Preface
Riley Creek
photo: Jeff Strate
The Twin Cities face an enormous challenge over the next thirty years. The Metropolitan Council predicts another one million residents will reside in our region. Few other metro areas in the United States will absorb more people or grow at a faster rate than the Twin Cities.
Fortunately, we have advance warning. We can — indeed, we must — begin planning for continued growth. We can look like either Phoenix and Houston, or Portland and Seattle. We can sprawl all the way to Alexandria and Rochester, or we can intelligently design attractive communities, incorporating parks and green space into our metro area while working to redevelop inner ring suburbs and our cities.
The choice is ours. The Sierra Club and other land use advocates fervently believe that our regions livability will be greatly determined by the amount of green space we can maintain while allowing for development capable of absorbing newcomers.
This Citizens' Guide to Endangered Green Space takes a look at how Sierra Club members and their allies have won, lost, and fought for compromises over green spaces throughout the region and the state. Citizen input has thwarted more than a few ill-conceived developments that would have destroyed timeless landscapes, ranging from fragile watery fens hard up against sprawling suburban developments to the lovely, picturesque St. Croix Valley.
In this guide we will show you how land use advocates saved Birch Island Woods, Hiawatha Oaks Preserve, and the Eagan Core Greenway. We give you a glimpse of a longer list of truly endangered spaces, ranging from the Rum River Nature Area to Springbrook Nature Center, and how they are faring. And we will showcase parks and conservation areas we helped to secure despite intensive development pressures.
Along the way, you will meet many citizens who have fought developments and learn how they achieved victories. You will meet champions of open space and be given a tour of the tools of conservation. You will see how these citizens organized and how they worked effectively with some local elected officials. You will also see how organized opposition displaced politicians seen as too pro-development in exploiting cherished green space and parkland.
The Sierra Club and other land use advocates long ago accepted a basic factthe region will grow, whether we like it or not. We are not against development. We understand the region will develop, but some open spaces are too beautiful and environmentally sensitive to exploit. Those lands should belong to the public so they can be shared and enjoyed by generations of Minnesotans.
As citizens we can make a difference; we can ensure our voices are heard. We hope our guide encourages citizen involvement. We want to protect the beauty of our region and our state and we hope that you, in reading this guide, will be become active in helping save endangered spaces around the region and in your own community.