Natural Resources Field Work

A continuing demand is placed upon SEWRPC to help Federal, State, and local units and agencies of government in evaluating and assessing the environmental significance and quality of specific development sites throughout the Region. Each of these evaluations involves field inspection work and requires a report be prepared and transmitted to the requesting party. Each year the SEWRPC receives well over 100 such requests. A map identifying the locations of this field work in 2014 is shown here. The work involved may be categorized as follows:

• Requests for the field identification and staking of wetland and primary environmental corridor boundaries on individual parcels in order to facilitate consideration by local governments of private development proposals. Requests are made by a county or local planner or engineer who needs detailed field information in order to properly carry out local planning and land use control responsibilities. Once delineated in the field by SEWRPC staff, the precise boundaries of environmentally significant areas are surveyed by private land surveyors retained by the local unit of government or landowner concerned, and the results of the survey are placed on land subdivision plats, certified survey maps, and plats of survey.
   
• Requests for field evaluation, identification, and delineation of wetlands and primary environmental corridors on large sites proposed for residential, commercial, and industrial development to determine whether environmentally sensitive areas of concern occur on such sites. SEWRPC encourages such evaluations prior to any commitment to detailed site planning. Once delineated in the field by the SEWRPC staff, the precise boundaries of the environmentally significant areas concerned are surveyed by private land surveyors retained by the local unit of government or landowner and the results of the survey are placed on plats of survey and development plans.
   
• Requests for the field identification and evaluation of environmentally sensitive areas, including wetlands, associated with transportation improvement projects. These requests come from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and county and local government departments of public works that have responsibility for transportation projects.
   
• Requests for the field identification and evaluation of environmentally sensitive areas, including wetlands, associated with municipal and private utility and community facility development projects.
   
• Requests for the field identification and evaluation of environmentally sensitive areas, including wetlands, with particular attention to the evaluation of the flora and fauna present on existing and proposed public park sites in order to assist in the development, redevelopment, and, in some cases, disposal of such sites.
   
• Requests for the survey of specific sites to identify and evaluate the flora and fauna present, including a determination as to whether any rare, threatened, or endangered species occur on the subject sites.