Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust Strategic Land Conservation Plan

Abstract

Over the Fall semester of 2006, 13 graduate students undertook the task of creating a Strategic Conservation Plan for Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust (THTLT), based in Watertown, NY. The plan features a series of natural resource inventories as well as a scenic viewshed analysis of the 1.3 million acre Tug Hill plateau. Regional land use history and demographic trends are explored. Using the resource inventories a vision conservation infrastructure was created for featuring recreational corridors, river corridors and wildlife areas. To help land trust decision makers in selecting solid conservation projects, a GIS suitability model was created based the land trust's own land protection criteria. Focus areas or high priority areas for pro-active conservation were outlined and tested using the suitability model. Finally, the Cornell team identified several tools for implementation based on the condition of four separate regions of Tug Hill.