Criteria for Land Acquisition

(adopted by Board of Directors, 04/25/96)

Part I -Assessment of potential significance to TLC.
Part II -Assessment of site's ecological significance.

Part I
In its consideration for potential land projects, the Land Protection Committee should answer the following questions:

1.     Does the site have the potential for a sound management plan?

Before TLC can accept property, the Land Protection Committee must consider if TLC can properly manage the site. What are the costs? Is there legal access to the site? How will TLC use the site? These are the types of questions that the committee should address. Each site is unique and will require answers to a different set of questions.

2.     Is the site large enough to be significant for its purpose?

Because each site is unique, there is no minimum size that can be applied across the board. However, the Committee must determine if the site is large enough to protect the ecological significance of the property. For example, suppose the Committee is considering protecting a site for farmland preservation. If the site were a 1-acre tract, the Committee may consider that site to be too small to have a significant impact on farmland preservation.

3.     Can TLC acquire the site with reasonable effort in relation to its value or purpose?

TLC has limited resources. While a site may be deemed "more valuable," TLC cannot spend too much of its time and effort acquiring the site at the expense of "less valuable" sites. Costs of acquisition and stewardship and the sources of funds to cover these costs will be addressed directly in TLC's Land Acquisition Priorities outline.

4.     Does the site have unique natural features?

What makes the site important to TLC? The Committee may be aware of a site's natural values through resources such as the Inventory of Natural Areas for each county. There are other times, however, when TLC comes across land that lacks documentation of its natural features. The Committee must then determine the site's ecological significance (if any exists). The questions of natural value will be addressed more thoroughly in Part II of the Criteria.

5.     How does the site compare to other on-going land projects?

At any given time TLC is working on land projects already approved by the Board and is at different stages of the evaluation process of projects pending Board approval. The Committee should consider new land projects in the context of on-going projects, and it may be necessary to re-prioritize.

Part II
After the Land Protection Committee addresses the questions included in Part I of the Criteria, the Committee must determine the land project's significance using the following list of categories:

1.     Lands that contain endangered, threatened, or rare species or communities

2.     Lands that contain, or have the potential to contain, systems of educational or scientific value

3.     Lands with agricultural or forestry significance

4.     Wetlands, floodplain, or other lands necessary for the protection of water quality

5.     Lands of historical value or lands adjacent to lands of historical value that are necessary for the protection of those items of historical interest

6.     Lands that have the potential to be part of a community, regional, or state park or part of a greenway system

7.     Lands that contain unique or outstanding physiographic characteristics

8.     Lands that contain exemplary ecosystems or natural features (examples: mature hard forest, migrant waterfowl wintering area)

9.     Lands that are valuable to a community as open space in the context of rapid development and/or their prominent position in the perception of a community (examples: green space near a town's gateway, historically popular swimming hole or fishing spot)