Arrowwood Inventory of Fayston, Warren, and Waitsfield: Natural Community Mapping
The Arrowwood Inventory of Fayston, Warren, and Waitsfield began when these towns were awarded a Municipal Planning Grant from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development. This grant led to the hire of Arrowwood Environmental to create inventories of the natural communities in these three towns. These inventories involved identifying, assessing, and ranking wildlife habitat, upland and wetland natural communities, vernal pools, connecting lands, and rare elements. The first step to acquiring this information was to examine GIS maps of the area in order to identify the above elements remotely. After marking the locations of the different elements observed on the map, the towns held a public event to gain input from the citizens of Fayston, Warren, and Waitsfield.
After receiving public input, Arrowwood Environmental set out to ground truth many of the elements that they were unsure about from examining the maps alone. This ground truthing process provided the dead set locations of several elements of the inventory. Therefore, as a deliverable, Arrowwoood Environmental generated GIS maps that highlighted key resource areas in the three towns. These maps were presented in a report that was given separately to Fayston, Warren, and Waitsfield.
The completion of the Arrowwood Inventories provided information about the key natural communities in the area and ultimately provided valuable data for future management and conservation.
Forest Land, Inventory, water, wetland, wildlife
The Arrowwood inventories helped build an understanding within the community about the presence of a multitude of valuable resources within their towns. Additionally, the inventories provided more information for landowners in the area about exactly what their property consists of.
Arrowwood Environmental
Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development
Mad River Valley Planning District
The Arrowwood inventories were met with excitement and support within the community, which contributed to the success of ground truthing lands and creating accurate maps.
Ground truthing elements that were identified on GIS maps turned out to be a difficult task due to the requirement of gaining landowner permission to enter properties. Additionally, limited time and resources proved to be a challenge when trying to accomplish the inventories in a timely manner.