Threats To The Land

“So bleak is the picture … that the bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn out to be the most destructive invention of the 20th century.”
Philip Shabecoff, author, Earth Rising, New York Times Magazine, June 4, 1978

Our Disappearing Landscape

Despite the importance of land conservation to our health and communities, we are quickly losing critical natural areas as poorly planned development eats the open landscape.

Every day, over 5,000 acres of land are developed in the U.S. That’s the equivalent of losing New York’s Central Park, Chicago’s Lincoln Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Houston’s Memorial Park, Tampa’s Al Lopez Park, and the National Mall in Washington, D.C., all in one day!

Spotlight: The Hudson River Valley of New York State is legendary for its beauty and history. In a small town called Fishkill, surrounded by rolling hills, forests, and historic homesteads, a supply depot established by General George Washington played an essential role in the Continental Army’s victory over British forces. But by 1974 times had changed and the region was facing rapid suburbanization.

Despite the best efforts of local conservation groups, a famous Revolutionary War site was sacrificed to build the sprawling Dutchess Mall. This development, which robbed Fishkill of important history and community, largely failed. Today, Home Depot is the only active store in the otherwise dead Dutchess Mall, and the land is covered by abandoned stores, crumbling parking lots, and lonely trees attempting to grow through.

Across America the signs of change are increasingly clear. We see farms from Minnesota to Maine turned into subdivisions. Woodlands along stream banks from Oregon to Georgia are clear-cut. Orchards and meadows adjacent to suburbs are converted to shopping malls and office parks. Wetlands are filled and developed to build golf courses and industrial parks.

Land Lost

Current rates and patterns of land consumption, if left unchecked, will result in wide-scale loss and fragmentation of our most important natural places within the next 20 years.

This loss of our land is not happening by accident. For many decades, our country has created tax laws, zoning, and transportation policy that fuel rapid, sprawling development of natural areas. Typical building patterns in America drive us further and further from the center of our communities as we carve up increasingly distant fields and forests.

The places we have counted upon for generations are disappearing at an accelerated pace and the window of opportunity to reverse this trend is rapidly closing.

But the window for change is still open.

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