The town of Hartwick will create a natural resource inventory as it works to achieve its state Climate Smart Communities bronze certification.
Deb Taylor, a member of the town’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force and the Conservation Advisory Committee, led a public meeting on the inventory Thursday, May 7 with Kevin Musser, senior planner at the Otsego County Planning Department. She said a natural resource inventory is a “comprehensive document that identifies, describes and maps natural assets within a municipal border.”
Its main purpose is to provide a baseline of data to aid local officials, planning boards and residents in making informed decisions about land-use conservation and development, Taylor said. Musser said completing actions, such as creating the NRI, would make Hartwick more competitive for certain clean energy grants.
Climate Smart Communities is a state program that funnels money to local communities, Taylor said. She said the natural resource inventory, a “living document,” would help the town earn points as the task force works toward earning Hartwick’s bronze certification. She needs to submit the NRI to Climate Smart Communities by May 22, she said.
The town has maps on soil and water, and works with organizations that have information on its natural resources, but the natural resource inventory offers a collective of that data, Taylor said.
“The beauty of this is it is all in one place,” Taylor said. “It can be vital for planning, for economic development, for tourism — for a lot of different things, and it can be valuable information.”
She added that she initially thought Hartwick’s natural resources were not much different from other townships nearby.
“There are really some special assets that Hartwick has like every other little community,” Taylor said. “That is really why we are here today, to drill us down to what those special assets are.”
After living in the town for about 20 years, Taylor said, she still does not know them all. She said there are various components that go into the natural resource inventory, such as water, soils, surface and topography.
Hartwick’s comprehensive plan is the most unused document in the town but is the most valuable, Taylor said. She said its natural resources section was helpful in her research.
Musser, also a member of the town’s Planning Board, presented some layered maps to individuals at the meeting, created through geographic information systems.
He said that provided a way to map online rather than going through physical copies. Musser was able to zoom into the town on a map of the area and highlight features such as flood plains, dams, rivers and streams. He said, for instance, when he clicked on a dark blue area, it provided information designating it as a freshwater pond.
A lot of the data comes from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Musser said, so most of it is state data.
“This is a major part that you see in other natural resource inventories are where wetlands are because a lot of times, obviously with development and stuff, there are laws that discourage people from developing on wetlands,” Musser said.
Bill Powers, a town resident who attended the meeting, asked what qualified as a dam, as he saw 12 dams highlighted on the map, but said there are likely closer to 100. Taylor said the 12 counted on the map were only state and county dams. Musser said it was state data, so it was likely only dams reported to the state. He said if Powers knew of others, they could be added.
He added that another benefit of creating an NRI is that people can examine this benchmark data and build on it.
Paul Clarvoe, another Hartwick resident who attended the meeting, said one of the interests in the NRI project is related to the town’s efforts to research potential for solar projects.
The town board enacted a six-month solar moratorium during a special meeting Friday, March 20, according to Daily Star archives.
That information could be helpful for the public and governing bodies to access, Musser said.
The town includes 40 square miles, with 1,200 to 2,000 feet of elevation. It is situated in the Susquehanna River watershed, and its two main waterways are Otego Creek and the Susquehanna River.
Powers said he was interested in the town’s flood plain because of its beaver population, which changes quickly. He said if beaver dams break,they could end up flooding parts of the town and costing the town a lot of money.
He said if the town is going to collect natural resource data, it needs to be updated. Powers added later in the meeting that when the Planning Board is looking at where to put certain developments, such as solar farms or housing developments, it should look at the town’s topography to “stay one step ahead of the beaver.”
One of the biggest concerns related to natural resources is that there is an uptick in farming using chemical fertilizers, which is killing off the soil, Powers said.
“I’ve always thought it would be nice if the town of Hartwick could become the organic farming hub of New York state,” Powers said. “We are going to want to eat in the future.”