INVENTORYING THE RESOURCE base is a major activity in any planning program. In large-scale urban planning the emphasis is on physical resources—land-use zoning, utilities, transportation, and other parts of the urban infrastructure. In rural planning the emphasis is on natural, human, and cultural resources, the building blocks of the local economy. There are a great many ways to inventory resources.
Inventorying starts immediately after the formation of subcommittees, as described in chapter 3. It takes a few weeks to several months, until the components of a plan can be put together. Information about community resources provides the data base for recommendations and the rationale for policy decisions. The data base teaches subcommittee members, and through them the community, more about the technical aspects of their situation. Resources identified should be seen as raw material, basic stuff for the discussion of goals discovered by survey or by the technical team. The inventory and classification of resources supply the descriptive part of each chapter in the plan.
There are a number of standard planning inventories included in comprehensive plans that may or may not be useful in a rural environmental plan. They are mentioned here briefly, in case any should be necessary.
A population projection is basic in all planning. The projection can be estimated from regional population projections prepared by state planning or budgeting agencies or the U.S. Bureau of Census surveys available at public libraries or county offices. Alternatively, planning or demography students at the state university can make the projection. Road and highway inventories and plans are obtained from the state highway department. Inventories of educational facilities are made with assistance from school district administrators and teachers. An inventory of parks and recreation land, or of criteria to define such lands, can be supplied by the town recreation committee or by a county or state agency responsible for parks and recreation lands. Inventories of police, fire protection, and utility services are made by contacting the providers of these services.
There are two approaches to inventorying: the comprehensive and the focused. The comprehensive inventory presented in planning textbooks is frequently used in urban and regional planning. It consists of collecting all the information available on all subjects relevant to the planning area. This data is tabulated and published in the planning study. The advantage of this approach is that it provides information to answer any questions that may arise.
The focused inventory is especially designed for rural planning requirements. To conduct a focused inventory, first draw up a tentative list of hypotheses or recommendations from the technical team for developing a plan in accord with public goals. Then gather only data needed to support these proposals. For example, in a focused inventory of Glover, Vermont, recommendations from a plan for a neighboring town were studied along with the technical team’s suggestions. These recommendations were then discussed with reference to Glover. Some were dropped, others were added, and a list of anticipated recommendations was agreed on. This list was used to guide data collection. Only currently available data that supported these recommendations was collected.
The focused inventory takes between a third to a tenth of the time required for a comprehensive inventory and can bring considerable savings in time and money with no apparent loss in the quality of the plan. A focused inventory follows the scientific method, which states that a tentative theory or hypothesis should guide data-gathering. As planning proceeds, some hypotheses may be dropped and others requiring different information may be proposed. As this happens, data gathering is adjusted accordingly.
The relationship between inventorying and goal determination is very important. The two processes should be kept distinct in order to achieve the real goals of the people (uninhibited by considerations of resource limitation) and to compile the best information and recommendations from the technical team (uninhibited by concern for local attitudes). After the goals are determined and the inventories made, the two processes can be combined. Thus some new goals may appear from the results of resource inventorying, and some additional inventorying may be required to provide data for new goals.
There are four general sources of information that may be tapped to supply inventory data: this book and others on rural planning; government offices and data bases at the federal, county, and state levels; state university libraries, faculties, and technology-application centers; and subcommittee field surveys.
The local extension service office, the USDA’s SCS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forestry Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey are especially good sources of help. Many of these agencies have recently developed geographic information systems (GIS) utilizing computer-assisted cartography and database files to collect, analyze, display, and print statistical, spatial, and cartographic information from a digitized base.
The state university is another good source of information. Fortunately, most focused inventory information is readily available in local libraries, extension service offices, or the nearest regional repository libraries designated by the federal government. Information should be selected, organized, and interpreted by someone familiar with the subject and then checked with the appropriate specialists on the technical team.
The most direct way for subcommittees to collect inventory information is through field observation. This method is good for studying waterfront access, scenic roads and overlooks,. school facilities for outdoor recreation, pedestrian or cross-country ski trails, and natural areas, among other subjects.
We need clear definitions to organize and present the results of inventories. The following distinctions and definitions reflect general usage. For the purposes of discussion, we divide the field of resources into three categories: natural, cultural, and human resources. Natural resources are further divided into the following categories: physical setting; land ownership pattern; soils; agricultural land; water resources; groundwater aquifer, water supplies, and recharge areas; wetlands; forested lands; wildlife habitats; elevations and slopes; and historic sites, landscapes, and buildings.
An inventory of a physical setting is a general geological, meteorological, and geographic description of an area. It covers the relation of the area to the region and includes major physical features, population densities, and special positive or negative factors.
Natural resources such as wetlands, forests, unique geological formations, and wildlife habitats, and some modified resources such as agricultural lands, dams and irrigation systems, buildings, and rural landscapes, require special inventories because of their importance to the community or their special requirements for management. Special inventories are discussed in greater detail in this and in later chapters of this book.
One of the most important parts of an inventory is a description of the landownership pattern. In states where ownership maps are maintained in county clerk’s offices, it is not difficult to study ownership patterns. In states where ownership maps are not used and acreage descriptions in warranty deeds are estimates, only research will reveal ownership patterns. To analyze ownership for rural planning, it is not necessary to identify and measure every lot but to develop a general idea of the pattern of ownership. This can be obtained by identifying and locating larger ownerships and the predominant uses of smaller ones. A study of land ownership enhances understanding of the political economy of land use and increases the relevance of the planning process.
Knowledge of ownership, for example, assists in the protection of natural areas. Such areas can often be protected by designation. This method works well if natural areas are owned by people receptive to suggestions for protection and preservation. If a rural community wishes to acquire access to public waters, it must understand ownership patterns along these waters. The potential effects of future development at high elevations may be discovered by determining who owns land at those elevations and what the long-term vision of the owners is.
In rural areas, larger land holdings are sometimes underassessed relative to smaller holdings. An ownership survey and a comparison of assessments of record may reveal the need for a professional reassessment of large holdings. As a result, some owners of large holdings end up with higher taxes—an inducement for them to trade tax concessions with the rural jurisdiction for water access, park or recreation land, or trail easements.
An inventory of soils is basic to rural planning. In most every county in the United States since the early 1930s, the SCS has been analyzing, mapping, and interpreting soils as well as recommending their proper use to prevent erosion and maximize agricultural productivity. Until the 1950s, such efforts focused on advising farmers how to reduce erosion, improve drainage, and maintain wildlife habitats. Since the 1950s and increasingly since the 1970s, the SCS has also considered soils with reference to suitability or limitations for roads, leach fields, wetlands, natural areas, community development, and industrial sites.
SCS soil surveys are either general or detailed. General surveys combine associated soil units, complexes, or undifferentiated groups of soils into larger units appropriate to more extensive use. General soil maps show from ten to twenty or more main patterns of soils called soil associations. Each of these associations may, in fact, contain several major soils and several minor soils in a pattern that varies through the association. The soils within a given association often differ in significant ways, for example, in slope, depth to bedrock, stoniness, natural drainage, or wetness. Thus, the general soil map shows not the kind of soil in any particular place but rather several different patterns of soil made up of the many separate soils in each association.
Detailed soil reports are also prepared by the SCS. Maps and descriptions in detailed reports are based predominantly on field surveys and on the analysis of soil borings or layers in road cuts or pits. While a general soil map may show ten to twenty different soil associations, as many as fifty or sixty different types of soils may be shown in the area covered by a detailed map. Detailed soil maps and reports are available in SCS offices, located in nearly all counties and all soil and water conservation districts in the United States.
A map of soil potential and limitation for on-site sewage disposal by septic tank and leach field can be useful in REP. It should be noted, however, that even detailed soil maps are not site-specific. Within each soil classification there may be a number of areas that have better or worse potential for its indicated purpose. A more definitive soil investigation or engineering analysis is needed, for example when evaluating specific sites for on-site sewage disposal or for the design of other sewage disposal systems.
Similarly, a detailed soil map indicating potential or limitation in certain areas for sanitary landfill is useful. This type of map shows the general potential for sanitary landfill of the predominant soils in each area. To learn the specific locations that might be most suitable in each proposed site, the planning commission or the landowner should have special soil samples taken of proposed sites. SCS personnel as well as the state department of water resources or environmental protection should be consulted about locating sanitary landfills.
Although economic returns on agricultural land have varied greatly over the last twenty years, the most basic resource for many rural areas is soil with agricultural potential. Whenever there is extensive agricultural land in a region, it must be inventoried and classified in order to consider its potential future use in relation to competing uses. Several methods of classification have been developed since land-use planning evolved in the early 1930s.1
The system outlined here is based on a combination of soil and economic data. The starting point of classification is SCS information concerning soil’s characteristics and soil’s suitability for farming. Added to this are data on land-use trends, the minimum size for viable farm units, and the economics of location in relation to markets. This information is available from state university departments of agricultural economics or from the local agricultural extension agent.
Classification is done in three steps: mapping land into four suitability classes based on agricultural productivity and the economic potential of soils; mapping present land use; and mapping ownership, with overlays indicating private or public and identifying the managing agency. After these steps are completed, recommendations for future land use can be made.
This classification system provides a relative, not an absolute, means of comparison. The most suitable land is the land most suitable within the county or that particular soils analysis area—not necessarily in the state or region. Land is classified in four categories: class 1, best suited to row- or field-crop agriculture; class 2, moderately suited to such agriculture; class 3, poorly suited to such agriculture; and class 4, unsuitable to such agriculture. Land devoted to nonagricultural uses and not likely to be returned to agriculture is included in class 4. Land rated in categories 1, 2, or 3 should be distinguished as active or inactive farmland.
The land most suitable to row- or field-crop agriculture, class 1, is usually in flood-deposit plains, in river valleys, and on level or gently rolling landscape. Flood-deposit plains, because of their soil and topography, are excellent for farming. Class 2 land is less suitable to agriculture than class 1 land. Class 2 land is generally level or gently sloping and mostly sandy or silty, often with a clay subsoil. Class 3 is the least suitable of all for row-crop agriculture. Soils vary considerably in this class. Some are sandy, some stony, but all lack the natural fertility and ease of cultivation found in more productive soils.
The remaining land is placed in the classification 4, “Unsuitable for Traditional Agriculture.” Class 4 land is mostly hilly or mountainous. The classification, however, evaluates land only for traditional flatland cropping and harvesting. Hilly or mountainous land can be used for grazing, intensive terraced agriculture, silvaculture (growing trees as a crop), and other productive uses.
Highly developed or urbanized areas also are placed in class 4. Urban developments may be located on soil with good agricultural potential. Such areas are usually considered lost to traditional agricultural use. However, special note should be made of suburban or cluster developments located on rich soil. These, suitable for intensive agriculture, aquaculture, and bio-mass recycling, can help to meet urban food and energy needs in the future and should be identified as potentially valuable community resources.2
Who inventories and classifies soil? The ideal team is made up of the local SCS representative, the county agent, or a successful agriculturalist who knows the soil in the area, and an agricultural economist from the state land-grant college. As an alternative, a planning student can interview these specialists and subsequently assemble and map the information. After classifying and mapping soil areas, the classification team should make a preliminary assessment of their “best use” with reference to the owners’ interests and the public’s. A map outlining present and projected future use provides a basis for a dialogue among citizens that will help them to plan land uses for the future.
Water is as important as soil in REP. In fact, soil may be considered a filter or conduit for the ground phase of the hydrologic cycle. Most state governments have water resource departments or, as in the Western states, a state engineer with highly competent technical staffs. However, obtaining information on water may be difficult because in many state universities its study is not considered a discipline. Water experts are often scattered among the departments of civil engineering, limnology, soils, geology, resource economics, law, and public administration.
An intensive effort must be made to describe existing conditions and actions necessary to achieve community goals for domestic water, irrigation, and recreational water use. A rural environmental plan should include a section on water resources that describes these resources clearly and comprehensively but also in terms that people affected by the plan can understand. Additionally, this section should make recommendations based on public goals and within the framework of quality control required in federal and state legislation and health department criteria.
The task of the rural environmental planner is to interview water experts in state agencies and university departments in order to collect data on the present situation, such as quantity, quality, process of allocation, ownership, historic use, or legal aspects. The biologists, hydrologists, limnologists, and geologists of the state universities or water resource agencies tend to use technical vocabulary that is basic to their scientific method. This vocabulary may not be suitable for community planning process. For example, many water scientists do not use the term pollution. They speak instead of “levels or eutrophication” and “levels of nutrients.” And health departments have very precise definitions of pollution with reference to swimming and drinking water. This data, then, should be organized, translated into layman’s language, and included in the plan’s water resources chapter along with the recommendations that have been collected.
Knowledge of the location of groundwater aquifers and recharge areas is desirable for wise land use planning. This information is obtained by surficial geologists who study soil, bedrock, slopes, and other data and infer the location of aquifers accurately enough to make their protection possible. Protection of these aquifer recharge areas is important for maintenance of potable water. They must be located and protected from intensive development. The source of this information is the state geologist or the university department of geology.
An inventory of the domestic water supply will require assistance from the state or county health department, water resources department, county or adjacent municipal water district, and local water-supply administrators. The report should include the number of samples taken, the number that have passed, and the number that have failed.
It should also describe water quality without fear or hope of favor. Sometimes water quality is treated as “sensitive” information. Research at the University of Vermont demonstrates, however, that if the public is given clear, concise, and frequent information about the public water supply, and if the quality is inadequate, people will take immediate steps to correct it. The University of Vermont experiment used a computer program to summarize and map data on water quality around the state; information was supplied to newspapers, which published a map indicating the number of samples taken for each public water supply system, the systems that passed, and the systems that failed. Citizens responded by informing the agency responsible of their concern. Local health officers unanimously concluded that the news reports were effective in promoting public awareness of and concern for water quality.3 Information on water sources, water quality and quantity, and recharge areas should be mapped and made available to inform citizens and their elected officials.
Wetlands—marshes, bogs, and ponds, as well as river and arroyo (dry-wash) floodways—require special attention, as they play a vital role in life cycles, flood prevention, and the hydrologic cycle. They are often also scenic natural areas. They should be identified, described, and appraised from the viewpoint of hydrology, botany, and wildlife biology. Then appropriate recommendations should be made to protect the functions that they serve. Wetlands are invariably unsuitable for building sites, and because they frequently act as flood retarding reservoirs or water-table recharge areas, there is strong justification for proposing in the plan that they be maintained as natural greenbelts.
Forested land is a common feature of rural communities. An inventory of its type, acreage, ownership, and market value is an important component of the natural resource base and the economic base. Data for this inventory may be drawn from the state forestry department, professional foresters, federal regional foresters, and owners of extensive woodlands. Special care must be exercised in reporting acreage, as definitions of forested land vary from one agency to the next and some categories of agricultural land fit into the forested land category.
Forested land introduces special problems because it often represents residual land use. When the size of a holding is small, say, a hundred acres or less, and the quality poor, it is usually unprofitable to manage the land for timber production. Much forested land is held for non-timber production purposes such as water recharge, game management, even for aesthetics and recreation. To inventory forested land, assistance should be sought from county or state foresters on the production potential of forests, from botanists and hydrologists on the role of forests in the hydrologic cycle, from resource economists on the economics of multiple uses of forested land, and from environmental planners on the future role of the forestland in a quality environment.
Three sources of information about wildlife habitats are available: SCS soil maps, biological surveys and interviews with state and university wildlife experts, and interviews with local game wardens, hunters, and farmers who know the wildlife of the area. Habitats may be studied by referring to soil and topographical maps, but while maps are useful in general planning, they lack precision. Biologists can make field surveys of wildlife. This method is precise but too expensive for most rural area planning.
Game wardens, hunters, and fishermen, as well as farmers and ranchers with a knowledge of wildlife habitats, may be interviewed to determine the location and size of habitats. Supplemental information is available from state fish and game department experts and range specialists at land grant colleges. An inventory of bird habitats, nesting and feeding areas, and migration routes, provided by local Audubon Society members, can add environmental perspective to a plan. Data from several sources permits comparison and the compilation of a consensus. Wildlife habitats can be mapped by species, location criticality, endangerment, etc., depending on the specific proposal for a natural area or conservation zone.
In rural areas, an inventory of slopes and higher elevations is essential to prevent expensive mistakes in the location of residences or other more intensive uses. Steep slopes are generally poor locations for roads and buildings, or other active uses, because of increased impact on local ecosystems. On steep slopes plant species are fewer, soils are shallower, erosion is more likely, precipitation damage is heavier, damage from roads or logging is greater, risk of fire is greater, and after-damage recovery is much slower. Early settlers in the eastern United States were aware of these disadvantages, and in northern New England farmland was not usually cleared above 2,000 to 2,500 feet elevation. In the West, most permanent agricultural communities were located at the edge of a valley, not on the steepest slopes and not on land that could be irrigated.
While steep slopes require protection primarily for conservation, higher elevations should be protected from intensive development primarily to minimize long-term costs to the local jurisdiction. Although local conditions vary, in general the higher the elevation, the more costly the road upkeep, snow removal, and other municipal and county services. Concentrating development in villages or residential clusters at lower elevations or along the edges of valleys is cheaper and more efficient from the point of view of development and services.
Elevations may be mapped directly from topographical maps of the U.S. Geological Survey. Slopes are calculated by counting the number of contours per inch, or of some other unit on the map scale, and then plotted according to steepness.
Historic sites remind people of their cultural heritage; identifying them adds an attractive dimension to a rural area, village, or town. Inventorying historic sites is usually one of the easiest inventories to accomplish. In most communities there are interested individuals who will volunteer to review records in the state archives and the local library, interview community elders, and write a brief history of the important sites and buildings.
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 authorized financial support for the preservation of historic buildings and unique landscapes or sites for practical, economic, historical and aesthetic reasons. Title 1 of this law authorized the secretary of the interior to expand and maintain the National Register of Historic Places and to provide grant funds to states for historic resource planning, acquisition, and development. Funding under this act was reduced when the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 was amended in 1986. This act allows tax incentives for accelerated depreciation and for rapid amortization for rehabilitation expenses of commercial and income-producing properties on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1986 amendment reduced tax credits from 25 to 20 percent and required credits to be applied to properties themselves.
University history departments, state and local historical societies, and the state office of cultural affairs provide technical assistance to local officials and assist rural inhabitants in recognizing and preserving historic places. Citizens may want to form a history subcommittee as part of an overall planning effort. Members can interview community elders to derive oral history information about events; cultural traditions and their origins; significance of valued sites, buildings, landscapes, rituals, and observances.
Fortunately REP subcommittees do not have to conduct all eleven inventories. The number of inventories and the amount of work they require are reduced in several ways. In most REP projects three to six subcommittees are sufficient to address all the inventory subjects with critical importance to planning at one time. Small municipalities with a population of a few hundred to a few thousand are essentially rural, their principal interests probably being agricultural or open space. In municipalities of a few thousand to ten thousand REP may supplement a conventional master plan; the focus would be on types and uses of open land not covered in a master plan. Also, the technical team provides much of the inventory information either directly or by guiding additional subcommittee research. Focused inventories also help to make inventorying a process that can be conducted in a few months.
Surveying the resource base means looking into the social and cultural heritage of a community. Every place has a cultural as well as a physical history, even those places that have no remaining historic buildings or artifacts. This history may not be as well known as the rich histories of places such as Roanoke Island, Taos, or Mark Twain’s Calaveras County, but in each location the events of history, whether recent or ancient, create a community bond that is as valuable as other more tangible resources.
To understand the social groups of a planning area, community leaders such as teachers, clergy, or officers in a local cooperative can be interviewed. Churches, fraternal organizations, and sports clubs attract various social subgroups.
In most rural communities there are individuals with knowledge and genuine interest in cultural resources. Just as with physical historic resources, when these issues gain recognition and respect through the public meeting and survey process, people with such knowledge may volunteer to contribute information, research, conduct interviews, or draft a cultural history.
A Rural Environmental Plan may identify and honor the historical sites and events of their own place as the roots of people’s memory in a community. Even the name of the community can have a story behind it that interests local citizens.
An example of planning that recognizes traditional and cultural values is the Tonantzin Land Institute, headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tonantzin is a private, nonprofit organization of Mexican- and Native American land-based communities from throughout the Southwest. In a 1987 contract with the Southwest Regional Office of the U.S. Forest Service, the institute assessed the natural resource needs of traditional communities adjacent to the Cibola National Forest in central New Mexico. In all, nine communities participated in the survey: the Acoma, Laguna, Sandia, and Zuni Indian Pueblos, the Canoncito and Ramah Bands of Navajos, and the towns of Cubero, San Mateo, and San Fidel. The survey stated values and goals and proposed procedures for the development of a forest management plan.
The Cibola National Forest encompasses expansive grassland, timber woodland, mountain recreation areas, and fragile desert. No other forest management plan affects so divergent an environment and so diverse a population. Native American tribes such as the Navajo and Apache, aboriginal Pueblos, and Mexican-American land-grant settlers have used the resources of this land for centuries. That portion of the Tonantzin Land Institute report covering Cibola Forest, completed in August 1988, assesses needs and suggests ways in which the U.S. Forest Service and traditional communities can work cooperatively, rather than competitively, in natural resource planning. The proposals accommodate the day-to-day needs of communities by allowing and supporting their customary use of natural resources for food, timber, and livestock. The report explains alternative viewpoints regarding historically pressing concerns such as water rights and land tenure, and it states the indigenous people’s preference for collective use of natural resources, their commitment to stewardship, and their aspirations for the right to self-determination. 4
In addition to needs assessment, the contract issued to Tonantzin called for the design of a program to train Forest Service personnel in the dynamics of traditional communities and how such dynamics affect their relationship with the Forest Service. When completed, the program will help Forest Service personnel to increase community participation at all levels of decision-making about the management and joint use of forest resources. Together, the report on resources management and the training program signal a new beginning in U.S. government relations with indigenous and traditional communities. In spring 1989 the Southwest Regional Office of the Forest Service extended the contract with the Tonantzin Land Institute to encompass all five national forests in New Mexico.
The collective knowledge, skills, and memory as well as the network of associations among rural residents are the human resources of a place; they provide the framework of its existence. When economic conditions or other circumstances change, the ability of a people to take group action can mean the difference between economic decline or renewed prosperity.
One way to find out about the skills of a people is to ask them. A human resources survey can ask people to list their skills, even such things as crafts for which they may not be paid. The reservoir of job skills in a community where people are unemployed or undervalued is the foundation for new economic activity. An ability to repair complex machines, traditional sewing, quilting, weaving, or food preparation, a knowledge of soil and plant properties—all these represent valuable skills that can be transferred to similar tasks that bring greater economic return. Applying old skills to new activities to fit a changing local or world market might be one way of revitalizing a community.
In 1980, the primary employer in the New Mexico village of Chama, a lumber mill that at its peak employed more than 250 people, shut down. With an FmHA planning grant and technical help from the Design and Planning Assistance Center at the University of New Mexico, the mayor, village council, and citizens and neighbors of Chama prepared a development plan for the village and surrounding area.5 In preliminary information meetings they decided they needed a newsletter or newspaper to keep people informed of happenings in their area.
Subsequently, volunteers on the citizens committee, composed of residents and landowners, developed a questionnaire in the form of a newspaper and mailed one to each household in the village and the surrounding valley. In the “newspaper,” The Chama Valley Voice, area residents were told about the planning process and were asked to fill out the questionnaire, which covered such subjects as the local economy, public improvements, recreation and tourism, and health and human services. The response rate was just under 30 percent. Over 90 percent of those who responded to questions on the economy agreed that local resources should be used to expand local employment, and that employment opportunities should be broadened to include more women and young people. Respondents also said it was important to develop locally owned and controlled industries. Further, a large proportion stated that they would be willing to put time or money into a local business or co-op.
One question dealt with the establishment of a skills bank. The survey asked what skills a respondent or family member had that might be used if there were a market for them, and what skills he or she, in turn, would like to learn. Answers to this question were long and varied, revealing that in addition to lumbering and mill work, many residents were skilled in areas such as wood carving, carpentry, plumbing, sewing, quilting, and animal care and husbandry. Many others expressed interest in learning these skills.
Many of the recommendations of this community development plan were implemented by local quasipublic or private agencies. For example, two non-profit organizations, a community-based clinic, and a community-based economic development corporation (Ganados del Valle) each took sectors of the plan and implemented them with a mix of philanthropic and public funds and with the help of professional, paraprofessional, and volunteer staff.
Inventorying for a rural environmental plan tends to be more extensive and detailed on some subjects than it is for many urban plans. In an inventory, the productivity of the land and of the people and the connection between natural resources, human activity, and location are surveyed, tabulated, and summarized. The process, which takes a substantial amount of time, becomes manageable when it focuses on aspects germane to community goals. If new concerns or different opportunities arise, an inventory can be supplemented. The task also becomes more manageable when shared with volunteers, supported by planning students, and assisted by a technical team of experts from public agencies and private organizations. A task can be divided and the parts delegated to subcommittees; with the help of technical experts and, in some cases, university students, each subcommittee focuses on one subject and produces data for classification, analysis, and specific recommendations.
Additional methods to inventory natural areas are explained in chapter 6; water quality is addressed in chapter 9; scenery inventories are covered in chapter 10 and information on social impact assessments is presented in chapter 11. Economic base inventories are described in chapter 12 with additional information needed for economic development in chapter 13. Inventorying covers many subjects, including technical recommendations and steps for future action. It is the foundation and the heart of the Rural Environmental Planning process.