: ArcMap projected the tiles properly (compared to EOT Major Roads layer 1:5000)

– Add and edit road layers for reference• Census Roads layer (1:100000) do not line up: Exercise

using Spatial Adjustment

Using Spatial Adjustment

Further Potential Investigation

• Intersect priority areas: search for areas that meet multiple criteria – Supporting Watershed and Supporting Natural Lansdscape

• Look through orthophotos, elevation layers, and hydrology for other potential sites and verify in the field