Chapter 5 Summary : Land Conservation for Working Landscapes, Open Space, and Ecological Protection

Chapter 5 Discussion Questions
Chapter 5 Exercises
Chapter 5 Weblinks

Summary:
Land conservation of open space, recreation lands, ecological habitats, and working landscapes has become a huge multibillion-dollar enterprise engaging all levels of government, nonprofit land trusts, local citizens groups, and major philanthropic foundations. Voters continue to support 80 percent of bond referenda and other initiatives for land acquisition and easements for open space, recreation, and protection of the working landscape. Federal and state budgets, though depleted in the recession years of 2000–2003, have still increased for land conservation. Land trusts have grown in number, in land holdings, and in influence. They number more than 1,250 in 2000, compared with less than 500 in 1985, and now protect 23 million acres in the United States.

Government and land trusts for conservation use several innovative tools. These include conservation easements, purchase and transfer of development rights, and other means of protection without outright purchase of the land. Green infrastructure is a recently coined term referring to the natural hubs and links land protection provides that create ecological functions and scenic, recreational, and cultural landscapes. Land conservation is a collaborative activity, often involving partnerships of land developers and land trusts, industry and government, property owners and neighbors. These partnerships have often created innovative solutions to land protection problems, often to the benefit of all stakeholders. Effective land protection requires all of these actors and activities.
Land conservation is now being looked at as an integral part of Smart Growth management. Greenways and greenbelts can effectively define growth areas. This green infrastructure should be planned along with grey infrastructure in the development process.

Chapter 5 Discussion questions:

1. "Since the federal government owns and manages 30% of the nation’s land, there is little need for additional land conservation." Do you agree ro disagree with this statement. Briefly explain.

2. Non-government non-profit organizations are playing an increasingly important role in environmental management. Groups such as The Nature Conservancy have had considerable success establishing preservation areas for important habitats. Briefly, list and explain three of the tools used by such groups to stretch their financial resources as much as possible to achieve their objectives.

Chapter 5 Exercises:

1. You have recently hung out your shingle as an environmental land planning consultant and you have two potential clients knocking on your door:
a. A group of local residents interested in forming a land trust to protect open space and habitats
b. A member of the county board of supervisors who wants to knowledgeably respond to constituents interested in what the county can do to protect agricultural land They are interested in similar issues: some principles and a process for establishing the program, a description of three useful tools, and two examples of successful efforts done elsewhere. Consult the websites of the Trust for Public land, the Land Trust Alliance, and the American Farmland Trust, and prepare a one-page response to each of them.

2. Select three local land trust "success stories" from the Land Trust Alliance website and compare them in terms of conservation objectives, acres protected, organizations involved, dollars involved, sources of funding, and conservation tools used.

3. The conservation easement has become one of the most useful tools for land conservation. Your uncle owns 200 acres of land with some unique natural features that he hopes to build on while protecting 95% of the property. In a one-page brief, make financial and conservation arguments for him to put most of his land in conservation easements registered with a land trust as part of his development plan.

4. Hollis and Fulton (2002) provide a useful overview of land conservation programs. Go to their Brookings paper (http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/hollisfultonopenspace.pdf), and select one of the following questions for further review:
- Select two federal land conservation programs. Go to the relevant federal websites and compare the dimensions of the programs: implementation agencies, acres conserved, conservation tools employed, annual or cumulative dollars expended, relative permanence of protection, and other indicators you think are appropriate.
- Select two state land conservation programs. Go to the relevant state websites and compare the dimensions of the programs: implementation agencies, acres conserved, conservation tools employed, annual or cumulative dollars expended, relative permanence of protection, and other indicators you think are appropriate.
- Select two local government land conservation programs. Go to the relevant websites if available and compare the dimensions of the programs: implementation agencies, acres conserved, conservation tools employed, annual or cumulative dollars expended, relative permanence of protection, and other indicators you think are appropriate.
- Select two local land trusts. Go to the relevant websites if available and compare the dimensions of the programs: implementation agencies, acres conserved, conservation tools employed, annual or cumulative dollars expended, relative permanence of protection, and other indicators you think are appropriate.

5. "Green infrastructure" (GI) has become a new term applied to land conservation planning, especially in relationship to land development planning.
- Provide a concise definition of GI.
- Using chapter references or other sources, identify two applications of GI not discussed at length in the chapter, and compare and a two page review comparing and contrasting the two applications.
- Perhaps the most comprehensive document on GI assessment is Maryland’s May 2003 Green Infrastructure Assessment report. Access the report from the following website:
http://dnrweb.dnr.state.md.us/download/bays/gia_doc.pdf. Provide an outline of the assessment process and comment on the overall method.

6. Go to website of Greenways, Inc., a Durham, NC, landscape architecture and environmental planning firm (http://www.greenways.com). Review the firm’s projects, select two, and prepare a short PowerPoint presentation comparing the projects.

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