Jefferson County Green Infrastructure Assessment - WV

The Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute teamed with the Strategic Conservation program and Jefferson County, WV to produce an assessment of the county's green infrastructure.

The services provided by the Fund included:

• Initial Scoping and Planning
• Facilitated the process for including public and professional input
• Developed Work Plan
• Performed Geospatial Analysis
• Revised Analysis Based on Public Input

• Region(s): Mid-Atlantic
• Scale: County
• Focus: Natural Environment, Social/Economic Health, Historical/Cultural Heritage

Organization:

The Conservation Fund

Summary

Jefferson County, WV is imperiled by fragmented patterns of growth that disrupt normal ecosystem functions, community vitality, and limiting future opportunities. The continued protection of the County’s diverse natural and rural landscapes, and economic vitality rely on the conservation of its unique ecological and cultural geography.

Challenge

Current land conservation efforts in the United States are largely reactive, site specific, narrowly focused, and poorly integrated with land use planning and growth management efforts. Developing a set of recommendations to conserve the green infrastructure of Jefferson County represents an opportunity to guide the pattern of future growth and development by incorporating green infrastructure into land use planning to provide a framework for sustainable development.

Solution

Green Infrastructure provides a strategic approach to land and water conservation that identifies conservation priorities and provides a planning framework for conservation and development. Emphasizing the importance of protecting large blocks of contiguous land and establishing connectivity, a green infrastructure approach aims to establish a matrix of natural areas, conservation lands, and working landscapes.

Results

Incorporating community and professional comments, The Conservation Fund and Freshwater Institute produced a report and datasets identifying the most valuable and vulnerable lands for protection and appropriate areas for development.

Benefits:

• Sustained Quantity and Quality of Ground and Surface Waters
• Vital Agricultural Community and Working Landscapes
• Preserved Cultural Legacy
• Protected Habitat
• Consideration of natural resource conservation, environmental and public health, and quality of life issues in the land use planning process
• Provides predictability and certainty