2011 ANNUA - The Last Green Valley

The Last Green Valley • 17
Examples of the
mapping projects.
Conservation and Preservation Mapping
Pilot Project - Parcel by Parcel
The Northeastern Connecticut
Council of Governments
(NECCOG) received funding
from TLGV to identify and map
conserved, preserved, and other
publicly held lands in the pilot
towns of Brooklyn, Pomfret,
and Woodstock. Of particular
interest were the conservation
easements and restrictions that
might not have been digitized
in the past, or were tied to
less-than-accurate GIS systems.
Parcels mapped included
municipal conservation property
and easements, land trust
property and easements, access
“Promote and
facilitate open
space planning
and protection
to preserve
important natural
and cultural
resources,
working lands,
and recreational
opportunities.”
Vision 2020, Land
Use strategies
easements, Department
of Agriculture Purchase of
Development Rights (PDR)
properties, public access
easements, and other
conservation-type properties
and easements. NECCOG
digitized property and
easement boundaries using
source maps and deeds then
placed them on top of the
new highly accurate parcel
base maps. Additionally, the
source documents (maps,
deeds and other documents)
were scanned and linked to
the properties and easements.
The pilot revealed that the
three towns have more than
500 parcels in some form
of protection, covering just
over 15,000 acres. This new
data can be used as part
of ongoing monitoring,
maintenance, and planning
activities associated with
land protection and land use
decision making.
Courtesy Otis Library
“Assist in the preservation and access to
cultural resource documents and oral traditions
pertaining to The Last Green Valley.”
Vision 2020, Cultural Resources strategy
Making History Available - Picture by
Picture, Document by Document
The Otis Library in Norwich,
founded in 1851, received
a Last Green Valley grant
to preserve, archive and
celebrate materials from the
Library’s extensive collection.
The grant provided the
impetus for the Otis Library
to move forward in making
its special collection items
accessible to the public.
The funds were used to
purchase a superior level of
technological equipment
(camera, scanner, software)
than the library could have
purchased on its own. The
equipment will continue to
assist the library in preserving
and making more of its
collection accessible in the
future. Through this process,
the Otis Library has been able
to show community members
a small sampling of what it
has to offer and to let them
know that more is coming.