Natural Resource Based Comprehensive Planning

Two interrelated cultural trends, the flight of residents and businesses from urban centers and the attendant chronic loss of working farms, forests and agricultural land, threaten the ecological and economic integrity of the Northern Allegheny landscape, and will be addressed under this project. 

PEC's efforts are based on the conviction that natural resource conservation and the resulting reduction in polluted nonpoint source runoff can only be achieved through informed land use decisions at the local level - land use decisions centered on the conservation of natural resources and open space. The recent proliferation of new federal and state nonpoint laws and programs has underscored the growing need for local officials to be knowledgeable about the causes, effects and management of polluted runoff. Therefore, PEC's programs have as their overarching objective educating professionals and volunteers - particularly county and municipal officials - about the impacts of land use and  land use decisions on water quality and about the options available to them for managing land use and its impacts.  PEC believes that education - particularly research-based, non-advocacy professional outreach education - is the best way to foster better land use decisions.

PEC's approach emphasizes the relationship between land use and natural resource protection, with a focus on the open space and associated water resources in the region.  By assisting stakeholders as they deal with poorly planned growth and its associated nonpoint source runoff, PEC helps the region's communities better protect their natural resources while charting the future course for growth in and the sustainability of their towns.