Tool 2: Land Conservation

Whereas the first tool emphasizes how much impervious cover is created in a watershed, the second tool focuses on land conservation. Five types of land may need to be conserved in a subwatershed:

• Critical habitats;
• Aquatic corridors;
• Hydrologic reserve areas;
• Water pollution hazards; and
• Cultural areas.

A watershed manager must choose which of these natural and cultural areas must be conserved in a subwatershed in order to sustain the integrity of its aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and to maintain desired human uses from its waters. Four out of five are clearly important because they are key parts of healthy watersheds that should be conserved; water pollution hazards, however, seem out of place on the list. Nevertheless, such areas are intentionally "conserved" at locations carefully selected to minimize their negative impacts on important water resources.

While land conservation is most important in sensitive watersheds, it is also a critical tool for other types of resources. Each subwatershed should have its own land conservation strategy based on its management category, inventory of conservation areas, and land ownership patterns.

The five conservation areas are not always differentiable. Some of the natural areas may overlap among the conservation areas. For example, a freshwater wetland may serve as a critical habitat, be part of the aquatic corridor, and also comprise part of the hydrologic reserve areas. However, the bulk of the most critical areas are covered in at least one of these five categories.

Critical habitat: Critical habitats can be defined as the essential spaces for plant and animal communities or populations. Examples of critical habitats include tidal wetlands, freshwater wetlands, large forest clumps, springs, spawning areas in streams, habitat for rare or endangered species, potential restoration areas, native vegetation areas, and coves.

Aquatic Corridor : The aquatic corridor is the area where land and water meet. This can include floodplains, stream channels, springs and seeps, small estuarine coves, littoral areas, stream crossings, shorelines, riparian forest, caves, and sinkholes.

Hydrologic Reserve: Hydrologic reserves are any undeveloped areas responsible for maintaining the predevelopment hydrologic response of a watershed. The three most common land uses are crops, forest, and pasture. From a hydrologic standpoint, forest is the most desirable land use followed by pasture, then crops.

Water Pollution Hazard: This conservation area is defined as any land use or activity that is expected to create a relatively high risk of potential water pollution. Examples of water pollution hazards may include septic systems, landfills, hazardous waste generators, above or below ground tanks, land application sites, impervious cover, stormwater "hotspots", and road and salt storage areas. One way to avoid possible contamination to waterways is to locate such facilities at a designated distance away from the waterbody in order to decrease the chance of contamination.

Cultural Areas: Cultural areas provide a sense of place in the landscape and are important habitats for people. Examples of conservation areas include historic or archeologic sites, trails, parkland, scenic views, water access, bridges, and recreational areas.

Land Conservation Techniques: Numerous techniques can be used to conserve land which provide a continuum ranging from absolute protection to very limited protection. One of these techniques includes buying the land or the use of conservation easements. Conservation easements retain the original owner but pass part of the interest of the property to someone else and prevent the property from being developed. The third technique is to regulate land alteration. A law which restricts development on an area designated as a wetland is a good example of land alteration regulation. Another technique deals with hazard regulations which dictate where potential water pollution hazards can be placed in relation to waterbodies. The fifth technique, open space development, is the use of designs which incorporate open areas into a development site. These areas can be used for either passive or active recreational activity or preserved as naturally vegetated land. Since it is neither practical nor feasible to regulate everyone and everything, landowner and public sector stewardship are both important techniques to the conservation of land.