John C. Lepore
P.O. Box 608, Bernardston, MA 01337 413.648.9485
Professional Offerings
Draw on lifelong skill sets to advocate for resilient landscape designs in private and public sectors from small to large scales through education and design. • • • •
Education
Qualifications
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Sustainable Cross Scale Landscape Design Project Development and Implementation Baseline Regional and Local Land Assessment Cooperative and Effective Teamwork
Masters of Arts in Sustainable Landscape Planning, Design and Management, Conway School of Landscape Design, Conway, MA; June 2011 Bachelor of Science Botany, University of Maine, Orono, ME; May 1975
“Pioneer Valley Regional School Resilient Land Management Plan, Northfield, MA.”
Pioneer’s 90 acre parcel makes it one of the largest land holdings of any public school in Massachusetts. Four major concerns - decreasing biodiversity from 12 exotic invasive plants, excessive water runoff from impervious surfaces into a BioMap2 Critical Landscape, high dependency on non-renewable electrical energy sources and a need for local food security education. Designs included addition of native plant rain gardens, replacement of ornamental exotic invasive with native species, an invasive management plan by students, rainwater capture, school and community four season gardens, designated wetland research areas with walkway and viewing platform, several pollinator habitats to reduce mowing/improve biodiversity and green roofed outdoor classrooms made from onsite source lumber from their regenerative managed forest. Skills: Facilitated hands-on community input meetings for over 200 participants; developed alternative designs with pros/cons using 10 computer applications on PC and Mac; negotiated with the local snow sled association for trail and exotic invasive management along a wetland and reenforcing ArcGIS skills. 2011 to present “Rural Residential Stewardship”, Bernardston, MA:” Purchased heavily disturbed mostly forested 14 acres lot in 1997 with very poor soil conditions, two shallow wells and steep slopes. Sited magnificent south facing mountain “viewscape”and became the general contractor for construction of 1500 square foot energy efficient log home; created several pollinator habitats; initiated invasive plant control on four species; selected, cut and harvested/milled on-site trees for lumber for construction of barn and house interior; practice major composting efforts to improve soil conditions for home food security using locally sourced materials; developed four season organic garden practices; presently designing a site master plan after surveying including a root cellar, mushroom farming and foraging, expanded food production to meet 50% of annual our needs, improved drainage grading plan and regenerative forest management plan. Skills: Purchase, safe use, and maintenance of power equipment; land purchase, selecting a building siting for optimal view and solar gain, grading drainage, building construction and logistics, harvesting lumber, onsite milling, kilning and handling; controlling exotic plants, wetland and waterway conservation, soil health improvement through composting; organic food production and low energy storage systems, mushroom farming and cultivation. 1997 to Present “Pioneer Valley Regional School Waste Reduction, Northfield, MA:” School’s waste stream produced 20-25 cubic yards of waste per week that resulted in high costs to district. Worked cooperatively with Franklin County Solid Waste Management to reduce the waste to less than 5 cubic yards by contracting with local composting facility and creating a major metal and plastic recycling opportunities in each classroom, hallways and the cafeteria. Greater than 70% savings was recognized by the school district and the program became a model for schools throughout Franklin County. Skills: Program development, promotion, coordination, and administration. 2004 to 2010 Designed Conservation Site for LandVest, Inc., on 900-acre parcel by developing criteria for two potentially sustainable 5- to 10-acre lots employing on-site info and GIS sources. Remainder of parcel placed into perpetual conservation restriction. Summer 2011
Qualifications
Headed Science, Engineering and Technology Department, Pioneer Valley Regional School,
Northfield, MA, supervised development of numerous high stakes curricula that led to highly successful MCAS science scores using constructivist hands-on approaches; charged with developing departmental computer based curriculum mapping. Led administration and redevelopment of department during major multi-million dollar building renovation. 1998-2011
Taught Science, Pioneer Valley Regional School, Grades 7 to 12, biology (certified), physics, earth science, environmental sciences; wrote and taught over 20 different curricula; leader in providing challenging learning opportunities across broad ability levels. 1981-2011
Trained Teachers at numerous conferences and workshops in heterogeneous teaming, strategies
and assessment, throughout New England. Major role in developing nationally recognized equity-based teaching, learning and assessment strategies. 1990-1996
Directed Innovative Organic Agriculture Program, Turners Falls High School, Turners Falls, MA,
with 5-acre garden and greenhouse. Developed cross grades interdisciplinary curricula application. 19781981
Taught Innovative Agriculture Program, Rockport High School, Rockport, MA, 2-acre organic
garden and greenhouse, dairy farm and wildlife sanctuary. Wrote and instructed individualized agricultural curricula. 1975-1978
Conway School of Landscape Design Projects
“Residential Restorative Site Plan, Williamsburg, MA.” Designed a residential site where the
owner unknowingly disrupted a wetland. Plan included restorative actions on steeply eroded slopes, siting a passive solar home and greenhouse, personal food production and security with fruit, garden, and permaculture layout. Skills: Surveying, mapping, landscape drafting/design and multiple site analysis including soil, slope, drainage, vegetation, mapping Natural Heritage Endangered Species, VectorWorks, Google Sketch-up sun-shade animation, group presentations, site engineering, and applying wetland regulations; proficient with Macintosh OsX and Microsoft Windows XP, Adobe InDesign, and Photoshop; Fall 2010 “Keep Bloomfield Farming: A Farmland Preservation Plan for Bloomfield, CT.” With two other students, created a model that identified land suitable for farming and a scorecard method to prioritize existing farm parcels based on measurable community needs; provided a strategy for local food security planning; plan integrated into the town of Bloomfield 2011 Plan for Conservation and Development. Skills: Intermediate proficiency with ArcGIS both vector and raster analysis of region with map creation, watersheds, slope, wetland, critical habitat, suitable soils, greenways, distances to open space and other farms, loss of farms; using public meeting process to direct decisions, and USDA Land Assessment and Site Assessment. Winter 2011
“Carolina Hill Reservation: A Framework for Conservation Land Management, Marshfield, MA:” This project reviewed the town’s largest open space in water recharge land area
for more then 10 local wells and embraces more than 750 acres. Issues included demands for recreation, Natural Heritage Endangered Species Habitat, unregulated trails used by hikers, runners, horses, mountain bikes and illegal off-road motorized vehicles and an ongoing conflict over deer control and hunting. Also, a growing problem emerged from oak-die back leaving huge amount of forest fire fuel; the reservation lacked a management plan framework around these compounding issues. Our three-person team met with stakeholders on several occasions to determine potential strategies and interviewed professional ecologists, planners, and foresters along with the local watershed association to determine management strategies and recommendations. The management framework serves as a template for Marshfield’s remaining 2200 acres of public land. Skills: ArcGIS wildlife corridor identification, trail analysis and importing/incorporating GPS data, erosion analysis, and forest fire potential assessment; using public meeting process to direct decisions. Spring 2011
Other Professional Activities
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Assessed watershed biotic/abiotic conditions on Bennett Brook, Northfield, using Cornell Watershed Delineation & Assessment Models. 2004-2009 Assessed and managed invasive species in cooperation with NRCS with ongoing efforts to select native ornamental replacements. 2004-2009 Developed and implemented composting and recycling program; major cost savings to Pioneer Valley Regional School. 1994-2009
Other Professional Activities
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Personal Interests
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References
Awarded Springfield Materials Recycling Facility ‘Recycler of the Year’. 2009 Awarded ‘Annual Award for Excellence in Environmental Education’ for Stewardship Curriculum, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. 2006 Chaired instruction committee at PVRS, New England Association Schools & Colleges Accreditation 2000, school’s core values committee at PVRS. 2009-2010 Measured diversity of mature oak and pine forests for competition analysis with senior high students. 1994-1998 Publication specialist / planning committee member for teacher-initiated nationally recognized conferences, “Derailing the Tracked School.” 1990-91 Chaired middle school committee at PVRS; oversaw mission and goals development, scheduling and school-wide commitment. 1998-99 Lifelong studying of several martial arts traditions, yoga, running, and general conditioning Hiking 100 highest mountains in New England, state high points and completed the Metacomic and Monadnock 147-mile-long National Scenic Trail Sustainable/regenerative woodlot management on ten acres; selectively harvested timber with emphasis on safe use of forestry equipment Organic gardening, composting, cooking, craft beer making, writing, drawing, and botany
Dayle Doiron, Superintendant of Schools, Pioneer Valley Regional School District, (413) 498-2911 Dr. Ken Byrne, EdD, Professor of Humanities, Conway School of Landscape Design, (413) 369-4044 Dr. Joseph Nowicki, EdD, Curriculum Coordinator, Pioneer Valley Regional and Associate Professor at Westfield State College, (413) 498-2931 Thomas Hooper, AICP, Director of Planning, Town of Bloomfield, Connecticut, (860) 769-3514 To view references: http://issuu.com/johnclepore/docs/john_c_lepores_recommendations