Headlines of prominent newspapers frequently herald impending disasters: changing climate, disappearing water supplies, and skyrocketing food prices. Television and radio news anchors on every network are similarly anxious. It's clear — we humans are facing big challenges.
As a member of a six-generation Texas ranching family, a well-traveled nature photographer and a conservation advocate, I too am worried about the ecological state of our planet. But, as I listen to the experts analyze the looming crises, I am struck by one omission. In all the commentary, no one mentions the role open space land plays in addressing these growing concerns.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much, because not everyone has had the privilege of growing up on the land, learning through experience and observation about processes like the water cycle, soil regeneration and plant succession. Not everyone instinctively understands that well-managed, open space land plays a vital role in everything from flood control to carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, this lack of understanding of the societal benefits provided by open spaces hamstrings our collective efforts to make sound natural resource policy decisions. Sometimes, this lack of understanding causes us to undervalue the things that are most important, and skews our vision of what is truly the highest and best use for land. Today, the public, via the market, values open space based on a variety of criteria, including: location, comparables, access, condition, terms, production potential, investment potential, and development potential. While I'd never deny that these features are important, there is something very wrong here. As a society, we only value land to sell and to break up. We don't value land to keep.
Granted, it's easy to assess the value of houses in subdivisions. There are systems in place to calculate a property's worth. Houses are tangible. We understand how to put prices on roofs, walls, and driveways.
But it is infinitely harder to value land for its true societal value. How much is cleaner and more plentiful water worth? What dollar figure can be put on limiting coastal erosion? How valuable is wildlife habitat or nutrient cycling or soil stabilization? What's the price of educational, recreational, and aesthetic experiences?
To steal a tagline from MasterCard, the answer is: priceless. But, we land stewards know there is a big difference between priceless and free.
Throughout our nation, land stewards make a difference every day, using our own efforts and our own dollars while still paying our taxes. For generations, we've quietly gone about our work, doing good things for the environment and our fellow man, simply because we understood the significance of our actions.
Today, however, recognizing those merits is not enough. Land stewards cannot continue to bear the escalating economic and societal pressure to sell our land, one piece at a time. If our nation is going to overcome the challenges facing it and the rest of the world, we all must view our landscapes in a new way. Instead of looking at open space land as the potential home of subdivisions or malls, we must begin to see it as a wellspring of ecological processes that provide natural benefits essential to us all. And we must value it accordingly.
DAVID LANGFORD is the Vice President Emeritus of the Texas Wildlife Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting private land stewardship.
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