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The Washington Region's Conservation Priorities 2009: A Call to Action The Alliance's annual Conservation Priorities list honors critical and urgent conservation initiatives that will contribute to the future quality of life in the National Capital Region. Each spring, the Alliance convenes a diverse gathering of conservation, government and business representatives to identify potential nominees for listing as Regional Conservation Priorities. During the summer the Conservation Jury works to narrow the list based on extensive research and by fall they make their final selection. At a press conference, the jury presents the product of their work, a high quality publication describing each initiative and providing links to help readers get more information. The List: Elements of our Regional Green Infrastructure The jury selected five projects for listing in 2009. Each one, in its own way, contributes significantly to our regional green infrastructure:
(Click on cover to download the report)
In addition to recognizing and supporting individual projects, this year the Conservation Jury chose to emphasize the theme of green infrastructure and the importance of planning for its preservation on a regional basis. Planning regionally would require collaboration on common objectives and definitions. The Conservation Jury recommends the following broad definition as a possible starting point: “Strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, scenic and historic landscapes, streams and rivers, working farms and forests, and other open spaces that conserve ecosystem values and functions, shape the natural and human history of the region, and provide associated benefits - such as food, clean water, and recreation - to humans.” Just as important, our region needs a dedicated source of funding for planning and preserving our regional green infrastructure. The proposed National Capital Region Land Conservation Act of 2009, introduced by Congressman James Moran of Virginia, may provide such funding. This bill proposes an amendment to the Capper-Cramton Act of 1930 that would reinstitute a process for Federal, State, regional and local park, land conservation, planning, environmental agencies and stakeholder groups to focus on land conservation and green space needs at the regional level. The program would authorize $50 million annually for the next five years, to establish up to a fifty-fifty matching grant program to conserve rapidly disappearing open space in the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. All the local governments within the region would be eligible to apply for this funding. For More Information about green infrastructure approaches, see the web site of the Conservation Fund's Green Infrastructure Network at www.greeninfrastructure.net and look for the Green Infrastructure Community of Practice (GI CoP), a collaborative network of organizations and agencies that promote and implement a green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation. The Washington Region's Conservation Priorities 2009: A Call to Action is cited on their resources page along with many other useful publications. (www.greeninfrastructure.net/resource/dc_regions_conservation_priorities_2009_call_action) On December 14, 2009 the Alliance presented the 2009 Conservation Priorities report at a press conference at the SunTrust Conference Center of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. In attendance were the sponsors of the selected projects, sponsors of projects selected in previous years, and participants from the 2009 Conservation Summit that launched this year's nomination process. Read the press release.
Project Releases and Announcements For more information, see the following releases and announcements by project sponsors: Anne Arundel County: County Executive Leopold Applauds Recognition from Smart Growth Alliance for Greenways: www.aacounty.org/News/Current/SmartGrowth.cfm. For more information on the South River Greenway see the County's web site at www.aacounty.org/RecParks/parks/southriver/index.cfm. Scenic Rivers Land Trust: SRLT IN THE NEWS! "On December 14th, the South River Greenway was recognized as a regional conservation priority by the Washington Smart Growth Alliance": www.srlt.org. For more information, also see the web site of the Biophilia Foundation at www.biophiliafoundation.org/about-current-projects.html. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service: South River Greenway a Top Conservation Priority for Washington D.C. Region! "Washington Smart Growth Alliance announced that the South River Greenway is one the top five Regional Conservation Priorities for Washington D.C. area": www.fws.gov/arsnew/regmap.cfm?arskey=27247. Patuxent Riverkeeper: Patuxent River Greenway listed among Top Conservation Priorities for Washington D.C. Region: www.paxriverkeeper.org/www.paxriverkeeper.org/patuxent-river-greenway-listed-among/12/17/2009. For more information about the Patuxent River Greenway, see the web site of the Patuxent River Commission at www.dnr.state.md.us/bay/tribstrat/patuxent/patuxent.html. The Patuxent Water Trail web site is at www.patuxentwatertrail.org. Fairfax County: The Greening of Tysons, Named a Top Conservation Priority for the Region: www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/tysonscorner/sgaforwebsite.pdf. For more information about the Transforming Tysons plan recommendations, see the plan web site at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/tysonscorner. Smart Growth Online cites the Conservation Priorities list as a smart growth resource: http://www.smartgrowth.org/library/articles.asp?art=4452 |
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