buzzworthy When land’s a lifesaver


“Someone always suggests ‘Candy Land.’ We ask the students to think about whether that’s the best theme for a healthy outdoor playground. One group of fourth-graders came up with ‘Fruityland’ as an alternative— to which we said, fair game.


It did not win the vote, however.”


— Joan Keener, Trust for Public Land program manager


In New York City classrooms, playground design becomes part of the curriculum as students help pick out landscaping elements, play equipment, and themes for artwork. Other themes that didn’t quite make the cut include SpongeBob SquarePants™ space turtles.


, kittens, and ninja 24 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2013


It might not look like urban infrastructure, but there’s more to this farm than meets the eye. Fertile grounds for crops from wheat to walnuts—as well as cheery flowers—these low-lying fields are also part of a plan to protect a half-million nearby Sacramento residents from flooding. In the largest such deal in California history, The Trust for Public


Land helped place an agricultural conservation easement on almost 3,000 acres of Sacramento River Ranch earlier this fall. By ensuring that the property stays in production—rather than being paved over for development—the easement preserves the land as an outlet for flood- waters should the river overflow its levees during a major storm. The logic: better to flood fields than homes. This kind of trade-off makes sense to planners at the California


Department of Water Resources. “We don’t want it to ever flood,” the DWR’s Earl Nelson told The Sacramento Bee. “But if something happens that’s beyond everyone’s control, we don’t want [the] urban areas [to be] at risk.”


randall benton


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