Natural Resources Chapter of the Master Plan - Town of Wolfeboro

Natural Resources Chapter, Wolfeboro, NH
12.1 TOOLS TO PROTECT CRITICAL CO-OCCURRING RESOURCES
The Critical Co-Occurring Resource Analysis quickly points to those areas of significant value to
the Town of Wolfeboro, based on the criteria used to develop the model. Any area with a score
of greater than 5 should be considered critical resources to receive long-term protection.
Measures that can be used to protect these resources are:
Outright purchase by the Town of Wolfeboro or other Land Protection Agency with
conservation restrictions. These critical resources could become priority areas to guide
the Conservation Commission in the development of a conservation land protection
strategy for the Town of Wolfeboro.
Purchase of a conservation easement by the Town of Wolfeboro or other Land Protection
Agency and development of a management plan with the subject landowners to ensure
that the critical resources on the subject parcel are properly managed and/or protected.
Large lot zoning already is in place within a portion of the Pine River watershed
(Agricultural District) and could be expanded to include larger parcels along Ryefield
Brook and Clay Pit Brook which are located in the same general area of the Town but
which are currently located in the Rural Residential District (Figure 21 – Wolfeboro
Zoning Map).
Develop a Critical Resources Co-Occurring Zoning Overlay District which would spell
out buffers and permitted uses within these special resource areas.
Riparian buffer zones for critical resources should be a minimum of 100‟ for the
protection of these most sensitive resources.
Land preservation opportunities along critical aquatic resources may be eligible for
funding through the NHDES Aquatic Resource Mitigation Fund. These grant rounds are
released once each year in March if the HUC 8 watershed has accumulated enough funds
to warrant release. The NHDES website has application forms and selection criteria
guidelines that can help with determining if the project is a good fit or not for the ARM
Fund program. Projects that include restoration of as well as protection of the aquatic
resource will score higher than those that only propose one or the other.
12.2 CONSTRAINTS TO DEVELOPMENT
Another GIS analysis that can be used as a planning tool is to create an overlay of all known
constraints to development and to use this analysis to develop a plan for the responsible
development of areas not so constrained. Figures 22 & 23 display the results of such an
analysis. On Figure 22, each of the following land constraints are displayed with their own
Natural Resources Inventory, Wolfeboro, NH 61