Vermont Fish & Wildlife

Figuring out what natural resources are present is critical in any conservation planning process. We recommend that each town complete at least a basic Natural Resource Inventory. This can be a computer review of existing natural resource data with the production of six basic maps. This could be done by volunteers in the town with basic GIS skills or could be hired out for contract. Since the basic NRI involves the use of existing data, it shouldn't be too expensive. See Resources for contacting your Regional Planning Commission or private consultant. Or Contact Us.

We recommend that all towns begin with a Basic Natural Resources Inventory. All data for this process can re acquired from existing sources on the web and elsewhere.

A Basic Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) should include some variation of the following maps

Map Description	Map Sample	Layers needed (named and made by the Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI)
Conserved Lands & Water Resources		Conserved Lands CadastralPublands_CONSPUB Wetlands WaterWetlands_VSWI Town Boundaries BoundaryTown_TWNBNDS Hydrology Waterhydro_VHD Roads TransRoad_RDS Contours ElevationContours_CN100T
Land Use / Land Cover		Land Cover LandLandcov_LCLU2002 Town Boundaries BoundaryTown_TWNBNDS Hydrology Waterhydro_VHD Roads TransRoad_RDS
Prime Agricultural Soils		Soils GeologicSoils_SO Town Boundaries BoundaryTown_TWNBNDS Contours ElevationContours_CN100T Hydrology Waterhydro_VHD Roads TransRoad_RDS
Core Forest Blocks		Core Forest EcologicHabitat_COREHAB Town Boundaries BoundaryTown_TWNBNDS Contours ElevationContours_CN100T Hydrology Waterhydro_VHD Roads TransRoad_RDS
Aerial Photo		Aerial photos can be obtained from the Vermont Mapping Program
Wildlife Habitat & rare threatened & endangered species.		Wildlife Suitability Analysis EcologicHabitat_WLH Wildlife Crossing Value EcologicHabitat_WCV Deer Wintering Habitat EcologicHabitat_DEERWN Element Occurrences in Heritage Database EcologicOther_RTENATCOM (Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species & Significant Communities)
Tax map overlays		Parcel Boundaries can be obtained from the local Regional Planning Commissions We recommend printing this on transparent film such that it can be placed on all of the other maps in the NRI set that are at the same scale.
Co-occurring Resources (Multiple resources occurring together)		This is talked about in the prioritization section. Important Aquatic Sites in Vermont WaterHydro_AQUATIC VT Biodiversity Project, Biological Hotspots in Vermont EcologicHabitat_HOTSPOTS

The next step is an Advanced NRI. Generally this sort of investigation of a town's natural resources is in much more depth than a basic NRI. It might be a town-wide natural community map or details on the home range of one important species in town. This type of data provides the towns with more specific information than a Basic NRI, but is more expensive since Advanced NRIs require paying for field work and advanced map-making.

Community Value Mapping

Mapping your town's values is a useful addition to the inventory process. Since our use of the landscape has an incredible effect, it makes sense to figure out the values that help create that land use. The advantage of doing this as a map instead of a written survey is that you can use this spatially-explicit information (e.g. hunting areas) in the prioritization process to help you assign more values to specific natural heritage elements in addition to ecological functions.

Give a blank map of town with roads and streams to every person in town. Ask them to draw on it where the go and what the do there or value about it. So, where do you hunt or go for walks or farm or think is a beautiful landscape? Once you compile all the returned maps, you've created a map that shows what your town feels about different areas.

High Public Value

It is very useful to frame the discussion during the inventory phase in terms of high public value. Wetlands and core forests offer values to the public as the above exercise points out. We value these landscapes for their aesthetic beauty, the presence of wildlife for viewing and hunting among many others. Charlotte, for example has made a made showing cultural and natural features of High Public Value.