ITHACA - Over the past year, the Tompkins County Planning Department has been developing “The Tompkins County Conservation Plan – Part II: A Strategic Approach to Agricultural Resource Stewardship.” 

A public meeting about this planning effort will be held Wednesday March 23  from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the Tompkins County Public Library (West Borg Warner Room), 101 E. Green Street, Ithaca.

In 2004, the Tompkins County Legislature adopted the County’s first Comprehensive Plan, which identified six Agricultural Resource Focus Areas and fourteen Natural Feature Focus Areas throughout the County in need of special consideration and protection. Part I of the Tompkins County Conservation Plan was developed in 2006 and provides an approach to address the priority conservation needs of the County’s outstanding natural features.

The Agricultural Resource Focus Area (ARFA) Plan, Part II of the Conservation Plan, investigates the issues facing local agriculture and presents a coordinated comprehensive approach to farmland protection by listing specific strategies to conserve critical agricultural land within the County’s six designated ARFAs.

The draft of this plan is available for review at www.tompkins-co.org/planning/Rural%20Resources/ARFAPlan.htm