MCCF environment Committee
Park & Planning has a new GIS-based tool for checking up on forest conservation easements, and possible violations. Please, let's all get used to accessing the new tool that Park & Planning has at our disposal, for seeing what is/should be protected, versus what's going on around the corner.
Here is the link to the new tool. It's SO easy to use!
www.montgomeryplanning.org/easements.
Here is Park & Planning's write-up:
Perpetual legal agreements that run with the land, conservation easements keep forests intact, prohibiting activities -- from mowing to grading to building a tennis court -- that would damage their function. Most easements allow passive pursuits like hiking and bird watching.
To find easements using the online map, enter addresses into the search bar or mouse click and zoom in. Detailed information, including plat numbers, recordation dates and links to legal documents, accompany each easement. Browsers can report alleged conservation easement violations, such as construction activities, using the tool.
The web site also contains information about how to care for an easement area, a narrated slide show suitable for presentations and a five-minute video of a forest conservation inspector doing fieldwork.
Forest conservation easements ensure the integrity of forests, which contribute to water quality, habitat, clean air and community well-being. The Planning Board enforces an ambitious forest conservation program by regulating forest disturbance when development is proposed, setting goals within master plans, and a planting program. The county has protected about 9,700 acres – about 3.5 percent of the county – through forest conservation easements.
This page last edited January 31, 2010 .