Suffolk County is in desperate need of a comprehensive open space strategy. Currently Suffolk County purchases land under six separate programs which all use different criteria for preservation. The County’s open space programs have no overarching purpose. What is acquired is, instead, driven by the strength of individual lobbies or politically connected sellers. Such a system invites inequities and abuse. This article is an attempt to begin the debate on how to improve this haphazard system.

In an article entitled “Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st Century”, Mark Benedict and Edward McMahon lay out a comprehensive vision for conservation efforts. When we think of infrastructure we normally think of things like roads, water mains and sewer lines. The concept of green infrastructure looks at the conservation of open lands as just as essential as these more traditional forms of infrastructure.

In 1999 the Conservation Fund and the USDA Forest Service defined Green Infrastructure as follows: Green Infrastructure is the Nation’s natural life support system - a strategically planned and managed network of wilderness, parks, greenways, conservation easements, and working lands with conservation value that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources, and contributes to the health and quality of life for America’s communities and people.” (GreenInfrastructure.Net)

Green Infrastructure is composed of a series of “hubs” and “links”. These hubs and links are similar to the pearls on a string concept. The hubs or pearls provide the origins and destinations for wildlife, and people. They are made up of large protected areas, national wildlife refuges, state parks, agricultural districts, and cultural/historic/recreational sites.

The links consist of conservation corridors, greenbelts, trail corridors and other protected natural areas which serve to connect the hubs, and create a network of open spaces which end up to be greater than the sum of its parts. In 1990 the National Park Service in its Trails for All Americans documented the desirability of having a trail within fifteen minutes of everyone’s home. Every effort should be made to create a connected network of green spaces throughout the communities of Suffolk County.

People and Ecology. Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, and Boston’s Emerald Necklace, put forth the notion that, “No single park would provide people with all the beneficial influences of nature.” Instead parks, should be diverse in nature, but should be linked to each other and to surrounding neighborhoods.

Likewise, ecologists have long understood that the best way to preserve bio-diversity is to create an “integrated conservation system.” Such integration counters, “habitat fragmentation.”

Green Infrastructure includes several important characteristics: First, Green Infrastructure emphasizes ecology. The preservation of our most ecologically significant areas must take precedence over other concerns. It is important to note that those most environmentally significant parcels have already been identified in Suffolk County and labeled as Critical Environmental Resource Areas. Every effort should be made to insure that these criterial environmental sites are preserved first.

Secondly, green infrastructure provides a framework for growth. It is certainly important to reverse the negative effects of sprawl through centering. However, as we encourage increases in density in these new centers, it is just as important to discourage increases in density outside the centers and to strategically direct conservation efforts. These two efforts must happen simultaneously and cannot be countered by down zonings for PRCs or any other type of high density zoning currently in vogue.

According to Benedict and McMahon, “Smart conservation promotes resource planning and protection in a way that is proactive not reactive; systematic not haphazard; holistic not piecemeal; multifunctional not single purpose; multi-jurisdictional not single jurisdictional; and multiple scale not single scale.”

Conservation planning is the negative of landuse planning. Just as landuse planning lays out where growth is most desirable, conservation planning lays out where development cannot occur. It provides the framework for future growth. The concept of Green Infrastructure, thus combines the areas of conservation and land development. We can easily comprehend that one jurisdiction or layer of government cannot accomplish this type of planning alone. The development of a comprehensive view of land conservation requires the Feds, State, County, and Towns to combine their resources and talents.

Components. According to Benedict and McMahon this type of comprehensive system consists of the following components:

1. It must be designed holistically, i.e. the elements or parts of this system must be linked so that they function as a whole.
2. It must be planned comprehensively to include ecological, social and economic benefits.
3. It must be laid out Strategically to incorporate green spaces at each governmental level.
4. It must be planned and implemented with public input.
5. It must be grounded on sound science, and professional disciplines such as ecology and regional planning.
6. Finally, like all other types of infrastructure it must be funded as primary public investments.

The green infrastructure approach should provide a framework for conservation and development. We should end our concentration on individual parks or isolated islands of open spaces, and begin to focus on how to connect critically important environmental areas. “By making green infrastructure the framework for conservation, communities can plan for interconnected, green space systems. Where isolated “islands” of nature exist, green infrastructure planning can help identify opportunities to restore the vital ecological connections that will maintain those protected areas.” (Benedict , McMahon)

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