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Open Space Protection Americans want to live close to nature. But poorly planned development is gobbling up our beloved parks and open spaces at an alarming rate. A recent report by the American Farmland Trust revealed that every year in the United States, 1 million acres of productive farm land and open space get bulldozed by sprawling development. Sprawl threatens wildlife by chopping up habitat. Some of America's premier ecosystems - spectacular places like the Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades, the Great Lakes, Puget Sound and the Sonoran desert - are directly threatened by sprawl. Even animals like grizzly bears and salmon, already pushed to the brink, are losing habitat to encroaching homes and highways. Sprawl also threatens our wetlands. Each year, we destroy more than 110,000 acres of these natural filters. Because wetlands act as flood-absorbing sponges, there are serious consequences for allowing sprawling development in wetlands - especially in disaster-prone floodplain areas. In the past eight years, floods in the United States killed more than 850 people and caused more than $89 billion in property damage. Much of this damage happened in states and counties where weak zoning laws allowed developers to drain wetlands and build in floodplains. Sprawl is carving up our farm land, too. Development is replacing farmers' fields, disrupting small-town agriculture and a way of life. An astounding 70 percent of prime or unique farm land is now in the path of rapid development, according to the American Farmland Trust. While it may sound like parks and open space in America are going, going, gone, some states are attempting to stop the loss of our natural heritage. In fact, voters in many states are insisting on it. Last November, voters from California to Cape Cod, Democrats and Republicans alike, approved the vast majority of some 240 anti-sprawl ballot initiatives, many of them dealing with land preservation. In New Jersey, even in the state's tax-adverse counties, voters overwhelmingly approved the use of $1 billion in tax revenue to conserve open space and farm land. In this category, we used three main criteria to determine our rankings: (1) which states are preventing the loss of open space by purchasing parks and open space or using other methods to protect the land; (2) how well states are keeping their farm lands in farmers' hands; and (3) how well they are managing floodplain sprawl. State Ranking: Maryland New Jersey Illinois Oregon Colorado Michigan Montana Ohio Pennsylvania California Minnesota Massachusetts Wisconsin Florida Maine Vermont New York Utah Rhode Island Delaware Kentucky Kansas Wyoming Connecticut Georgia Oklahoma Nevada North Carolina Washington Nebraska Idaho Virginia Iowa Tennessee Indiana Mississippi Alabama New Mexico North Dakota Hawaii Arkansas Arizona New Hampshire Missouri South Dakota Texas Louisiana South Carolina Alaska West Virginia Up to Top