Clean Water Blog

Friday, June 18, 7:30-9:00 a.m.

“The Value of Open Space”Jenna Fletcher, Embrace Open Space

St. Cloud City Council Chambers

400-2nd Street South. 

Light breakfast provided. RSVP by emailing or calling Lark Weller(lark_weller@nps.gov or 651-290-3030 x304). 

In 2009, Embrace Open Space commissioned an economic study of home values in Hennepin County to quantify the financial impact of proximity to open spaces on the value of nearby single-family homes. As communities begin to plan now for new residents that are projected to be in the area by 2030, such results can help communities better understand how decisions to conserve open space might affect property tax revenues. The study found that the overall impact of open space on property values was an increase equivalent to $3.5 billion, resulting in a $36 million/year increase in property taxes (2006 values). The study also concluded that, if the amount of open space is doubled in a community, all residential properties would increase in value by 1.3%. If the percent of open space in the community again doubles, the properties will increase an additional 1.3%. 

The study’s findings are important to think about as communities grow. When a community begins with 1% of its land use in open space, then increases it to 2%, the impact on property values is just as powerful as going from 10% to 20% open space in a community. This means that it is particularly powerful to add open space in communities that currently have very little open space. 

Jenna Fletcher is Program Manager for Embrace Open Space, a program housed at The Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit. Embrace Open Space is a collaborative of organizations with a shared goal of fostering conservation and stewardship of natural areas and parks in the eleven county Twin Cities area.  Jenna has also worked for the State of Minnesota as a policy analyst on forestry issues, and researched urban smart growth practices for ICF Consulting, a national environmental public policy consulting firm. Jenna was a Fellow in the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program at Sustainability Institute, where she received training in systems thinking, reflective conversation and visioning. Jenna has a Masters in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota. 

The Mississippi River Forum is made possible by the generous support of the Mississippi River Fund and the McKnight Foundation. 

Did you know that it takes 30 gallons of water to produce one cup of coffee? And that half-pound steak you had for dinner required 774 gallons of water to get from the ranch to your table. Where do these numbers come from, and what do they mean? These totals refer to water footprints, and the totals themselves are calculated by adding up the total amount of freshwater used to create a particular item or support a specific activity. The idea of a water footprint was first introduced by A.Y. Hoekstra and P.Q. Hung from UNESCO-IHE in 2002. Hoekstra and Hung believed that one should total up both the direct and indirect water used by a particular entity—consumer, community, or commercial/industrial enterprise—so that total amount of freshwater needed to produce the goods and services consumed by that entity could be measured. These measurements include the actual water in the product, along with all the virtual water embedded in every action associated with the cultivation, collection, and delivery of that item.

The water footprint of foodstuffs, for example, include actions by the farmer, food processor, retailer, and consumer. These tasks that consume actual water include growing, harvesting, delivering, or purchasing a food item. But the cultivation and exportation of food brings with it a variety of embedded water costs, including those associated with the byproducts created by food cultivation (agricultural runoff for example), as well as the items and actions necessary for the production and distribution of food. (This includes fertilizers and insecticides, as well as the fuel required for transportation and the packaging that keeps the food safe and fresh as it travels from field to home.)

For more on the origins of the water footprint concept (as well as a list of the many water footprint totals we’ve included in our application), go to: www.waterfootprint.org.