Information on the Georgia Community Greenspace Program, whose goal is to preserve at least 20% of the land and water within urban and rapidly developing areas by using state appropriated funds and local land-use planning.

Containing the ill effects of urban sprawl has become a cause celebre for many citizens who are experiencing a decline in the quality of life in the country's cities and suburban areas. Armed with smart growth principles, the new urbanists and many environmentalists advocate the return to more compact, mixed use patterns of development with neighborhood centers that are pedestrian oriented. They urge the development of more walkways, bicycle paths, and public transit hoping to decrease dependence upon the automobile. This Article argues that the creation and preservation of permanently protected community green space must be addressed as an integral part of the smart growth movement. The accessibility of green space in areas close to where people live and work for recreational and alternative greenway transportation purposes is a critical element in any strategy to combat urban sprawl by greater density living. The newly created Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) and the Georgia Greenspace Commission, with overlapping jurisdictions, must collaborate to create and maintain community green space. Drawing upon recommendations made by the Community Green Space Advisory Committee in its 1999 Report to the Governor and the General Assembly, this Article identifies and analyzes a number of funding methods that can be implemented under Georgia law to increase the percentage of protected green space in the state. These funding and acquisition techniques, used by many communities in other states, provide a foundation upon which a statewide green space program can be launched. This Article advocates that legal and structural impediments to permanently protected green space creation in Georgia must be identified and removed, a goal already articulated in the recently enacted legislation creating the Georgia Greenspace Commission.

In most communities, land use regulations are based on a limited model that allows for only one end result: the production of more and more suburbia, composed of endless subdivisions and shopping centers, that ultimately covers every bit of countryside with "improvements." Fortunately, sensible alternatives to this approach do exist, and methods of developing land while at the same time conserving natural areas are available. In Conservation Design for Subdivisions, Randall G. Arendt explores better ways of designing new residential developments than we have typically seen in our communities. He presents a practical handbook for residential developers, site designers, local officials, and landowners that explains how to implement new ideas about land-use planning and environmental protection. Abundantly illustrated with site plans (many of them in color), floor plans, photographs, and renditions of houses and landscapes, it describes a series of simple and straightforward techniques that allows for land-conserving development. The author proposes a step-by-step approach to conserving natural areas by rearranging density on each development parcel as it is being planned so that only half (or less) of the buildable land is turned into houselots and streets. Homes are built in a less land-consumptive manner that allows the balance of property to be permanently protected and added to an interconnected network of green spaces and green corridors. Included in the volume are model zoning and subdivision ordinance provisions that can help citizens and local officials implement these innovative design ideas.

Nature-Friendly Communities presents an authoritative and readable overview of the successful approaches to protecting biodiversity and natural areas in America's growing communities. Addressing the crucial issues of sprawl, open space, and political realities, Chris Duerksen and Cara Snyder explain the most effective steps that communities can take to protect nature. The book: documents the broad range of benefits, including economic impacts, resulting from comprehensive biodiversity protection efforts; identifies and disseminates information on replicable best community practices; establishes benchmarks for evaluating community biodiversity protection programs. Nine comprehensive case studies of communities explain how nature protection programs have been implemented. From Austin and Baltimore to Tucson and Minneapolis, the authors explore how different cities and counties have taken bold steps to successfully protect natural areas. Examining program structure and administration, land acquisition strategies and sources of funding, habitat restoration programs, social impacts, education efforts, and overall results, these case studies lay out perfect examples that other communities can easily follow. Among the case study sites are Sanibel Island, Florida; Austin, Texas; Baltimore County, Maryland; Charlotte Harbor, Florida; and Teton County, Wyoming. Nature-Friendly Communities offers a useful overview of the increasing number of communities that have established successful nature protection programs and the significant benefits those programs provide. It is an important new work for public officials, community activists, and anyone concerned with understanding or implementing local or regional biodiversity protection efforts.

This timely set invites readers to celebrate the most beautiful and environmentally important places in the United States. Each of the United States boasts numerous special places that are significant for their biodiversity, ecology, habitats for rare and endangered species, or other qualities that make them unique and worthy of preservation. These sites range from nature preserves to state and national parks, wildlife areas, ecosystems that provide a home to diverse flora and fauna, and even scenic vistas. The five volumes of America's Natural Places examine over 200 of the most spectacular and important of these places, with each entry describing the importance of the area, the flora and fauna that it supports, threats to the survival of the region, and what is being done to protect it. Organized by state within regional volumes, this encyclopedia both informs the reader about the wide variety of natural areas across the country and identifies places nearby that demonstrate that preserving such treasurers is of immediate importance to every U.S. citizen.