I served as chairman of the steering committee of the Island Plan, an initiative funded by the six Island towns and adopted by the Martha's Vineyard Commission.
I served as chairman of the steering committee of the Island Plan, an initiative funded by the six Island towns and adopted by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
The development and growth chapter (Section 2.1) tried to sound the alert that not all open space is protected land, even if we happen to derive benefits from it at the moment. It reads:
“Each year, about 600 additional acres of land are developed and 150 acres are protected as open space. If this trend continues, about 80 per cent of the available land — 18,000 acres of woods or fields that we now take for granted as part of the Island’s open space – would end up being developed . . . The future of the Island depends on what happens to the land that is presently available.”
A recent update of the plan’s statistics strongly reinforced this urgency. Even with our land bank funded at the current two per cent transfer fee on most real estate transactions, the projected loss of open space translates into thousands more houses, and a near-doubling of the population.
Can we sustain that sort of future of the Island?
I am therefore disappointed by statements from leadership and citizens on town meeting floor to the effect that we’ve done enough land protection and must steer resources elsewhere. This narrative doesn’t fit with the facts. It invites self-destructive behavior and is not a defensible position if we claim to care about this place and what sets it apart.
Clean water, farmland and wildlife habitat depend on much, much more — not less — land protection. Strengthening and supporting the work of our land bank, not cannibalizing it, is what is needed to fend off the predicted 80 per cent loss.
Please let the community conversation be grounded in a strong factual foundation. One fact is clear: We live on an Island. By definition, Islands have limits. Save what’s left!
James Athearn
Edgartown
The writer is chairman of the Vineyard Conservation Society.
Comments
Hear hear!
island conservationist Martha's VineyardHear hear!
This island, is more than just our home, it is our place on this planet, we must learn to live with sufficiency in mind, especially as we enter an age of ruinous changes for all life on the planet.
Think beyond the simplistic views that all growth is positive, we must challenge ourselves to adapt to the reality that for human civilization to remain viable on earth it mandates we begin rapidly to do many things differently.
We must reduce our human footprints on the environment, which means we leave more of it alone and return much of what we have damaged back to the wild, since when left alone, nature provides the very foundations for our ability to live and breathe.
Thanks, Jim, for this
Prudy Burt West TIsburyThanks, Jim, for this excellent letter.
I too have been increasingly disappointed by these short sighted arguments against additional land protection, and against the land bank in particular. The important work of the land bank (and all of the other island conservation groups) is nowhere near complete.
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