Acres of Protected Open Space Added per Year, 1990-2000, 9885 Total Acres Added Click graph to enlarge.

Each year Rhode Island adds land to its reserve. As this graph shows, however, there is no real trend either towards increasing or decreasing the amount of  land the state acquires yearly (Division of Planning and Development, DEM, Work Plans 1990-2000). There are many possible explanations for this absence of a trend. One is simply that the amount of emphasis (and/or money) the state puts on open space preservation varies over the years, causing the amount of land preserved to differ. Another reason is that different pieces of land have different value, causing the same amount of money to buy different amounts of land. Plotting the amount of money paid for land per year would not completely answer this question, however, since price cannot be seen as a stable indicator over a 10 year period - the value of money constantly changes. In addition, some land is donated to the DEM and some land is shared by the DEM and other organizations (local groups and private organizations). Hence price is again not a valid indicator of how important land preservation is to Rhode Island. No one strategy exists to guide the purchase of land. The state simply examines each piece of land coming up for sale and tries to apply the state's criteria for preservation (RIDEM, Division of Planning and Development, Primary Scoring Criteria). Should an attempt be made to increase acreage of protected land by year, or should the state simply acquire as much land yearly as the money is available?

Percentage DEM Protected Open Space by Type 1980-1990, 8642.6 Total Acres Click graph to enlarge.

Percentage DEM Protected Open Space by Type 1990-2000, 9752.3 Total Acres Click graph to enlarge.

The DEM breaks down the land it acquires into the following categories: Agriculture, Parks/Beaches/Bikepaths, Fish and Wildlife, Forest, Local Grants/Open Space, and Local Grants/Recreation. These two charts present the total distributions of the DEM’s protected open space in these categories by decade. In the 1990’s, farmland and local grants held a greater percentage of the total open space DEM acquired. In the 1980’s, more forest land and parks/beaches/bike paths were preserved than in the 1990’s (see Habitat for more information on forest and habitat protection). This was neither a shift in intention or policy, it was merely a result of which land came up for sale or was offered to the state. More total land was preserved as open space in the 1990’s than in the 1980’s. (Division of Planning and Development, DEM, Work Plans 1990-2000).

 

 

Open Space Main/RI Indicators