By chance I heard about a workshop scheduled for today on the use of the online Heritage Landscape Atlas, so I signed up (even though technically, it wasn’t intended for ordinary people like me).  A group of us met for about two hours this afternoon in a training room at the DCR office in West Boylston.  At check-in, we were each given a packet of material and then everyone took a seat in front of a workstation.  Hosting the workshop was a full contingent of staff from the DCR, including Patrice Kish, Wendy Pearl, Jessica Rowcroft, and David Kimball.

I wasn’t all that familiar with the Heritage Landscape Inventory program, though I knew about it when it was happening.  Basically, the Commonwealth asked communities to identify heritage landscapes, or “special places that help define the character of a community and reflects its past,”  and between 2001 and 2009, 108 cities and towns compiled data on what makes them unique.  Along with other communities in the East Quabbin/Western Worcester region of Central Mass, North Brookfield participated in this program to inventory our natural and cultural resources and plan for their preservation.

Developed in partnership with MassGIS, the Office of Geographic Information, the Heritage Landscape Atlas is an interactive web-based map for exploring these landscapes.  Since I love maps and don’t usually have trouble navigating webpages, I was eager to test the site (it was in beta until today).  You can try it yourself:  point your browser to the site and start clicking away! You don’t need to download any additional software in order to use the tool.

Here’s what I learned about my town:

• Our partner was the Central Mass Regional Planning Commission, based in Worcester
• 14.7% of our land area is permanently protected open space
• We have identified 69 heritage landscapes, of which 9 are priority landscapes
• 3 are agricultural: Brookfield Orchards, Kiminski Farm, Bates Farm area
• 2 are civic: Downtown District, Bates Observatory
• 2 are natural: Coy’s Brook Corridor, Five Mile River Corridotr
• 2 are recreational open space: Brook’s Pond, Lake Lashaway
• Our town has not enacted the CPA

As you can see, there is a wealth of information available on this website, including the Reconnaissance Reports, which probably all contain detailed lists of preservation and planning resources.  The conclusion to our report suggests that the top three priorities for our town are  to (1) establish a Recreation Commission, (2) Adopt an Open Space Residential Development Zone, and (3) Adopt a Demolition Delay by-law.  So it seems to me that we’ve made a good start, and whether or not we choose to implement the plans is up to us.