10/02/1995 Park Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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we realized that the islands were + part of a much larger ecological system. The birds on the islands were dependent on the health of the coastal waters, and the waters were dependent on how land was used on the mainland.All of a sud- den,we were looking at much larg- er and more complex conservation initiatives. ! Science drove our new approach. L We knew that the birds depended on salt marshes and mudflats be- hindthe islands, but we were not sure how to protect those marine resources. You see, the Conservan- cy had never worked on the water. We bought the land. You can't buy i water, except for maybe an inland lake and Western water rights;nav- igable waters are all part of the pub- I lic domain. At the same time, the waters around those islands were the heart of the ecological system. 1 How were we going to protect the salt marshes and mudflats?We just stared at the blackboard until even- Andy Warhol,Pine Barrens Tree Frog tually we realized,to put it simply, ple are as much a part of the landscape as the plants i that water runs downhill. In short, what happens and animals we're trying to protect. So we have on the mainland is what governs the health of the to find ways to work with communities and busi- water surrounding it. nesses as partners, and that won't happen if con- So we started to address mainland uses of the wa- servation means throwing people out of work or tershed. We put together a team—they were called driving companies out of business.Promoting com- Four Scientists and an M.B.A.—to develop a strate patible economic development has therefore become gic plan and think through how we would go about a strategic imperative for us. conserving this area. We spent more than a year identifying and analyzing the activities that pose What do you mean by compatible developmentl the greatest threats to the whole system. We con- cluded that permanent residential and resort de- it means that when we're trying to do a project to velopment on the mainland was far worse for the protect a landscape or one of our Last Great Places, watershed than the traditional use of the land, we have to be concerned with both economic and 1 which was farming. If you have too many septic environmental issues.We have to be sure that there systems, wastewater overloads the coastal waters are jobs for people, even as we are trying to protect with nutrients, which in turn produce too much natural areas. This dual concern has gotten us in- ` algae, which kills the marine life. Once those re- volved in a number of economic ventures that may I lationships became clear, we had our answer. We seem a bit removed from traditional land conserva- i had to find a way to encourage and promote low- tion measures. ( density development on the waterfront. The Virginia Coast Reserve is probably our most In typical Conservancy fashion, our first move j ambitious undertaking in this area.That project be- i was to buy more land. We started acquiring key gan in 1969 in traditional Conservancy fashion.We mainland properties on the seaside waterfront—not ! bought a chain of barrier islands on Virginia's east- i -to manage them as nature preserves but rather to ern shore—about 40,000 acres in all—to protect both resell them with permanent restrictions prohibit- migratory birds and shorebirds as well as the is- ing environmentally incompatible uses.As a result, lands'natural communities.But by the mid-1980s, we succeeded in keeping more of the land main- 112 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1995 ;9