Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 03/15/2007 - Special Meeting

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Proposal Natural Resources Inventory for the City of Ramsey Ramsey, Minnesota' I. PROJECT UNDERSTANDING Applied Ecological Services, Inc. (AES) appreciates the opportunity to present this revised proposal for Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) services for the City of Ramsey. This proposal is based on our original proposal submitted on February 26, 2007. We have revised our scope based on several conversations and other communication with Chris Anderson (City of Ramsey Environmental Coordinator). AES is excited to offer our expertise and enthusiasm to this imp?rtant project. While much of the City of Ramsey has already been developed, the City still retains a wealth of natural resources, including regionally significant ecological areas, regional wildlife corridors, lakes, and tributaries to the Rum and Mississippi Rivers. AES understands the role that natural resources can play in planning and development in a growing city such as Ramsey, and we applaud your foresight in contracting such an inventory prior to your comprehensive plan update. AES has considerable experience in ~onducting NRIs in Minnesota, often in conjunction with regional planning efforts. We are confident that our services will gready benefit the City of Ramsey's comprehensive planning process as well as other conservation strategies. AES understands that the City of Ramsey requires completion of a NRI for the City of Ramsey (approximately 28 square miles) during the summer of 2007. AES is prepared to meet this schedule. As stated in your request for quotes, the overall purpose of the NRI is to guide land-use decisions by integrating natural resource data into the City's comprehensive plan (due for completion in 2008) as well as to assist with development of additional resource-based policies and ordinances. In particular, the project objectives include locating and evaluating the remaining natural resource areas, open space areas with public value, and sites for potential native plant community restoration. Other objectives include identifying potential/suitable greenway corridors, and ranking/prioritizing sites for possible public acquisition, conservation easements, land banking, etc. Again, AES is well versed in this entire process, frqm analyzing and utilizing existing data, to updating/refining those data using targeted field-truth and augmentation techniques, to assimilating these data into a comprehensive NRI, or what we often call a Natural Resources Assessment (NRA). This final dataset is a powerful tool that represents the City's existing natural resources base and can be used to inform sustainable, conservation-minded planning. A brief summary of our NRI/ A qualifications and the team we have assembled for your project follows under Section II, and our recommended approach for the Ramsey NRI is found under Section III. Some of AES' representative project experience and project references are provided as attachments to this proposal. Proposal- City of Ramsey NRI