How to Use NHI Data For Community Planning

How can the NHI data assist with Community Planning?

• Comprehensive Planning. NHI data provides information on the species, natural communities and habitats common to a particular area so that a community’s comprehensive planning efforts can incorporate this critical information. This information can be critical to developing an effective and balanced plan.
• Project Review. Ecologically significant areas and potential impacts can be identified through a review of proposed projects. In some cases, state law requires protection of significant features. In other cases, local communities can strive towards conservation through zoning, subdivision regulations and other means. Incorporating the screening for endangered resources as part of other local review activities can reap big conservation gains.

Comprehensive Planning

Wisconsin’s comprehensive panning law identified nine elements that should be incorporated into a community’s plan, including the Natural and Cultural Resources element. For a complete discussion on the importance of natural resources and how to plan for them, go to the Planning For Natural Resources – A Guide to Including Natural Resources in Local Comprehensive Planning. In particular, Chapter 1 provides a good summary of how the resources element planning process can include natural resources, and Chapter 4 covers wildlife resources specifically, including endangered resources and habitat.

Factoring endangered resources within the natural resources element of the comprehensive plan involves a 4 step process (sample text [PDF 70KB]):

• Adopt ecosystem management and Biodiversity principles: understanding how your community fits into the regional landscape and what biodiversity opportunities it represents is critical to conservation rare species. What ecological landscapes and basins are within your community? How does that impact the existing natural areas and what opportunities exist for the future?
• Identify natural resources areas in your community: Understanding the locations and distributions of rare species is key to protecting resources and guiding growth in the right places. New information can be gathered in a variety of ways ranging from an assessment of the undeveloped and non-agricultural lands of your community to species-specific inventory to broader landscape-scale analysis. See the Fox River Headwaters Ecosystem for an example. Include a list of the rare species and natural communities from the NHI database.
• Develop community goals for endangered resources conservation and biodiversity that identify issue and opportunities: In what ways is your community committed to conservation and how will they put that commitment to work? What are the opportunities and how can you conserve them? Are there specific areas that need formal protection? Develop goals that reflect the community’s interest in natural resource conservation.
• Incorporate natural resources areas in plans for parks and open space and consider modifications to zoning ordinances: How will your community use the tools available to community planners so that they are effective for conservation. Are there subdivision measures or zoning changes that would promote certain ecological features?

Project Reviews

Many communities and county planning agencies review proposed development projects and provide permits. Reviewing these projects for impacts to known occurrences of rare species is a powerful way to conserve existing resources. There are currently two ways in which communities can insure that proposed projects have been adequately reviewed for endangered resources:

• Require a letter from the Endangered Resources Program that verifies a project has been reviewed for potential impacts to rare species. See Endangered Resources Review & Planning for more information.
• In some cases, it may be appropriate for staff of a local or county government or agency to have access to NHI data through a license agreement. This would allow formal review of projects as part of existing review processes. For more information, go to the NHI Data Portal.