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For every $1 donated to TCC since 2000,
we have helped generate $2,000 in new public funding for conservation.
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NEW! CAMPAIGN TOOLKIT
Click here for our online portal of campaign tools to help you win funding for conservation.
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 Preserving Nature, Creating Parks in the Portland, OR, Metro Area
A $20 million bond on the ballot in Tigard this November is the third public funding measure in three years to invest in a visionary plan called The Intertwine, which aims to preserve and create interconnected natural areas, parks and trails throughout the Portland metropolitan area. Promoted by a broad alliance of community leaders and environmental groups, the concept aims to enhance the livability and economy of a region whose calling card is its natural beauty, clean environment and abundant outdoor recreation. If the Tigard measure passes, it will bring the total amount of new conservation funding in greater Portland to $340 million since 2006.
Tigard is in Washington County, which has become a magnet for high technology businesses. Because the city is just within the Portland Metro urban growth boundary, it expects a great deal of development in the coming years. With construction slowed because of the recession, it is now or never for Tigard to save its remaining natural areas, protect its rivers and creeks and add parks and trails. For more information about the Citizens for Tigard's Natural Areas and Parks campaign, click here.
Photo: Doug Vorwaller |
November Election Round-up
Even in an off year and a bad economy, a number of conservation funding measures have made it to the ballot around the country.
One of the most active states is New Jersey, where voters will be deciding on a critical $400 million renewal of the Garden State Preservation Trust as well as half a dozen local ballot questions.
The local New Jersey measures seek to generate township or county revenue that can be combined with funding from the statewide trust to protect farms, forests, wildlife habitat and water supplies and create parks and trails. One campaign is in Readington Township, which has preserved 8,000 acres of rolling farmland and natural areas in this way. The township is asking voters to approve a small increase to the existing open space tax to continue its land conservation program and take advantage of significant opportunities for preservation that are opening up due to present economic conditions.
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In Windham, Maine, residents will decide on a $1 million bond for the purchase of the 550-acre Clark Farm and Forest, the town's largest contiguous property and ripe for subdivision. Preserving it would maintain the town's farm economy and its scenic beauty, as well as protect water quality and offer new public recreation.
The township of Pennsbury, Pennsylvania, is seeking a small property tax increase to preserve 2,000 acres of farm fields, meadows and forests that remain unprotected as development makes inroads from surrounding Chester County.
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