Landscape Conservation Solutions: 
Five Areas of Focus

contact: Peter Madsen
CH2M HILL, Inc.
707-604-9182 x336
 pmadsen@ch2m.com		   

or Craig Evans
954-426-4008 x 223
Cell: 561-302-5782
craig@privatelands.org 

This update is divided into 7 sections.  
Please click on the sections that are of most interest:
The Funding Finder |  5 Objectives | 5 Areas of Focus:
 Rural Land Planning | Rural Revitalization | Rural Enterprise Profitability | Environmental Stewardship | Community Enhancement & Vitalization 

more than 20 different programs, services and tools have been combined to create five areas of focus for Landscape Conservation Solutions.  (Please click on hyperlinks below for additional information on specific LCS programs and services.) 

The Funding Finder

The Landscape Conservation Solutions begins with a simple way to obtain information about grants and programs that can be used to carry out the Initiative’s areas of focus. Information from the Funding Finder allows private landowners and community leaders, residents and businesses to obtain the resources necessary to: 

1.     Promote land planning targeted to the specific needs of rural areas (click here to go to description of this area of focus);

2.     Revitalize rural communities (click here to go to description);

3.     Enhance the profitability of rural enterprises and resource-based businesses (click here to go to description);

4.     Promote environmental stewardship (click here to go to description); and

5.     Encourage community enhancement (click here to go to description).

A Suite of Tools Help Carry Out 5 Objectives

In each case, a suite of tools are employed that:

1.    Use and enhance market economy incentives;

2.    Capitalize on and harness market economy interactions to create additional value (greater economic value, greater return on investment, greater margin of profit, greater environmental benefit, etc.)

3.    Make government programs and activities more understandable, accessible and easier to participate in;

4.    Make government regulations easier to comprehend, easier to comply with, and more coordinated with one another; and

5.    Assess all existing government grants and programs at the federal, state, regional and local levels to determine which are applicable to a specific landowner’s, project’s or region’s needs;

Adjust selected programs to target and address unique local conditions, needs and opportunities; and

Assemble selected programs into a comprehensive “package” of services and opportunities, where credits and income streams can be stacked, and administrative and reporting requirements for each program can be coordinated through a single contract.

The Five Areas of Focus

Promote land planning targeted to the specific needs of rural areas: 
1.      Rural Lands Stewardship Program (RLSP)  

Revitalize rural communities: 
2.      Rural Area Revitalization Program (RARP) --  

These two programs offer multiple-parcel, multiple-landowner planning on a regional basis – with an emphasis on rural areas ranging in size from 10,000 acres to several million acres.  

The first program, the Rural Lands Stewardship Program (RLSP), is designed for “fast growth areas” that are under ever increasing development pressure. 

The second program, the Rural Area Revitalization Program (RARP) is designed for “slow or stagnant growth areas” that have experienced shrinking economies and populations and are in need of economic stimulus and revitalization.   

While these two types of rural areas have very distinct differences, the process and tools used to address the issues facing these areas are very much the same.   

The Rural Lands Stewardship Program—has been cited by planners as “by far the best concept we’ve ever seen to address rural growth issues” because it does not pit development and preservation against each other but, instead, harnesses the market economy to provide funding for and significant, compelling incentives to private landowners to permanently protect important public values and natural resources.

Tools are provided in both programs for:

  •         Data Gathering

  •         Alternative Scenario Planning & Visualization

  •         Consensus-Building & Decision Making

  •         Public & Environmental Resource Identification, Mapping and Economic Valuation

  •         Creating Market Economy Drivers & Incentives

  •         Establishing Functional Connections between Different Land Uses & Landscape  Features

    --   Incorporates Sustainable Development concepts
    --   Also incorporates Integrated Watershed Planning

  •         Integrating Rural Areas, Agricultural Areas and Natural Areas into Community Economics & Planning.  This builds on the functional land connections cited above, but focuses on:

Integrating Agriculture into Rural Planning —by identifying new roles and opportunities for agricultural operations adjacent to areas where new settlements are going to be built, and integrates these agriculture into community planning and design to greatly reduce the impacts of further development

This also utilizes, among other tools:

--   CH2M HILL’s LIFE Model 
--   Development of bio-energy, bio-fuels, bio-products, etc.

  •        Fiscal Impact Analysis – to ensure each community will generate sufficient short-term and long-term revenues to pay for all necessary public services.  Two tools are available:

Community Revenue & Expense Studies—provide answers as to which land uses pay their way and which do not and whether planning for a diverse mix of land uses makes good fiscal and economic sense. 

True Cost Accounting—helps policy makers see the long-term fiscal impacts of current land uses, better understand the impacts of proposed additions and changes, and ask themselves what if different approaches were used? Would they generate new revenues, offset deficits, create a better balance and mix of uses, and result in a more livable community?

  •         Economic Development  – to attract new revenue-generating enterprises and opportunities, using federal grants and programs, new technologies, opportunities for credit trading and conservation stewardship, and entrepreneurial approaches.  

    --   Economic Stewardship—this uses existing CH2M HILL expertise and resources combined with LCS tools to identify and optimize new economic opportunities for rural areas. 
    --  Grant writing/procurement 

  •         Implementation (includes development of Goals, Objectives and Policies; preparation of Comprehensive Plan Amendments; development of Land Development Regulations; and site planning, design & construction for housing, commercial, professional, industrial and community facilities and infrastructure)

  •        Regionwide Project Integration and Coordination :

    Parcel-by-Parcel and Regionwide Project Integration and Coordination—will use a comprehensive database (based on template created by Stewardship America) to identify, correlate, and understand the interrelationships between each and every activity in a geographic area, so it becomes possible to coordinate multiple disciplines, agencies, interests, owners, and activities; to plot connections, impacts, and conflicts; to create synergies and efficiencies; and to identify gaps where additional projects can be pursued.

Enhance the profitability of rural enterprises and resource-based businesses: 
3.      Rural Enterprise Enhancement Program (REEP)

This area of focus is comprised of:

  •         Existing expertise provided by CH2M HILL’s Agricultural Services Division  

  •        CH2M HILL’s “Credit Trading Tent”

  •         A New Look at Agriculture—A Strategic Planning Tool to Revitalize Rural Enterprises and Help These Enterprises Succeed in an Era of Global Change.  Redefines agriculture's role in our economy, environment and culture.  Provides an interactive, facilitated group meeting format to identify obstacles and opportunities for maintaining economic viability of agricultural operations in a specific county, region or geographic area, and for generating new streams of revenue to improve profits. 

  •         Business Stewardship— 

    --   Builds on the Funding Finder and CH2M HILL's new grant writing/procurement service to identify ways to maximize returns for rural enterprises
    --   Uses CH2M HILL’s” Credit Trading Tent” 
    --   Can be carried out on an individual parcel basis or on a multi-parcel, county, regional or landscape basis

  •         Common-Sense Operating Plans—(this program is partially complete with a working templates already in place).  Provides a simple, one-stop, easy-to-use, easy-to-understand means to coordinate and integrate regulatory requirements for rural enterprises, seamlessly, into day-to-day operations.

Promote environmental stewardship: 
4.      Private Lands Stewardship Program (PLSP)

This area of focus is comprised of:

  •         The Farmland Stewardship Program—(statutory authority; program blueprint), program initiated as part of legislation leading up to 2002 Farm Bill; builds on Sec. 2003 of the 2002 Farm Bill to allow for the assembly of up to 600 different federal programs, plus state, local, and private programs for farm, ranch, forest, and natural lands all in ONE contract.

  •         The Stewardship Database—(essential “program” locator), provides a simple tool to identify, make sense out of, and use, thousands of local, regional, state, and federal grants programs from the private and public sectors.

  •         Endangered Species and Private Lands—turns an environmental liability into an asset by providing economic incentives to conserve endangered species and other environmental resources.

  •         Stewardship Partners—(network of contacts to be instituted) to provide local connections through local people who know and understand local conditions and customs.

  •         Customized Stewardship Planning—         

    --   A site specific planning service; 
    --   Can be carried out by in cooperation with individuals and firms who have been certified by the USDA/NRCS as Technical Service Providers (TSPs); 
    --   Lays the ground work for program assessment, adjustment and assembly (see next bullet item below) 
    --   Addresses, and capitalizes on, site-specific needs and opportunities to turn environmental assets into dollars, promote environmental compatibility, and layer multiple values on top of one another.
    --   Uses existing expertise and resources of CH2M HILL’s Ag Services Division.

  •          Program Assessment, Adjustment, and Assembly — 

    --   Takes information gathered on a site-specific, county, regional and/or watershed basis; 
    --   Utilizes government grants and funding, either alone or in conjunction with private dollars; and 
    --   Uses these dollars to carry out design/build/operate projects; 
    --   Thus, this makes the most of existing opportunities to obtain maximum value for the  activities carried out on each parcel of land. 

Encourage community enhancement: 
5.      Community Stewardship & Vitalization Program (CSVP)

Multiple-Parcel, Multiple-Landowner Planning on a Neighborhood Basis

  •         Takes Rural Lands Stewardship Program tools and concepts (click here) and applies these to renewal, revitalization and development projects within existing cities and towns to provide more walkable, liveable, sustainable and economically viable neighborhoods and downtown areas.

For more information about the LCS and its programs, visit the other links on this website (http://privatelands.org), or email Tim Sharp at CH2M HILL, Tim.Sharp@ch2m.com,  or Craig Evans, craig@privatelands.org