Strategic Land Conservation Plan
In 2021, CPF was awarded funding through The Nature Conservancy of New York’s Resilient and Connected Network (RCN) Planning, Capacity & Strategy Grant Program to update its 2012 Strategic Land Conservation Plan (SLCP) and bring Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capacity in-house. In 2022, CPF hired professional planner and Cazenovia resident, Jennifer Marotto Lutter, to complete the plan. The SLCP is intended to help CPF focus its conservation efforts and understand how best to prioritize property protection to achieve broad conservation goals.
In the early stages of the project, the CPF Board, members of the Architectural Preservation & Land Use Committee, and staff discussed the organization’s broad conservation goals for the next ten years. This included organizational goals, including concepts around actively and strategically pursuing projects within CPF’s focus area while continuing to evaluate opportunities in outlying areas. The plan includes goals for historic preservation; natural resource protection, agriculture lands and open space conservation; considerations for public recreation and education; and, goals that address diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The next phase of the project included extensive mapping to complete a resource inventory of the area. Geospatial data layers, which included the Cazenovia Lake watershed and other water bodies, priority agricultural soils, view sheds, historic structures, biodiversity, habitat connectivity and other resources, helped CPF understand where concentrations of resources exist. The threats to these resources were also assessed. CPF then identified priority conservation areas and properties that have natural, agricultural, or historic significance or support trail connectivity for CPF’s existing trail networks.
This plan also reflects how the work of land trusts has evolved since CPF last prepared a strategic land conservation plan. While open space and natural resources are long-standing conservation priorities, climate resiliency continues to grow as a focus area for land trusts. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is another topic that many land trusts are addressing as they work to reach and support a wider audience. CPF’s updated SLCP considers both of these important emerging topics in land conservation.
The RCN grant program created an exciting opportunity for CPF to re-examine the resources, threats, and opportunities of our beautiful region. The SCLP offers a roadmap to protect those resources in a thoughtful and deliberate way over the next ten years, enhancing our community and continuing the important conservation work that CPF began in 1967.
