Communities that preserve wetlands and flood plains tend to fare better during floods. Wetlands also act as natural filters by removing toxins from the watershed before they reach streams and rivers. And they serve as habitat for a wide range of species. A recent U.S. Department of Interior report highlighted 42 federal programs that subsidize wetland destruction. Other types of open space are also valuable.
Forests cleanse the air and soak up global-warming gases.
Parks and open spaces provide aesthetic and recreational benefits that are hard to calculate but easy to miss. Unfortunately, not only are we losing these crucial open spaces and paying a steep environmental price, in many cases we are actually paying developers to destroy them. Paying to Sprawl One of the most expensive cases of paying to sprawl is unfolding in New Jersey's Hopewell Township. This project, which will chew up 450 acres of open space, is inaccessible by public transportation and far from shops, homes or stores. Due to its location in a mostly rural area it is sure to increase sprawl.