The Municipal Primer – Your Guide to Creating a “Green and Growing” Community (also called “The Municipal Primer”) provides basic information and guidance to municipal officials on a wide variety of topics related to environmental protection so that local decision-makers are informed about key environmental topics. www.ct.gov/dep/municipalprimer

Planning for Agriculture: A Guide for Connecticut Municipalities.

The guide was developed by the CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) and the American Farmland Trust. The Guide covers all land use commissions. Nine workshops have been scheduled for municipal officials and landuse commissions. To download a pdf copy or a schedule of workshops on use of the guide click here.

CONNECTICUT SOIL SURVEY INFORMATION ON LINE
Municipal land use commissions, contractors, town planners, engineers, farmers, and homeowners can now easily download soil information. The new US Department off Agriculture (USDA) Web Soil Survey site provides secure public access to the national soils information system. Click here to view site.

Soil surveys are needed for most land conservation activities, as well as private and commercial land development. With the new online SOIL SURVEY INFORMATION almost anyone in Connecticut can look up soils information for their specific location.

USDA designed the website with three easy-to-use features – Define, View, and Explore. When viewers access the web soil survey, they are asked to define a geographic area. Once a location is defined and projected on the screen, the viewer is offered the choice to print the map and related information, save it to their hard drive, or download the data for use in a geographic information system.

The viewer can also explore the designed location and receive information on soil suitability in relationship to usage. This provides the viewer flexibility in developing a report to address a specific need – whether it is to design a road, plant a field, or create a wetland for wildlife habitat.

Regulating Tree Cutting

Cutting on Wetlands and Other Preserved Land Connecticut’s preserved lands are under siege, according to, Preserved But Not Protected, a recent report by Connecticut’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The most common problem is illegal tree-cutting, but there are many other illegal actions to conservation lands owned by the state, municipalities, land trusts and other private entities. While evidence for encroachment of public and preserved land is easy to document there is a lack of legal recourse available to defend against them. Here are two articles on a recent Connecticut Supreme Court case involving the illegal cutting of 340 trees in wetlands on land owned by the East Haddam Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy. Both articles and CEQ’s Special Report are instructive for both Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commissions.

	CT DEP Victorious before the State Supreme Court: Mellon Tree-Cutting Subject to CEPA Relief. By Assistant Attorney General Janet P. Brooks
	The Habitat Fall 2005 Damages for Wetlands Violations: Lesson from Ventres v. Mellon, by Mark K. Branse, Esq; The Habitat, Fall 2005
	Preserved But Not Protected, Connecticut’s Council on Environmental Quality; 2005 Special Report.

Upland development can impact the physical characteristics of wetlands and watercoursesTo learn more click on: Resources for Assessing Upland Development Impacts on Wetlands and Watercourses

Commissioner Training: Introduction to Stormwater Treatment. Municipal Inland Wetland Commissioner’s Training Program, Cheryl Chase, P. E. DEP Inland Water Resources Division. (This is a large file)

ATV's and other Motorized "off road" vehicles Threaten Function and Value of Open Space and Wetlands. Click on:

	Motorized Trespassers Threaten and Destroy Open Space Value and Function. By Tom ODell, Chairman Westbrook Conservation Commission
	The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) has compiled a comprehensive list of information related to federal, state and municipal ATV regulations.

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