Title
Storm & Surface Water Utility (SSWU) Land Acquisition and Stewardship Strategy
Recommended
Recommended Action:
Review and provide input
Report
Issue:
Staff will present and facilitate a discussion regarding the preliminary habitat and stewardship strategy.
Staff Contact:
Joe Roush, Program and Planning Supervisor, 360.753.8563
Marcus Goodman, Senior Program Specialist, 360.753.5838
Background and Analysis:
In March, 2013 staff presented a scope of work for developing a comprehensive land stewardship and acquisition strategy, with a proposal to bring it back to UAC for discussion in early 2014.
Staff spent the last eight months researching, performing field work and analyzing GIS data in order to develop the attached preliminary Habitat and Stewardship Strategy. This work consolidates and updates several other studies that have been developed over the past 20 years related to habitat conservation in Olympia. It is a multi-scale analysis, first looking at the remaining habitat in a citywide context, then moving into a basin scale it evaluates habitat relative to land use and ownership demographics, finally we present an example of a stewardship plan we developed for an individual City owned property to demonstrate the specific habitat enhancements that could be implemented to optimize wildlife habitat.
Recognizing that this report is quite large, staff intends to give a comprehensive presentation at the January 2 meeting covering the salient points of the analysis.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
A variety of community groups and organizations likely have an interest in city planning and support for aquatic habitat protection and restoration priorities.
Financial Impact:
None at this time
Staff Recommendation:
Further evaluation of the opportunities to implement this strategy and return to UAC with an update in the future
Attachment:
Preliminary Habitat and Stewardship Strategy