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The Crisis of Sprawl Impacts the Edges of State Parks
Summary
Just as the 1999 Saving the Legacy of the National System of Parks report addressed the issues of inholdings and threats to our national parks, the goal of this report is to awaken similar interest in the needs of the state parks.
The overwhelming success of our first Legacy Report showed us that there was not only a need to collect and compile information about the threats facing our state parks, but also a desire by many of the state park directors to assemble a thorough analysis of our findings and deliver these statistics to the public.
In October 1999, the National Park Trust sent a questionnaire to each state park director, asking several basic questions. Questions included:
1. How many state parks are in your state?
2. How many acres are there in your state parks, including privately-owned acres?
3. How many privately-owned acres are there within your state parks?
4. How many acres are threatened in your state park system and what are those threats?
Thirty-two states responded. A few have no privately-owned acres and face no significant threats. Those states include Oregon, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Maine. These states are both fortunate and few.
Results
The majority of responses showed us that many states face serious threats from the lack of political and policy commitment to curb encroachment and development. As the director from one state said, "In one word, the greatest potential (threat) to our parks and historic sites in particular is sprawl." This is a word that we hear day after day but often do not realize that it is having such a devastating impact on our parks.
Through this report, the Trust wants to inform the public of the challenges ahead and to highlight several states that are in need of our help. There are 3,266 state parks totaling approximately 10.8 million acres.
The 32 states that responded to our questionnaire reported that 94,306 acres are currently threatened by overuse, traffic, adjacent commercialism, encroachment, rapid land development, and ever rising land values. Another very important issue is transition (buffer) zones. In Ohio, there are 150 acres that remain in private ownership but 1,500 of that states total 205,002 acres are in imminent danger due to rapid development, which increases demand on traffic and thus encroaches on the transition zone surrounding the park. If these zones continue to be threatened, visitors may one day find interstate highways, residential areas, and shopping developments completely surrounding their parks.
According to the survey the 10 most threatened states are:
1. Georgia - 8,212 acres threatened
2. North Carolina - 8,115 acres threatened
3. Minnesota - 6,000 acres threatened
4. Nevada - 5,298 acres threatened
5. West Virginia - 1,688 acres threatened
6. Colorado - 3,000 acres threatened
7. Florida - 25,000 acres threatened
8. Indiana - 2,000 acres threatened
9. Ohio - 1,500 acres threatened
10. Montana -1,200 acres threatened
These 10 states have a combined total of 62,013 acres that are in imminent danger of being lost to development, encroachment, sprawl, and high land values. The cost of these threatened acres will only continue to rise. These threatened acres will become walls of sprawl unless we all support our state parks.
How You Can Help
* Contact your local, state and federal delegation to support funds for purchasing threatened in-holdings (privately owned property that could be purchased from willing sellers).
* Get involved with your favorite national or state park by talking to staff and asking what their major challenges are.
* Find our from the park superintendent what citizen groups are most involved in helping the park, then volunteer.
* Notify National Park Trust about property for sale in or adjacent to parks.
* Write your local newspaper to increase support of parkland preservation efforts in your area.
For a detailed list of all 32 states that responded to our questionnaire, please contact Susan Hawley at (202) 548-0500.
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