This is an excellent overview of open space as it is used in the area. Our preferred definition for open space is open public access, especially when bought with public money; which is too often not the case.
An excerpt.
Room to breathe
Open space shows itself in a wide expanse of conservation-minded ways
By Suzanne Hurt - Special to The BeePublished 12:00 am PDT Thursday, October 19, 2006
Hiking up an old dirt road, Frank Maurer admires a hill that rises beyond a clearing. The hill is covered with the green of oak trees and the pale California gold of native grasses.
"Isn't this beautiful land?" he says. "When I fall asleep, I dream about this." Maurer has worked for more than 20 years to create the Quail Ridge Reserve, a 2,000-acre preserve containing rare native grassland, savanna, oak woodland and chamise chaparral habitats on a Napa County peninsula next to Lake Berryessa.
If Maurer, a conservationist, can find a way to protect this hill and an adjoining valley above Markley Cove Resort, there will be another 120-acre parcel of valuable open space. Under the right circumstances, generations to come could enjoy the same hike being offered this day.
The reserve is an example of what happens when natural areas are transformed from just pretty private parcels into permanently protected tracts. As land everywhere in California and the West is developed, these set-aside properties become more important to nature lovers and outdoor recreationists.
The problem with acquiring and discussing open space is that not everyone sees eye to eye on exactly what it is.
"People don't agree on what the concept of open space means, and you get all kinds of friction over that," says Daniel Press, author of "Saving Open Space: The Politics of Local Preservation in California" (University of California Press, $18.95, 197 pages) and chairman of the environmental studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Traditionally, open space has been understood as:
• Absence of development or major construction.
• Some level of permanent protection.
• At least some public access, especially if the land purchase was publicly financed.
