Rome 5

where not to build?

if you are going to have open space, which land do you choose to set aside as open space?
the easy answer is wetlands, hillsides and floodplains, because they are less suitable for building and because they are more valuable to the ecosystem

wetlands were particularly important to bird hunters so had a broader preservation group
history of the Federal Duck Stamp

Wetlands

• are crucial feeding grounds for migratory birds
• limit the destructiveness of floods and help recharge the water table--this argument grew important in the 1950s
  
• swamps came to be seen as beautiful rather than as repulsive: Aldo Leopold 1937, Paul Errington 1957
  
• in the late 1950s ecologist Eugene Odum showed the importance of marshes and swamps providing food and breeding grounds for fish and animals
• by the 1960s and 1970s emphasis on productivity
• 1964 study showed almost 1/3 of Long Island's wetlands had been filled in the last 10 years

Hillsides:

• some builders designed for hillsides (walk out lower levels), others bulldozed the land to flat terraces
• problems of erosion
• changed other people's views
• landslides
• builders were held responsible in court for designing safe developments on hillsides
• or would it be better to leave steep slopes as open space

Floodplains

• easy land to build on
• should floods be prevented or should people not build on floodplains?
• The River
  
• Federal government subsidized flood insurance but required special zoning for flood plains

Ian McHarg, Design with Nature

• build on the land most suitable
• was it a sensible plan or too radical?
• it requires telling people what they can do with their land (the land that they could buy cheaply)