Providing periodic archways in the jersey barriers for wildlife to crawl under would aid in wildlife movement. For blue spotted salamanders, a state listed species, granite curbing is a sizable obstacle. By periodically breaking up granite curbing with Cape Cod berms, access points are created to help facilitate wildlife movement. These mitigation measures are a subtle fine-tuning of our roadways that would provide important benefits to wildlife. One mechanism to finance open space protection is for a town to assess a transfer tax on real estate transactions and set aside this money in a fund or Land Bank for open space acquisition.
Land banks can also accept gifts of money or land.
Transfer taxes have several advantages. With a transfer tax, the ability to protect land increases at a pace similar to the increases in real estate values directly linked to the rate of sales or transfers, which often lead to development. Purchasers of homes who are paying the tax are in effect buying into the benefits of a rural atmosphere, which in many cases is a result of the efforts of current and previous taxpayers. At present, land banks are active on Nantucket and Martha s Vineyard. In order for a town to use a transfer tax, it must be approved at a town meeting.