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Tamworth conservation committee refines scoring system, sets pilot properties
Summary
The Conservation Land Review Committee agreed May 19 to refine a consolidated scoring matrix for land conservation, treat the NH Wildlife Action Plan as a distinct input, secure GIS help to build co‑occurrence maps, and test the system on two Tamworth parcels and one in Sandwich.
Chair Ned Beecher called the Conservation Land Review Committee to order at about 5:10 p.m. on May 19; members in attendance included Nancy Walser, David Little (via Zoom), Dylan Alden, Dwight Emery and Dexter Harding. The group focused on refining a consolidated scoring matrix to help prioritize land for conservation in Tamworth and Sandwich.
Dwight Emery presented an updated three‑page document prepared May 10 that consolidates categories used by four prior planning efforts (UVSLT Priority planning, LRCT Delphi, TCC 2007 and SPNHF). Members agreed in principle to use six of seven top‑level categories, consider moving scenic and trail values into an "added benefits" bucket, and to treat the New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan (NH WAP) as a separate input. The committee instructed Emery to post the spreadsheet in a shared Google Doc for collective editing and agreed to apply the developing scoring system to two candidate properties in Tamworth and one in Sandwich at a future meeting.
The committee discussed technical needs for producing co‑occurrence maps, including whether to use Sandwich’s ArcGIS account, Cartographics (CAI) options, or free QGIS. David Little emphasized using a logarithmic scale when displaying final scores because layers differ widely in magnitude and specificity. Nancy Walser agreed to check whether historical wetlands mapping (Barry Keith, ~1984) is available for Tamworth and Sandwich.
The meeting closed with an adjournment motion by Dexter Harding, seconded by Nancy Walser, approved by all present at about 6:50 p.m.
