Delaware

Partners turn to The Conservation Fund to effectively utilize the green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation to advance their conservation objectives. The Fund convenes leadership forums to obtain stakeholder input, designs green infrastructure networks, and assembles an implementation quilt to effectively and efficiently achieve on-the-ground results.

Summary

The Fund completed the Kent County, Delaware Rapid Assessment of Green Infrastructure in 2006. The rapid assessment delineates the County’s ecological network of forests, wetlands, and aquatic systems; evaluates existing working landscape protection programs, and identifies development management and land conservation tools that can be used to achieve local and state conservation objectives.

Challenge

The State’s Livable Delaware initiative is a strategy to combat land consumptive sprawl by well-designed growth to areas where new development is planned. Key goals of the initiative include protection of cropland, commercially viable forestland, and natural resource and recreation priorities. Building on our partnership with the State that published Better Models for Development in Delaware, the Fund expanded on its philosophy that the most important model for development is first assessing where development should not take place.

Solution

Using the green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation, the Fund delineated the Delaware Ecological Network, prepared protected lands and working landscape inventories, and performed an historical evaluation of the State’s purchase of development rights program for agricultural lands. We also convened a Leadership Forum of over 20 public and private conservation partners to provide input on green infrastructure suitability analysis and land parcel scoring systems for ecological systems and working landscapes. Based on the results from the Leadership Forum and Network Design, the Fund developed an Implementation Quilt with recommendations on where State funding and policy can be directed to achieve the most beneficial and cost effective strategies for ecological and working landscape protection.

Results

The rapid assessment identified 48,400 acres of unprotected land inside Kent County’s green infrastructure network, encompassing approximately 130,000 acres (or 34%) of the County’s land area. The assessment also identified 60,000 acres as an appropriate target to achieve the Livable Delaware goal for productive farmland in Kent County and recommended $8 million in annual funding to achieve this target by 2024. A transfer of development rights program also was recommended to complement existing State and Federal acquisition efforts.

Rapid Assessment of Green Infrastructure, Kent County, DE (Download PDF)
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Pines and freshwater streams of the Glatfelter Forest, which encompasses the headwaters of the Nanticoke River and straddles the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay watersheds, have for centuries safeguarded wildlife habitat, enhanced water quality, and provided jobs for local residents.

“This purchase helps fulfill one of the major pillars of my Livable Delaware agenda by preserving forestland and open space. With this generous donation and statewide cooperation to preserve our precious land resources, Delaware residents can enjoy the beauty and benefits of these forestlands for many years to come."

- Ruth Ann Minner, Governor, State of Delaware

Summary

Beginning in 2004, The Conservation Fund came together with the State of Delaware and many other partners as part of a three-year, multi-phased project that has protected more than 5,000 acres of forest habitat in Delaware to date.

Challenge

Today thousands of acres of privately owned forestland across Delaware are for sale, jeopardizing the state’s unique character and way of life. With so much at stake, protection of key forestland is one of the region’s most important land conservation priorities.

Solution

With support from Governor Minner’s Livable Delaware Initiative, The Conservation Fund joined with the state of Delaware, and many other partners to secure some of the most environmentally sensitive areas within the forest. Delaware's congressional delegation helped secure vital funds through the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program and the Mt. Cuba Center provided a grant of more than $10 million to protect a portion of these lands.

Results

In late 2007, the State of Delaware announced the acquisition of an additional 1,100 acres of forest habitat in Sussex County, Delaware, bringing the total acres protected over 3 years to more than 5,000. The visionary project preserves a portion of the forests as managed timberland and creates new opportunities for hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing in conjunction with the Redden State Forest and the Department of Natural Resources’ Fish and Wildlife Division.