Training and Workshops

Linking Transportation and Conservation Planning Workshop
November 13 & 14, 2007
Summary Report prepared for Federal Highway Administration and North Central Texas Council of Governments

Introduction
Results from Day One
    Key Points
    Breakout Groups
Results from Day Two
    Key Points
    Breakout Groups
Items for Follow-up
Appendix A
Appendix B

Introduction

This report summarizes the results of the Linking Conservation and Transportation Planning Workshop hosted by the North Central Texas Council of Governments and sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The workshop was held in Arlington, Texas on November 13 and 14, 2007. It is intended that the documentation of this workshop will be a valuable resource to the attendees and other state and metropolitan agencies that are endeavoring to link conservation and transportation planning. The goals of the workshop were threefold:

1. Provide an opportunity for experts in the transportation and conservation fields in Texas to meet and begin to understand each other's goals and challenges in meeting those goals;
2. Introduce information, ideas, and facilitate dialog that will assist in the integration of transportation and conservation planning in North Central Texas, and statewide; and
3. Begin a planning process and develop a strategy to support an ongoing process that engages all agencies into a participatory mode that supports the integration of conservation and transportation planning.

Workshop Format

The first day of the workshop allowed participants an opportunity to discuss what they expected as outcomes of the workshop and what they thought were the most important ways to integrate conservation and transportation planning. This was followed by an overview of approaches to biodiversity conservation planning, its benefits to transportation planning and overviews of the transportation planning process at the state and regional levels. National initiatives and research programs were summarized and a discussion of the types of standard conservation data and methods that could be utilized by transportation planners. Also, a summary was given of local initiatives and research programs that could assist in the linking of the two processes. The second day included additional discussions of tools and data sources and an integrated planning exercise of comparing actual data to draft plan proposals with a discussion of possible impacts and ways to avoid them. The workshop participants then discussed some realistic next steps to continuing the link between conservation and transpiration planning in North Central Texas.

A copy of the workshop agenda and list of participants can be found in Appendices A and B respectively. Speaker presentations can be found on the NCTCOG ftp web site at ftp://ftp.nctcog.org. This report will also be available on the FHWA environmental web site. References to additional information can be found in the presentations. Since more detail can be found in the presentations, this summary strictly identifies the key points derived from the discussions.

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