Rhode Island DEM Land Acquisitions

Photo courtesy of webshots.

At the beginning of the decade, there was a huge push to acquire land specifically for recreational purposes. As is indicated in the following graphs, this has dropped off sharply in the past six years. These figures, however, do not represent a general trend in open space preservation for Rhode Island. We are still very concerned with preserving open space, especially for habitat protection and rural character. Click on these links to see DEM land acquisition in those categories.

Why it it that we have failed to continue to purchase land specifically for recreation? Recent ballot measures have been designed to protect open space for other purposes and money has been going into maintaining and updating our current holdings, especially beaches. The question is, do we have a need for more land for recreation? Check out the acreage per capita data, and decide for yourself.

It should be noted that none of the land acquired in the early 90's was purchased to expand the RI State Park System. Our State Parks have not gained any acreage in the past decade. The land acquisition depicted here is intended for recreation, but exists within other management areas.

It is also important to point out that RI has been putting money toward the development and maintenance of existing recreation areas, especially in upgrading the beaches in South County, however no hard data was available on this issue. Making good use of the land we already have is just as important as acquiring more land, and could be the reason we have seen increased attendance recently!.