Tony C. Zappia       Focus on the Outdoors

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Sunday, August 27, 2006

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Plan Helps Conservation in Jefferson County, NY

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the release of a Draft Environmental Assessment, Conceptual Management Plan and Land Protection Plan, for the St. Lawrence Wetland and Grassland Management District.

This plan proposes to conserve 8,000 acres of wildlife habitat within a portion of the district in Jefferson County.

Established in 1997, this 2 million-acre district encompasses portions of Jefferson, St. Lawrence, and Franklin counties with more than 350,000 acres of grassland, including agricultural lands. The goal of the district is to maintain and improve the exemplary fish and wildlife resources in the St. Lawrence Valley by working with local communities and private landowners to enhance fish and wildlife populations in an ecologically sound, economically feasible and socially acceptable way.

The land and water features in Jefferson County provide an ideal combination of wetland and grassland habitats. Waterfowl and species like bobolinks, short-eared owls, and upland sandpipers, rare and declining elsewhere in the northeastern United States, thrive in Jefferson County, and the rest of the St. Lawrence Valley.

With this proposal, the Service will purchase conservation easements from landowners, with land remaining in private ownership, and also acquire small land holdings. This will supplement U.S. Fish and Wildlife's current efforts at restoring habitats in the St. Lawrence Valley by working cooperatively with farmers and other private landowners.

The Proposal highlights are as follows:

Establishes permanent protection primarily through the Service's purchase of conservation easements on privately owned land, with land remaining in private ownership (80 percent), and fee title acquisition where needed (20 percent);

Protects up to 8,000 acres of valuable breeding and migratory bird habitats in Jefferson County;

Focuses on abandoned fields and wet marginal lands, but avoids productive agricultural lands;

Designates fee title areas as Waterfowl Production Areas, which will be open for hunting and other compatible public use;

Only involves willing sellers and voluntary landowners, and requires town government approval on a parcel-by-parcel basis;

Benefits residents of Jefferson County by providing direct payments to landowners, maintaining the rural landscape of the St. Lawrence Valley, and attracting visitors who contribute to the local economy;

Promotes regional, national, and international bird partnerships;

Expands the Service's cooperative and voluntary "Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program" on private lands;

Provides annual revenue-sharing payments to towns, offsetting tax losses from federal fee title ownership.

Also sought after by the Service is the alternative Conservation Easement. A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limits certain land uses like road construction to protect the land's habitat values. Other activities, however, such as farming, forestry, hunting and fishing could continue when they are consistent with conservation goals. Unlike Waterfowl Production Areas, conservation easements stay in private ownership.

Conservation easements are permanent agreements between the Service and all present and future landowners and are voluntary, and pertain to wetlands of value to waterfowl, and grasslands that are adjacent to wetlands.

Conservation easements do not open land to public use; take land out of private ownership; place signs on your property; affect hunting, fishing and trapping rights; include drained wetlands — unless the ditches are filled and the wetlands are restored; remove land from local tax bases; and thus do not qualify for refuge revenue-sharing payments.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will present the draft plan and provide an opportunity for public discussion at a forum from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 18. The forum will be hosted by the Center for Community Studies in the Sturtz Theater at Jefferson Community College.

For further information contact, Thomas M. Jasikoff, Project Leader, St. Lawrence Wetland and Grassland Management District, 1490 Boland Road, Richville, N.Y., 13681 or phone 315-568-5987 x230.

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