New University of Idaho Natural Resources Study Informs Palouse Land Use Decisions
Wednesday, October 5 2011
MOSCOW, Idaho – A team of University of Idaho College of Natural Resources scientists recently published a third study to help policy makers make better informed decisions about local landscape planning and zoning in Benewah and Latah counties.
Recently published in “Conservation Letters,” the article “Predictions of Ecological and Social Impacts of Alternative Residential Development Policies to Inform Decision-making in a Rural Landscape,” builds on the team’s previous work that predicted landscape change using the survey responses of private landowners in the two counties.
“The study provides a set of analyses that private landowners, county government, land trusts and others can use to better understand what potential growth policies and conservation actions may mean for these counties both socially and biologically,” explained lead author Caren Goldberg, post doctoral scientist in the College of Natural Resources department of fish and wildlife resources.
Highly productive soils make the Palouse landscape one of the largest producers of wheat and lentils in the world; however, many of these agricultural lands are experiencing conversion to residential development. Subsequently, growth planning has become an issue of local concern, relating to maintaining productive agricultural land and protecting remaining prairie patches from new road and home construction.
Team members modeled land conversion patterns in Latah and Benewah counties using three commonly applied alternative land management policy scenarios including:
• protecting productive lands;
• growth boundaries around existing incorporated towns;
• targeted protection of high-priority conservation lands via conservation easements.
The team assessed the effectiveness of each of these scenarios in protecting habitat for species of concern; such as: northern alligator lizard, short-eared owl, and Swainson’s hawk, and socially-valued species across the Palouse region; such as: Rocky Mountain elk, mule deer, Sierran treefrog, and California quail.
Of the three scenarios, the team found the implementation of growth boundaries around existing incorporated towns to be the most socially acceptable development pattern. This scenario benefited the most species and was moderately successful in protecting productive agricultural lands. It also provided the best outcome in terms of reduced fire hazards in new developments.
Though it proved to be the most plausible, the growth boundary scenario had limitations. Species with habitat located near towns and species occupying specialized niches would require additional protection under this option. Additionally, targeted purchase of parcels with high conservation value was predicted to successfully protect habitat for many species, but this success was limited by the interface between neighboring parcels and the inability to protect large contiguous tracts of prairie.
“With this information, Palouse area county commissioners and land use and zoning boards can make better informed decisions when approving or denying residential development/subdivisions in some areas of the county,” said Jo Ellen Force, co-author and professor and chair of the department of forest ecology and biogeosciences.
Additionally, Force explained that conservation easements in which a landowner grants development rights to the Palouse Land Trust or a similar non-governmental agency might be an alternative to selling to a subdivision developer for some landowners, especially those with unique habitats and Palouse prairie remnants on their land.
“Decision makers rely on a portfolio of policies to achieve complex and interacting objectives,” said Lisette Waits, professor of wildlife resources. “This information can empower the decision making process. Our results reiterate the importance of considering multiple tools when planning for future land use and that these tools, zoning or conservation easements, for example, will likely be most effective when used together.”
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and McIntire Stennis, which makes funding available to state agricultural experiment stations, forestry schools and programs at land grant colleges of agriculture for forestry research.
University of Idaho College of Natural Resources collaborators in the study include Goldberg; Amy Pocewicz and Max Nielsen-Pincus, alumni; Waits; Penelope Morgan, professor of fire ecology; Force; and Lee Vierling, associate professor in the department of forest ecology and biogeosciences.
The study is available by contacting Caren Goldberg via email at cgoldberg@uidaho.edu. For a summary of the paper, visit
www.conservationmaven.com/frontpage/comparing-urban-growth-boundaries-with-targeted-land-protect.html.
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