Natural Resource Inventory
Background and Justification
The Jaffrey Conservation Commission, in its role as advocate for natural resources on behalf of the Town, recognized the need for current natural resource data for the entire town displayed at a scale sufficient for meaningful interpretation for conservation planning. Cognizant of the technical advances in both digital spatial data and the mapping software applications to utilize it, the Town applied for a grant through the N.H. Moose Plate Fund for the production of a series of new maps to display the extent and location of its critical resources. Funding was approved, and in 2008 the Town secured the services of Kane & Ingraham, Conservation Consultants to produce the map series, along with a summary report that would together constitute a new Natural Resource Inventory of the town, which the present report comprises.
The Natural Resource Inventory
In the past two decades, Natural Resource Inventory has become a critical tool for the collection, synthesis, display and interpretation of date relating to natural resources of an area, be it at the property scale, town scale, regional scale or larger. Essentially a compilation of resource information tied to location, it can take many forms, depending on the needs of the sponsor. By displaying the known resources of an area on a variety of maps, the various component resources that exist at a location can be comprehended at once, and decisions the impact resource use are better informed.