The accelerated consumption or conversion of open lands is America's number one land conservation challenge, and the American public definitely recognizes this. According to a February 2000 poll by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, Americans across the country, for the first time, rate sprawl and traffic equal to crime and violence as the top problems facing communities, and in suburban communities sprawl was rated higher than crime or any other issue.
The conversion of natural areas and working lands has resulted in increased habitat fragmentation, loss of biodiversity and wildlife populations, disruption of natural landscape processes, impairment of carbon storage and the degradation of air and water resources. It has also had numerous social consequences including the loss of vital services provided by natural systems, increased public and private costs of providing services to dispersed development, a decreased sense of community and the loss of the connection people feel with nature and with each other.
To address these concerns, national, state and local governments have developed a variety of uncoordinated voluntary, market-based and regulatory approaches to resource conservation, species protection, facilities siting, air and water quality and land management. Local jurisdictions have implemented comprehensive plans. Communities have approved bond referendums and invested heavily in roads, sewers and other public works or "gray infrastructure." Increasingly, communities are investing in parks, open space, farmland and forest protection and in other elements of green space.
Although current approaches can count many accomplishments toward protecting natural systems and processes, improving environmental quality and delivering transportation and other community services, important objectives still go unmet. We can only conclude that this patchwork of well-intentioned plans and regulatory approaches by themselves are not sufficient to arrest the decline of species, natural resources and systems or dispel the feeling that we are still losing our quality of life and important measures of the "good life." For citizens and planners alike, the problem is not growth itself but the patterns of growth. Where do we put it? How do we arrange it? How does it fit into the area's ecological, social, cultural and economic landscape? Simply put, some places are better to develop than other places.
But just as we must address haphazard development, we must also address haphazard conservation - conservation activities that are reactive, site-specific, narrowly focused or not well integrated with other efforts. Just as we need smart growth to strategically direct and influence the patterns of land development, we need "smart conservation" to strategically direct our nation's conservation practices. Green Infrastructure - strategically planned and locally managed networks of protected green space with multiple purposes - is of critical importance to ensuring clean air, abundant clean water, and healthy landscapes for all people today and for future generations. Green Infrastructure provides a solution that ensures environmental protection and a higher quality of life for communities as well as regulatory predictability for landowners and investors.
Click on the links to the left to learn more about green infrastructure.
The Community of Practice is a virtual hub of knowledge and ideas – shared among peers – to promote the application of green infrastructure concepts and principles to the nation’s conservation priorities. Learn more »
Series of ten case studies featuring green infrastructure success stories from around the country.
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