North Shore Land Alliance builds tool to target land for conservation

A Mill Neck nonprofit is using a new mapping tool to prioritize land vital for conservation, part of an effort to curb the pace of development across Long Island.

The North Shore Land Alliance launched the digital mapping tool earlier this year. Carter Rogan, the software's architect, said the tool rates properties based on their importance to conservationists. The rating draws on publicly available data and includes sprawling natural spaces along with smaller areas: For example, a backyard bordering an already-protected property.

The idea is to find interspersed plots that connect to a wider swath of wilderness where development protections are in place. Highlighting the benefit of smaller natural spaces, and their relation to the environment, can help improve corridors for wildlife and maintain space for groundwater recharge, conservationists said.

“Anytime your backyard has native plants, has habitat resources such as hiding spots, shelter, food, water, opportunities for wildlife, that’s all contributing to the greater ecosystem,” said Rogan, GIS manager at the North Shore Land Alliance.

Land Alliance officials said the tool uses information like canopy cover, acreage and other natural characteristics to create a visual gradient across Long Island. Plots are deep brown if they have a low conservation score, and deep green if the value is high.

The most important factor, said Rogan, is identifying land near areas where development is prohibited. He pointed to the 5 acres the nonprofit recently purchased to help expand the existing Red Cote Preserve.

Land abutting already-protected properties is often privately owned, especially on Long Island, officials said. To protect those spots, officials use conservation easements legal agreements to preserve a property as undevelopable while leaving it in the hands of property owners.

The National Conservation Easement Database, which is no longer actively updated after losing funding early last year, shows there were a total of 221,256 easements conserving nearly 38 million acres of land across the country.

Lisa Ott, the director of the North Shore Land Alliance, said conservation easements allow the nonprofit to create customized agreements with landowners in perpetuity. The arrangements often keep the protected land tracts in private hands. 

The mapping tool provides a "holistic analysis," she said. The data makes known the best opportunities for the region, which are often difficult to tell by observing land tracts individually.

"Each parcel has a different story," Ott said. 

It also puts into perspective the space that can still be preserved, she said. 

“People come up to us and say, ‘Oh, there’s nothing left to protect,’ which some people believe, but once you see a map and see how much is there to protect, that’s really the only way to correct those perceptions about what we have,” Ott said.

There’s an active battle between the need for more housing on Long Island and conservation, experts said.

New York State recently expedited an often lengthy environmental review process known as SEQRA to speed up development, drawing concern from environmentalists, Newsday has reported. 

Long Island is under "heavy development pressure," making projects like the North Shore Land Alliance's mapping tool important for focusing efforts, said Joe Jannsen, conservation lands director for The Nature Conservancy.

“You’re trying to balance the needs of a community while also trying to protect these areas that are important from a conservation standpoint,” Jannsen said.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ