# Presentation: 579581

## Presentation 3.4:Opportunities for Natural Resource Professionals

## Outline

- Introduction
- How to involve stakeholders in land-use decisions
- Professionalism, making a statement
- Getting involved in the policy, planning, and zoning processes
- Summary

## Natural resource professionals have much of the experience and knowledge necessary to understand and explain the risks and benefits associated with land-use changes in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

- Introduction

## Land-use decisions

- Land-use decisions in the WUI influence social, environmental, and economic conditions.
- Communities must consider all three factors in order to be sustainable.

## Ideally, land-use decisions are made based on balancing the values, interests, and needs of stakeholders.

Resource professionals have a responsibility to ensure that decision makers have the most useful and reliable natural resource information.

- Resource professionals have a responsibility to ensure that decision makers have the most useful and reliable natural resource information.

- Involving stakeholders

## How can you help?

- Provide science-based information for decision makers
- Articulate the natural resource consequences of various land-use options.
- You are not responsible for
-  making regulatory decisions
-  determining what the “right” decision is
-  aligning yourself with a particular interest    group

## Professional vs. personal opinions

- Professional opinions should be based on fact and experience. Resource professionals should provide their professional and not personal opinions to decision makers.

## Involvement vs. advocacy

- There can be a fine line between responsible involvement and advocacy.
- What’s an example of a situation where this might be difficult? When is it easier?

## Exercise 3.3:Creating a Statement

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Now might be a good time to have participants do Exercise 3.3.

## Exercise 3.3 – map of proposed school site

## Exercise 3.3 photos

## Exercise 3.3 Stakeholders 

- _For using the location_
- Ponte Vedra High School Coalition
- St. Johns County School Board
- County residents

- _Against using the location_
- Friend of Guana River State Park
- Division of State Lands, Department of Environmental Protection
- Florida Governor
- County residents

## Exercise 3.3 Discussion Questions

- Which statements did the best job of presenting a professional opinion? How was this accomplished?
- Which statements, if any, made appeals to emotional views and personal opinions? How could it be improved?
- Which statements made the listener feel more knowledgeable about the subject? How was this accomplished?
- What did you learn?

## Opportunities to get involved

- Policy development
- Zoning process
- Land-use planning process

## Steps in the Policy Process

- Problem identification
- Policy agenda setting
- Policy formulation
- Policy adoption
- Policy implementation
- Policy evaluation

## Steps in the Policy Process

**Problem identification**
**Policy agenda setting**
**Policy formulation**
- Policy adoption
- Policy implementation
**Policy evaluation**

## Problem Identification

- Natural resource managers are ...
- Aware of important issues and short- and long-term consequences
- Help policy makers prioritize issues
- May be aware of potential solutions
- Share ideas about what worked for other communities

*Providing consistent, reliable information increases a resource professional’s credibility.*

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Exercise 1.3: Prioritizing Interface Issues from Module 1 will help your participants practice identifying and prioritizing issues in their area.

## Agenda Setting

- Increase public awareness about the issue
- Encourage public involvement
- Distribute flyers
- Speak at community meetings
- Rally support
- Connect natural resource issues with current community priorities

**Notes:**
By linking natural resource issues to community hot topics, natural resource professionals can increase the community’s awareness of how resources affect overall quality of life, reinforcing the notion that they warrant attention.
To the Trainer: Exercise 1.1:Piecing Connections Together and Exercise 1.5: Weaving Connections from Module 1 will help your participants begin thinking about how issues in the interface are interconnected.

## Policy Formulation

- Using the best available science, resource professionals can articulate how each particular course of action might affect natural resources.

## Policy Evaluation

- Assist decision makers in evaluating the affects of a policy on natural resources
- Example
- Policy aims to protect gopher tortoise
- Provide data on tortoise populations and wildlife movement
- Decision makers can determine
- 	if the policy is effective

## Case Study 6:Improving the Urban Forest in Roanoke, Virginia

## Exercise 3.2:
 Tracking the Policy Process 

-  Tracking the Policy Process

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Now might be a good time to have your participants do Exercise 3.2.

## Exercise 3.7:Guiding Neighborhood Policy

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Now might be a good time to have your participants do Exercise 3.7.

## Exercise 3.7: Scenario 1

-  Large, new residential development in the WUI
-  One fourth finished and lots are still selling
-  286 houses total
-  Small river runs through the development
-  Deer, bear, and other wildlife
-  Human wildlife conflicts
-  Surrounded by an overgrown, fire-prone pine forest
-  You know that the developer has just begun  creating the neighborhood covenants

## Exercise 3.7: Scenario 2

- Five-year-old subdivision in the WUI
- 286 houses total
- Small river runs through the development
- Deer, bear, and other wildlife
- Human-wildlife conflicts
- Surrounded by a thick, fire-prone pine forest
- The neighborhood covenants fail to provide guidance for addressing these challenges
- Some residents are doing things to solve these problems but insist a neighborhood-wide effort is necessary

## Exercise 3.8:Role-Playing Development Decisions

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Now might be a good time to have your participants do Exercise 3.8.

## Exercise 3.8 Discussion Questions

- Who does the project benefit? Who is affected negatively? How are benefits distributed between newcomers and existing residents?
- What financial effect will the project have on the local government in comparison to the previously operating local farm? Does it exert upward pressure on taxes?
- What are the long-term implications for the community of the increasing presence of commuters to Techdale?
- What are the implications for Gilead’s school system of this and other similar projects to come? How would you pay for a new or expanded school(s) in this case?

## Exercise 3.8 Discussion Questions (cont.)

- How would you protect water quality in this project?
- Given the lack of public transportation in small towns like Gilead, how should it deal with quickly growing traffic throughout the town and its outskirts over the next 10 years?
- What planning could be done to keep housing affordable as the area booms? As the private market focuses on middle class housing (both ownership and rental) and affluent housing, how could Gilead ensure that less advantaged and lower-waged citizens will be housed? What could be done with this project?

## Case Study 12:Mediating for Change in Martin County, Florida

## Case Study 18:Stakeholders in the Planning and Zoning Process

## Exercise 3.9:Background and Discussion Questions for Case Study 18

## Zoning

-    Regulations that define appropriate land uses, acceptable building height and setback, minimum lot sizes

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Fact Sheet 3.2: Zoning Ordinances lists and describes several types of zoning ordinances that your participants may want to become familiar with. Invite your participants to imagine and discuss which steps would provide them with the most likely opportunity to interact with the zoning process. 

## Zoning

- Divides communities into:
- Agricultural
- Commercial
- Industrial
- Residential land uses
- Intended to promote compatibility of land uses

## Zoning can:

- Promote successful land-use regulation
- Promote natural resource protection
- Promote the goals of the local comprehensive plan

## Zoning Success

- Zoning ordinances have historically led to development that exacerbated interface issues. They need to be created with care
*Zoning needs your input!*

## The Zoning Process

- Data Gathering
- Public Notification
- Commission Review
- Commission Vote
- Public Comment
- Review for Compatibility with Plan

## The Zoning Process

**Data Gathering**
**Public Notification**
- Commission Review
- Commission Vote
**Public Comment**
- Review for Compatibility with Plan

## Case Study 23: Zoning to Conserve Greenspace in Davidson, North Carolina

## Potential Roles for Resource Professionals

- Serve on the zoning commission
- Provide reliable data about resource conditions and land use impacts for local decision makers

*Your chance to help shape development and reduce interface issues!*

## Elements of the Planning Process

- Data gathering
- Goal formation
- Land-use decision
- Public input
- Action plan
- Evaluation

**Notes:**
Add notes

## Elements of the planning process

**Data gathering**
**Goal formation**
**Land-use decision**
**Public input**
**Action plan**
- Evaluation

**Notes:**
Step 1. Resource professionals can help by providing information about natural resource conditions and processes that may affect or be affected by land-use activities. For example, resource professionals can advise decision makers about areas at extreme risk of wildfire due to vegetation or topography and the need either to reduce development density or to add fire protection services.
Step 2. Resource professionals can help interpret resource-related data and predict future trends, helping planners form goals. For instance, they can identify ecologically significant lands that should be conserved to connect with future greenway projects.
Step 3. At this stage resource professionals can suggest planning tools and strategies
that have worked for other communities, even sponsoring visits to other communities
to learn from their experiences. If they know of communities that have successfully created walkable neighborhoods or greenspace for recreation, they can share this knowledge or even help arrange a field trip to the community for decision makers.
Step 4. It is important to recognize the rights of all citizens to participate in decisions. The public may be involved in a community meeting or charette. Residents, decision makers, and leaders need clear, accurate information about factors and issues under consideration. Resource professionals can help ensure that community members consider natural resource issues when creating the community vision and defining goals and that the implications of planning decisions on natural resources are understood. 
Step 5. Resource professionals can help determine whether natural resource goals have been achieved and whether there are problems that need to be addressed. Forexample, if a community’s land-use plan aims to protect forest cover, naturalresource professionals can provide data to help determine whether it is successful.

## Case Study 17:Smart Growth Blossoms in Flower Mound, Texas

## Exercise 3.4: Practicing Land-Use Planning

**Notes:**
Note to Trainer: Fact Sheet 3.6: Land Conservation Tools outlines land conservation tools that your participants should become familiar with.

## Exercise 3.4 - Land Conservation Tools & Policies

- Urban growth boundary
- Eminent domain
- Land acquisition program for public lands
- Conservation easement (land preservation agreement)
- Agriculture reserve program
- Zoning
- Conservation subdivision
- Floodplain restrictions
- Wetlands protection policy
- Slope ordinance/mountain ridge protection ordinances
- Viewshed preservation

## Summary

- There are many opportunities to natural resource professionals to get involved in land-use decision making. They bring important information and experience to the table.

## Credits

- Photos:
- Slides 6,19,33: Larry Korhnak
- Slide 10,11: Ponte Vedra High School Coalition, Inc.
- Slide 20: Krasemann/Peter Arnold, Inc.
- Slides 40,41: Brett Billings, U.S. FWS, NCTC
- Literature:
- Slides 15-16: Anderson, Brady, Bullock, and Stewart 1984.
- Slides 40-41: Kelly and Becker 2000.