New Partners for Smart Growth Conference

The fifth annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference will offer a number of opportunities to learn more about land use and water quality protection. The national conference is being held in Denver for the first time, from Jan. 26 through Jan. 28, 2006.

A special one-day session, Water, Water Everywhere: Integrating the Land Use and Water Quality Connection, will take place Jan. 26.  Water-related workshops include Resource-Efficient Land Use: Smart Growth Gets Water-Wise, and Smart Growth Stormwater Strategies: Clarifying Solutions and Putting Them into Their Place.

Additional sessions address transportation, parking, open space protection, smart growth tools for local officials, and evaluating costs and benefits of smart growth strategies.

For more information visit www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/smartgrowth/default.html.

Colorado Nonpoint Source Forum

Doug McKenzie-Mohr will present a workshop on community-based social marketing on Sept. 6, 2006. For more information visit www.npscolorado.com.

• NEW RESOURCES

New impervious surface analysis of Fountain Creek Watershed

The Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG) recently completed the 2005 Fountain Creek Watershed Impervious Surface and Watershed Health Analysis Report.  It describes growth and development trends, and health characteristics, in the 927-square-mile Fountain Creek Watershed, which includes all or parts of eight municipalities and three counties.   The report analyzes the percentage of current and future imperviousness throughout the watershed and identifies areas where increases will be most pronounced.  The data will be used to better understand critical problem areas, projected growth patterns and man-made changes affecting the watershed.

For more information logon www.ppacg.org/Envir/Fountain%20Creek/envir_fountaincreek.htm, or contact Rich Muzzy, PPACG environmental planning program manager, at 719- 471-7080 x109 or  rmuzzy@ppacg.org.

Two new tools from AWARE Colorado

Two new community resources were recently added to the AWARE Colorado Web site:

• A list of model ordinances used by communities around the country to protect water resources is available at www.awarecolorado.org/resources/model_ordinances.pdf.  The list includes ordinances that deal with buffer/setback zoning, cluster development, designated growth areas, transfer of development rights and trees.
• The Community Awareness Review Sheet helps local decision makers evaluate their community’s efforts to prevent polluted runoff and incorporate water protective strategies in development projects.  It assesses the use of natural resource inventories, buffers and water-protective landscaping.  It also helps gauge the implementation of strategies to reduce the impact of transportation infrastructure (streets and roads, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways).  The review sheet can be downloaded at www.awarecolorado.org/resources/Community_Awareness_Review_Sheet.pdf.

Water Protection Toolkit for Local Officials just updated

Check out the recently updated Water Protection Toolkit for Local Officials at www.awarecolorado.org/toolkit.html.   The publication is designed for use in conjunction with AWARE Colorado’s community presentations, or as a resource for anyone wanting to learn more about protecting the state’s water quality through land use planning.

The toolkit offers extensive information about planning and zoning tools, ways to reduce transportation-related impacts on water quality, improved landscaping and more.  It includes links to hundreds of Web sites in Colorado, and around the country, which provide examples of ways to prevent polluted runoff.

Boulder trees provide economic and stormwater benefits

The Urban Forestry Division of the city of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department recently announced results from the Municipal Tree Resource Analysis conducted by the U.S. Forest Service.

The analysis, a tool for urban forest managers, uses tree inventory data to quantify the monetary value of environmental and aesthetic benefits that city trees provide each year.

Highlights of the report include:

• The ability of Boulder’s municipal trees to intercept rain, thereby reducing stormwater runoff, is estimated at 6 million cubic feet annually, or $523,311. Citywide, the average tree intercepts 1,271 gallons of stormwater each year, valued at $15 per tree.
• Net annual air pollutants removed, released, and avoided average nearly a half-pound per tree and are valued at $28,215, or 79 cents per tree.
• The community now receives a substantial return on its investment of $3.67 in benefits for every dollar spent from city funds on the urban forest.

To view the complete report and learn the benefits that trees provide to this community, visit http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3365&Itemid=900.

• RELATED ARTICLES

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• FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about ways communities can prevent the impacts of land use on water quality, visit the AWARE Colorado Web site at www.awarecolorado.org.