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| Evolving To Meet Changing Needs |
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When the Triangle Greenways Council (TGC) was established in the early 1980’s, its mission was to promote the greenway concept through educational efforts. At the time, Raleigh’s was the only comprehensive greenway program in the region. By the mid 1990’s most local governments within Triangle counties had begun greenway programs, so the TGC began to transform its mission. In an effort to assist in the conservation of future greenway corridors, the TGC began a land trust function.
This evolution is not unlike the needs observed by law professor Jams Salzman, and biology professors Bartan H. Thompson, Jr. and Gretchen C. Daily who have observed: “though our air is cleaner and our water is purer than in 1970 … EPA scientists and managers have revealed the single greatest failing of modern environmental law and its greater challenge today --- the protection of ecosystems and the services they provide.” Indeed, integrated regional greenway networks that consist of interconnected local greenway systems can maintain ecological functions. Thus, the TGC is addressing a current failing of environmental regulation through its land trust efforts. The land trust movement the TGC has now joined began in 1891 in Massachusetts. Thereafter it spread very slowly around the world. About twenty-five years ago, the growth of land trusts in the US became exponential and there are now more than 1600 organization identified across the country. These groups depend upon the support of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies to achieve their conservation objectives. The land trust movement is on the leading edge of ecosystem protection, and the TGC goes further to accommodate appropriate public use within future greenway corridors. To some extent this mission is captured in a quote from Stanford professor Gretchen Daily and journalist Katherine Ellison’s 2002 book, “The New Economy of Nature:” “The challenge now is to change the rules of the game so as to produce new incentives for environmental protection, geared to both society’s long-term well-being and individuals’ self-interest.” Such incentives have been found in two TGC projects. (1) In collaboration with Partners for Environmental Justice the TGC is accumulating land for the Walnut Creek Wetland Park and environmental education center adjoining an existing greenway trail. (2) In collaboration with the City of Raleigh, other land trusts, two local government associations, and the Neuse River Foundation, land will be accumulated as part of the new Falls Lake Watershed Initiative. Through these and other opportunities, the TGC will continue to look for ways to conserve future greenway corridors for the benefit of the region. |
Greenways meet an ever growing need, a need to leave the hectic city (if only for a moment) and to experience earth beneath your feet and fresh air in your lungs – to feel life and to feel alive.
— VICTORIA LOGUE
— VICTORIA LOGUE
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