One of the many reasons my family is moving from Northwest Florida to Denver this fall has to do with Colorado's extensive system of trails and open space parks. Until I visited the area for the first time last July, I had never experienced the full, best-of-both-worlds effect of interweaving open green spaces - parcels of land with no buildings, improved only by playgrounds or hiking trails - with urban and residential areas. This concept is not something my portion of Florida practices.
The Smart Growth Network describes open space preserves as,
"[n]atural areas both in and surrounding localities that provide important community space, habitat for plants and animals, recreational opportunities, farm and ranch land (working lands), places of natural beauty and critical environmental areas (e.g. wetlands)." - Smart Growth Online
Preserving green spaces helps protect environmentally sensitive areas or endangered wildlife populations and even plays a role in filtering groundwater, but other benefits aren't so obvious. Communities with substantial undeveloped preserves of land often bring in more tourism money, for example, and limiting growth in these areas can encourage growth within their adjacent urban, commercial areas.
One success story is York County in North Carolina, which has spent 10 years preserving 8,754 acres as green space in its York County Forever program. That's a remarkable amount of land considering the uphill battle York County Forever faced in its inception, as the program uses local taxes to pay landowners not to develop, and only part of the preserved land is available for public use.
Former council member Murray White and founder of the Nation Ford Land Trust cites smart growth as a key component:
"One thing that has helped us is that this has never been an `anti-growth' program. We've always believed that quality land conservation goes hand-in-hand with good economic development practices. - Herald Online
Open space programs work on larger scales, too. My soon-to-be home state of Colorado is a good example of statewide efforts. Earlier this year, the Colorado Conservation Trust, The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, and Colorado Open Lands announced the new Colorado Conservation Partnership (CCP). Together, the group will work to preserve 24 landscapes that stretch over a total of 700,000 acres in an open space plan called "Keep it Colorado":
"Colorado is a leader in land conservation efforts with over two-million acres of private land protected statewide. Yet, we are losing ground. Our population is estimated to grow by at least 70,000 people each year, threatening the treasured farms and ranches, natural lands, green spaces and wildlife habitat that define Colorado. The demand for land to serve this increase will continue to drive up the cost and complexity of land and water conservation efforts. Our state is at a strategic crossroads and the window of opportunity for wide-spread conservation is now. We must act today, for tomorrow." - Keep it Colorado
My earlier York County example shows just how crucial it is to recognize the need for preservation early, before too much land is developed or purchasing the conservation easements becomes too expensive. Founding York County Forever board member Anne Springs Close outlines the stark contrast between starting conservation in York County 10 years ago and now:
"Back then, some people couldn't see the immediate need to save the open spaces while we still could, because they thought we had an endless supply. ... If we hadn't started when we did, we'd be like Charlotte with hardly enough open land left to preserve." - Herald Online
In the current U.S. mortgage and credit crisis, though, some cities with poor population growth and a glut of foreclosed and/or abandoned homes are creating more green spaces out of a sense of necessity rather than environmentalism:
"Some officials there have concluded that the only way to revitalize certain neighborhoods is to demolish run-down homes and turn the land into small parks or side yards for neighbors who remain.
That approach was pioneered by Genesee County in Michigan, which is also plagued by a declining population and a struggling auto industry. It created a land bank to acquire properties on which owners had not paid local taxes.
The land bank has acquired 7,400 properties since it was created in 2002, including about a third of all vacant homes in the county, said Daniel T. Kildee, the county treasurer who oversees the project. The bank has turned 2,500 of them into parks, yards or refurbished homes; it is holding onto the rest until it finds a use for them." - New York Times
A healthy tourism industry, generated by the appeal of wide-open lands, could grow and revitalize these shrinking cities. Youngstown, Ohio, for example, is banking on that possibility in a big way. Even if the last-ditch greening doesn't jumpstart the local economies in these cities, though, the positive environmental impacts of increasing open spaces will almost certainly accrue.
Further Reading:
That's funny that you mention Youngstown, I was just there. It's a pretty depressed area. I loved reading more about it -- exciting that they are trying to make such positive changes.
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