America the Beautiful is disappearing bit by bit, day by day. We see this loss everywhere around us as our towns and cities sprawl outward with cookie-cutter subdivisions and strip development. New roads pave over farmland and demolish historic sites to make way for subdivisions and strip malls. Billboards clutter our roadsides and streetscapes.
Cellular towers crowd the ridgelines of our treasured hills and mountains.
Meanwhile, our cities, once vibrant repositories of outstanding architecture and cultural institutions, lose people, investment, and talent to this dispersed, sprawl settlement. The challenge is to take action before it s too late to protect these scenic landscapes, save open space, preserve community character, and ensure a better quality of life for future generations. It can be a scenic vista, a swath of productive farmland, a river corridor, an historic urban neighborhood, or a village downtown. The common thread is a special setting that is locally treasured for its natural beauty or distinctive character. The Last Chance Landscapes program, which began in 1999, grew out of Scenic America's Most Important Scenic Byways series.