"What is the use of a house if you don’t have a decent planet to put it on?"
- Henry David Thoreau
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Conservation is central to the mission of 1000 Friends of Minnesota and it has been a cornerstone of our work from the very beginning. We understand that economic growth and development are important, but they should not be achieved at the expense of the resources and natural features that make our communities unique and desirable places to live. Communities that do not seek to balance growth with the preservation of resources often sacrifice long-term health for short-term gains.
"A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people."
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949
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1000 Friends of Minnesota works to encourage the development of healthy, livable communities, and like the above quote, our definition of community includes our land and water resources.
According to a number of local and national surveys, 1000 Friends of Minnesota is not alone in believing that conservation is an integral component to our quality of life. In September of 2000, a Smart Growth America poll that showed that 83 percent of Americans strongly favored the idea of establishing zones of green space, farmland, and forest that would be off limits to development. In the same poll, 77 percent of respondents strongly favored the government using tax dollars to buy land for parks, open space, and to protect wildlife.1
On the local level, the Twin Cities Annual Survey conducted by the Metropolitan Council showed similar results. Eighty-one percent of respondents from the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan region strongly agree that wetlands, woodlands, lakes, streams and other natural areas should be protected when accommodating future growth.2
The Importance of Conservation
Undeveloped land provides the foundation from which important ecological functions take place. Large tracts of open space provide habitat for wildlife that cannot succeed in small, fragmented areas. Open spaces also improve the capacity of the land to absorb and filter rainwater. In developed and paved areas, rainwater cannot be absorbed into the ground and enters our lakes and streams in the form of runoff – bringing all of the pollutants it has picked up from our roadways and parking lots right along with it. Christie Whitman, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains, “Some watershed land simply must not be developed. Its natural value in buffering, storing, filtering and recharging far exceeds whatever commercial value it may hold." 3
In addition to its ecological functions, open space performs an important social role in our communities by giving a place its unique identity. The natural features of a place are perhaps its most defining characteristics, and often form the base of our perception of a particular region, community or neighborhood. We are often first attracted to a place because of its natural features, whether it be an urban park, rolling farmland or one of our 10,000 lakes. Unfortunately, our desire to live near these areas often leads to the over-development and exploitation of the places we love the most.
Open space can be an economic asset as well. Tourists from all over the world are drawn to the banks of the Mississippi, the North Shore, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the many fields and forests in between. These unique natural places make up a large percentage of Minnesota’s $9 billion tourism industry.4
Business leaders are beginning to realize the important role that open space plays in attracting high-caliber employees to a region. In Competing in the Age of Talent: Quality of Place in the New Economy, Richard Florida states, "In the old economy, economic growth and the environment were typically seen to be at odds. . . In the new economy, environmental quality has become important not simply as an end in itself, but as a prerequisite for attracting talent."
Many local communities are eager to develop open space and farmland to generate a larger tax base, only to find that residential development requires more municipal spending in services than it generates in revenue. For every $1.00 of residential tax revenue, $1.04 is spent on residential services. On the other hand, for every $1.00 brought in by agricultural revenue, only $0.50 is spent on local services.5
Threats to Natural Resources
Throughout the country, communities are struggling to balance economic and residential growth with the protection of open space. Unfortunately, our overwhelming appetite for land is consuming farmland and open space at alarming rates. The following statistics clearly show the threat that urbanization poses to our open spaces.
- According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, from 1993 to 1997, 2.3 million acres of open space were converted to single family homes each year.6
- In a 15 year period from 1982 to 1997, the amount of urbanized land in the United States increased by 47 percent, while the population only increased by 17 percent.7
- During that same period, the Midwest increased the amount of urbanized land by 32 percent, while the population grew by only 7 percent.8
- According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Scott County MN had the largest numerical population gain (8,602) among mid- size counties in the nation (those with populations between 10,000 and 100,000).9
- The Twin Cities area is expected to add 157,000 households to the region by 2010.10
- Population forecasts estimate that the Twin Cities metropolitan area will increase its population by almost a million (930,000) people by the year 2030.11 This explosive growth will create an immense strain on our region’s remaining natural resources.
1000 Friends of Minnesota works to draw the important connections between our development patterns and the resulting impacts on our natural resources. We are committed to finding a better way to grow that enhances our natural environment while encouraging economic success. If you would like information on our specific program work, please visit our accomplishments page.
Endnotes
1 Don Chen, Americans Want Smarter Growth: Here’s how to get there. Smart Growth America, 2000
2 Metropolitan Council, Twin Cities Annual Survey. 2000/2001. http://www.metrocouncil.org/metroarea/survey.htm
3 The Trust for Public Land, Protecting the Source: Land Conservation and the Future of America’s Drinking Water.
4 Minnesota Planning Environmental Quality Board, MN Watermarks: Gauging the flow of progress 2000-2010, September 2000.
5 American Farmland Trust, Farmland and the Tax Bill: The Cost of Community Services in Three Minnesota Cities, 1994.
6 Mark A. Benedict, Ph.D and Edward T. McMahon, J.D., Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st Century, Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 U.S. Census Bureau, see http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-59.html
10 Metropolitan Council, Directions Newsletter, February 2002.
11 Ibid.
How 1000 Friends of Minnesota Helps to Protect Resources
Critical to the mission of 1000 Friends of Minnesota is ensuring that land and water resources become part of the discussion during planning efforts and when decisions about the future of a local community are being made. We strive to get local communities to think about resource preservation proactively before a crisis arises and resources protection is pitted against economic development and growth. This proactive engagement is based on the theory that all land use planning efforts are linked. Local communities must do a better job at understanding how land and water resources impact our quality of life and how planning simultaneously for growth and resource preservation makes economic and common sense. For instance, how will the transportation element of the comprehensive plan impact the future of recreational trails and access? Or how will agricultural preservation impact where and at what densities residential growth should occur? Of course this level of planning is difficult and expensive due to the complexity of issues and to the degree that these issues are heavily laden with personal values. We believe the best way to address these issues is through a high degree of public participation and cooperation among all sectors of the community.
To accomplish this charge, 1000 Friends of Minnesota provides communities with visioning and other resources through our Growing by Design program. Our demonstration projects try to achieve on-the-ground results through cooperation, coalition building and the implementation of conservation strategies. With these efforts we hope that there is a better understanding of the importance of land and water preservation as one critical piece of the land planning puzzle.
In an effort to elevate issues of water and land conservation issues among business and political leaders as well as the public, 1000 Friends has launched Envision Minnesota. Through this program, we hope to make conservation issues a greater priority at the state level.
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