WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR
OWNERS OF SUBDIVISION LOTS
BACKGROUND:
As part of its review and approval of the Powder Ridge Project, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) examined the issue of wildlife impacts. Glover Development Corporation engaged the services of Normandeau Associates to study the matter and make recommendations designed to minimize adverse impacts on wildlife. Those recommendations were ultimately adopted by the DEP and imposed as conditions of approval of the project.
The wildlife management plan for the project as a whole contains specific requirements relative to the common lands of the project and to the condominium properties. For individual subdivision lots, the plan consists of information and a series of recommendations to be provided to individual lot owners, which they may follow at their discretion on a voluntary basis.
This document constitues that informational brochure. It is to be given to lot buyers at the time they purchase lots from Glover Development, and is to be maintained on file by the Powder Ridge Homeowners' Association for reference and use by its members at any time.
CONSISTENCY WITH CUTTING RESTRICTIONS:
The following Wildlife Management Recommendations for Owners of Subdivision Lots are voluntary, but must be considered and applied in a manner consistent with Cutting Restrictions which have been imposed as mandatory requirements. Please refer to the Powder Ridge Declaration of Covenants for a full description of the Cutting Restrictions. Selected portions of the Cutting Restrictions applicable to individual house lots are reproduced at the end of this document for your information:
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
In keeping with Glover Development Corporation's goal of integrating this project into its natural environs, houselot owners are encouraged to implement the following recommendations for the maintenance and enhancement of wildlife habitat on their individual lots.
1. The individual common areas on the project constitute separated and relatively undisturbed habitat patches. If travel corridors are maintained between these areas, they will not become isolated from each other, as wildlife will tend to use multiple patches of habitat that are connected by relatively protected pathways for travel between. These travel corridors, which may be located toward any unused areas of a lot, should be left as natural as possible, retaining the understory of trees and brush as well as the more mature trees.
2. The openings created in the forest for development of houses will provide habitat for those wildlife species that prefer such open areas. Other species prefer denser, shrubby habitats. These can be provided for in the areas adjacent to cleared openings and in areas which are thinned but not cleared. Thinned areas and areas adjacent to openings have more light penetration to the forest floor, favoring more extensive shrub and herbaceous vegetation growth, providing habitat for the species that prefer this condition. Therefore, retaining as much shrub and herbaceous vegetation as possible in the areas adjacent to building openings, and in surrounding thinned areas, is encouraged.
3. The open, forest canopy in areas adjacent to clearings and in selectively thinned areas will develop dense shrub and herbaceous layers if homeowners do not cut the shrubs out of the understory. This natural vegetation that will grow in the selectively cut areas will provide better wildlife food and cover than if the shrubs are cut out. This provision of improved food and cover is particularly important for lots that abut the various common areas, and for lots on the west side of the property, as these areas may tend to lack this type of habitat due to their forest type and its generally mature condition. Referring to Item 1, a travel corridor, several hundred feet in width between the northern and southern common areas can be maintained if homeowners do not cut the wildlife cover that exists or may develop along the areas of steep slopes.
4. Shrubby habitats can be further enhanced by encouraging shrubs and small trees to grow along the forest edge inside cleared openings. Many species use such "transition zones" between cover types, here between mature forest and cleared openings. Abrupt edges (such as a mowed lawn abutting a mature forest) do not provide useable transition zones. The transition area can be managed with periodic cuttings to insure that they remain shrubby and do not grow into mature forests. A selective cutting of all trees that have grown to larger than 3 inches dbh (diameter at 4.5 feet above the ground) in the transition area should be done approximately every 10 years.
5. In general, the forested nature of the individual house lots should be maintained, while undertaking some selective cutting to provide filtered views of off-site areas such as the ski area. The mandatory Cutting Restrictions contained in the Powder Ridge Homeowners' Association Declaration of Covenants provide for just such a result, and, when combined with the other various suggestions above` will provide benefits to the homeowner and to wildlife alike.
MANDATORY CUTTING RESTRICTIONS - SELECTED EXCERPTS
In addition to the voluntary wildlife management recommendations listed above, the development of each of the individual house ' lots is subject to the following Cutting Restrictions: (See Declaration of Covenants for full description of Cutting Restrictions.):
"It is Glover's intent that the project site remain in a substantially natural and undisturbed condition, while allowing for the construction of roads, dwellings and condominia and appurtenant facilities. In all situations of cutting and clearing of vegetation on the project property, Glover, its successors, heirs and assigns, including condominium and lot owners, shall be subject to and guided by the following general provisions:
1. The visual quality of the project property shall be maintained, by providing for the reasonable visual buffering of the site when viewed from areas external to the project, including particularly the Sunday River Ski Area and surrounding existing public roadways.
2. Lot and condominium owners shall be allowed limited thinning and/or pruning of the existing vegetation so as to obtain limited filtered views only of surrounding off-site areas. Cutting/clearing to obtain unobstructed panoramic or unobstructed corridor views of off-site areas shall not be allowed.
3. "Reasonable", "visual buffering", and "filtered views" are subjective terms. For the purpose of this project, these terms shall be construed conservatively, meaning that less rather than more clearing is intended.
"Filtered views" shall mean views obtained from on-site vantage points of off-site areas, where such views are uniformly obscured to a more or less significant extent by intervening natural vegetation. Conversely, "visual
buffering" shall mean the prevention of unobscured views of project facilities when viewed from off-site by the retention of on-site intervening vegetation.
In order to effect the above general provisions, the following specific cutting limitations are established. The existence ' of these specific limitations do not supplant or diminish the obligations required under the general provisions above:
1. A buffer zone of 100 feet in width on either side of the perennial stream and its associated wetland is established, as depicted on the final plan of Powder Ridge. Within this buffer, there shall be no structural development, filling, grading or excavation nor clearing or cutting of live trees and brush or other vegetation.
2. Buffers zones of 25 feet in width on either side of the three intermittent streams and associated wetlands shall be established, as depicted on the final plan of Powder Ridge. The use of such buffers, shall be subject to the same limitations and exceptions as set forth above.
[The lot diagram accompanying your deed will indicate whether any portion of your lot falls into either of the above buffers.]
3. Clearing on individual lots for the construction of a dwelling, a driveway and parking, a sewage disposal system and well, and appurtenant facilities shall not exceed 15,000 square feet in size, in the aggregate. Cleared areas shall mean those areas which are cleared of vegetation and graded or otherwise built upon, and also those areas where greater than 40% of the trees 4 inches in diameter at 4.5 feet above the ground are removed, regardless of whether the area is graded or built upon.
4. Clearing over the remainder of the project site, including common lands, condominium property and individual lots, exclusive of road rights-of-way, detention ponds, topsoil storage areas; woodwaste disposal areas, borrow pit area, which shall be cleared to the limits shown on the design plans, shall be as follows.
Except as provided below, clearing of trees shall be limited to the removal of not more than 4096 of the trees 4 inches and larger in diameter at 4-1/2 feet above the ground. Such clearing shall be selective in nature, meaning that a well distributed stand of 4 inch and large diameter trees shall remain. However, in areas where the predominant tree diameter is less than 4 inches, or where the removal of the allotted 40 % of 4 inch trees would result in the creation of substantially unrestricted visibility of the structure, and/or developed area and cleared opening, then such trees less than 4 inches in diameter as are necessary shall be retained in order to maintain reasonable visual buffering of the site when viewed from away.
Exception: Due to the particular visual sensitivity of the area, the property of Condominium Area 1 (located on Powder Ridge) and Lots #20-31 shall be subject to the following cutting limitations, in addition to items 1-4 above:
-there shall be no cutting of live trees of greater than 6 inches DBH (diameter. at 4.5 feet above the ground), and
-filtered views may be obtained by the removal of not more than 20% of individual tree stems between 2 inches and 6 inches DBH, and the pruning of the forest understory provided that the removal of trees occurs in a selective
manner and that an evenly distributed stand of trees remains, and provided that pruning of trees is not so extensive as to affect their health or vigor and that the forest canopy is substantially maintained.
5. A buffer strip of trees 25 feet in width shall be retained along the road frontage of Lots #19, 20, 21, and 22. The purpose of this buffer is to provide visual buffering of Steamboat Road when viewed from off-site areas.
This buffer shall be located entirely on Lots 19-22, regardless of whether additional trees are retained within the adjacent road right-of-way. The buffer shall be continuous along these lots, except that each lot may have a single driveway entrance of not more than 20 feet in width for access to the lot through the buffer.