Open Space

Note: For a list of DEC-managed recreation lands see the Places to Go page.

View the 2009 Open Space Conservation Plan

2013 Open Space Conservation Plan Revision

DEC-led committees of citizen scientists, non-profit leaders, elected officials and government officials are convening public meetings across the state to review the current Open Space Conservation Plan. These Regional Advisory Committees will make recommendations for open space conservation policies and priority projects to be included in the 2013 revision.

DEC Region	Date	Location	Additional Info
1 - Long Island	10 am, Friday March 15, 2013	Childs Mansion 19 Shore Drive East Setauket, NY 11733	Phone: 631-444-0300
1 - Long Island	10 am, Friday April 19, 2013	Long Island State Parks Regional HQ Belmont Lake State Park Belmont Avenue North Babylon, NY	Phone: 631-444-0300
2 - New York City	6 pm, Monday February 25, 2013	OPRHP NYC Regional Office Adam Clayton Powell Bldg 163 West 125th St., 17th Flr New York, NY 10027	Phone: 718-482-4942
	6 pm, Thursday March 21, 2013	OPRHP NYC Regional Office Adam Clayton Powell Bldg	Phone: 718-482-4942
	6 pm, Tuesday April 16, 2013	OPRHP NYC Regional Office Adam Clayton Powell Bldg	Phone: 718-482-4942
3 - Lower Hudson Valley	2 pm, Tuesday February 26, 2013	DEC Region 3 HQ 21 South Putt Corners Rd New Paltz, NY 12561	Phone: 845-256-3092
	10 am, Thursday March 21, 2013	Conf. Room 126 NYS DEC Region 3 HQ	Phone: 845-256-3092
	2 pm, Monday April 22, 2013	Conf. Room 126 NYS DEC Region 3 HQ	Phone: 845-256-3092
4 - Capital District	1:30 pm, Tuesday February 12, 2013	NYS DEC Region 4 HQ 1130 N. Westcott Rd. Schenectady, NY 12306	Phone: 518-357-2234
	2:30 pm, Tuesday March 5, 2013	NYS DEC Region 4 HQ	Phone: 518-357-2234
	2:30 pm, Monday April 15, 2013	NYS DEC Region 4 HQ	Phone: 518-357-2234
	2:30 pm, Wednesday April 24, 2013	NYS DEC Region 4 HQ	Phone: 518-357-2234
5 - Eastern Adirondacks, Lake Champlain	10 am, Friday February 22, 2013	OPRHP Saratoga Reg. Office 19 Roosevelt Drive Saratoga Springs, NY 12866	Phone: 518-897-1200
	10 am, Friday March 22, 2013	NYS DEC Warrensburg Office 232 Golf Course Road Warrensburg, NY 12885	Phone: 518-897-1200
	10 am, Friday April 12, 2013	NYS DEC Region 5 HQ 1115 NYS Rte 86 Ray Brook, NY 12977	Phone: 518-897-1200
	10 am, Friday May 3, 2013*	TBA*	*Tentative meeting Phone: 518-897-1200
6 - Western Adirondacks, Lake Ontario	10 am, Wednesday February 27, 2013	NYS DEC Lowville Office 7327 St Rt 812 Lowville, NY 13367	Phone: 315-785-2239
6 - Western Adirondacks, Lake Ontario	10 am, Wednesday April 17, 2013	NYS DEC Lowville Office	Phone: 315-785-2239
7 - Central New York, Eastern Finger Lakes	10 am, Thursday February 28, 2013	NYS DEC Cortland Office 1285 Fisher Avenue Cortland, NY 13045	Phone: 315-426-7403
	10 am, Tuesday March 26, 2013	NYS DEC Cortland Office	Phone: 315-426-7403
	10:30 am, Tuesday April 16, 2013	NYS DEC Cortland Office	Phone: 315-426-7403
	1-4 pm, Thursday May 16, 2013	NYS DEC Cortland Office	Phone: 315-426-7403
8 - Western Finger Lakes	1-3 pm, Wednesday February 20, 2013	Sampson State Park	Phone: 585-226-5411
	1-3 pm, Wednesday March 13, 2013	NYS DEC Region 8 HQ 6274 E Avon-Lima Rd Avon, NY 14414	Phone: 585-226-5411
	1-3 pm, Wednesday April 24, 2013	Hemlock Water Filtration Plant City of Rochester Earth Day Event 7412 Rix Hill Rd. Hemlock, NY 14466	Phone: 585-226-5411
	1-3 pm, Wednesday May 22, 2013*	TBA*	*Tentative meeting Phone: 585-226-5411
9 - Western New York	7 pm, Wednesday April 10, 2013	Crossroads Commerce & Conf. Center Belmont, NY Allegany County	Phone: 716-851-7200
	7 pm, Thursday April 18, 2013	Cattaraugus County Office Building 3rd Floor Legislative Chamber Little Valley, NY Cattaraugus County	Phone: 716-851-7200
	7 pm, Thursday April 25, 2013	Cornell Cooperative Extension 401 N Main St Warsaw, NY 14569 Wyoming County	Phone: 716-851-7200
	7 pm, Wednesday May 1, 2013	Niagara County Fairgrounds 4487 Lake Avenue Lockport, NY 14094 Niagara County	Phone: 716-851-7200
	3:30 pm, Wednesday May 8, 2013	Concord Town Hall, 86 Franklin Street, Springville, NY	Phone: 716-851-7200
	3:30 pm, Wednesday May 15, 2013	Concord Town Hall, 86 Franklin Street, Springville, NY	Phone: 716-851-7200

Regional press releases announcing further public meeting details may have been posted. All meetings are held at locations accessible to people with disabilities. Please contact DEC if an interpreter or any other accommodation is needed.

Open Space Introduction

Open space plays an important role in our state's landscape: the patterns of development, economy, culture, environment and well-being of our people. When our nation was young, the notion of open space conservation would have seemed unusual. The country was predominantly rural and agrarian; human settlements were often surrounded by wilderness and people were directly dependent on our state's fields, forests and waterways.

As our nation advanced, we largely abandoned firsthand relationships with the land, while spreading the landscape with homes, neighborhoods, commercial development and infrastructure. Now, as undeveloped land becomes scarce in many communities, it has become clear that there are basic human needs that go unmet without open space. In modern times, open space conservation requires active participation by government and citizens to ensure that these needs are met.

View of a shaded and groomed park in an urban setting

Urban Parkland

View of a large Central New York orchard with a distant hiltop

Working Landscapes

Open space provides:

Preservation of areas of particular scenic beauty, cultural value and historic significance
Room for production of food and forest products
Room for outdoor recreation
Green infrastructure to shape urban growth and provide a more livable and efficient urban environment
Protection or restoration of ecological functions
Protection of wildlife diversity and habitat for endangered plant and animal species
Protection of fisheries, viewsheds, public access and ecotourism potential
Mitigation of natural hazards, such as flooding, and protection of water supplies
Values that can take decades or centuries to mature and can be quickly lost to new development.

View of a sunny bike path with a couple bicycling

Definition of Open Space

Open space may be defined as an area of land or water that either remains in its natural state or is used for agriculture, free from intensive development for residential, commercial, industrial or institutional use. Open space can be publicly or privately owned. It includes agricultural and forest land, undeveloped coastal and estuarine lands, undeveloped scenic lands, public parks and preserves. It also includes water bodies such as lakes and bays. The definition of open space depends on the context. In a big city, a vacant lot or a small marsh can be open space. A small park or a narrow corridor for walking or bicycling is open space, though it may be surrounded by developed areas. Cultural and historic resources are part of the heritage of New York State and are often protected along with open space.

NYS Open Space Conservation Plan

The 2009 Open Space Conservation Plan is now available.

New York's Open Space Conservation Plan serves as the blueprint for the State's land conservation efforts, which during the past several years, has conserved over a million acres of land with an investment of more than $762 million. The Open Space Plan is required by law to be revised every three years.

Alder Bottom Wildlife Management Area

New York's Open Space Conservation Plan provides four overarching objectives to direct our priorities, policies, and actions:

Responding to Climate Change
Fostering Green, Healthy Communities
Connecting New Yorkers with Nature & Recreation
Safeguarding our Natural & Cultural Heritage

The Plan provides a number of actions that we can take in pursuit of each objective and a listing of associated programs and policies. The Plan also contains a statewide list of priority conservation projects that are eligible for funding through the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).

The e-Appendices, available on this website, contain evaluation and criteria used to determine EPF spending priorities and recommendations by the Regional Advisory Committees, local governments and partnerships, the public, and staff from DEC, the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) and the Department of State (DOS), to improve New York's open space conservation program.

The Goals of the State Open Space Conservation Plan are:

photo of Sanford Lake, Tahawus, Essex County

To protect habitat for the diversity of plant and animal species in order to ensure the protection of healthy, viable and sustainable ecosystems.
To protect our State's water quality, including surface and underground drinking water supplies, lakes, streams and coastal and estuarine waters needed to sustain human life and aquatic ecosystems.
To maintain an interconnected network of protected lands and waters allowing wildlife to be able to shift range with climate change to follow natural migration patterns.
To reestablish broad riparian corridors along, and around, water bodies throughout the State.
To combat global climate change by adding to the tree canopy in our urban centers and urban communities in order to moderate temperature fluctuations, thereby lowering our energy consumption.
To improve quality of life and overall health in our State's communities, especially those with limited current access to open space.
To maintain critical natural resource industries such as farming, forest products, commercial fishing and tourism.
To combat global climate change by sustainable stewardship of our State's forests for carbon sequestration and air quality enhancement.
To combat global climate change by encouraging more compact community design patterns.
To protect habitat to sustain the traditional pastimes of hunting, fishing, trapping and wildlife viewing.
To provide accessible, quality outdoor recreation and open space to all New Yorkers.
To provide places for education and research relating to ecological, environmental and cultural resources.
To protect and enhance scenic, historic and cultural resources considered to be valued parts of the common heritage of our State's citizens.

Smart Growth

Aerial photo overlooking the City of Ithaca and Cayuga Lake

A relatively compact pattern of development

Smart growth is an approach to land use that redirects economic growth away from undeveloped areas and back into established communities. Open space conservation and smart growth go hand in hand, just as the natural and built environments are interconnected. On one hand, open space conservation redirects growth by preventing development on protected land. At the same time, smart growth draws development pressure away from unprotected open spaces.

More about Open Space:

2009 Open Space Conservation Plan - This page contains the 2009 revision to the New York State Open Space Conservation Plan. The plan provides statewide priorities for setting aside, purchasing, and otherwise protecting lands that make up the state's vital open spaces. It provides links to the document and appendices.
Smart Growth - The Department encourages the use of Smart Growth principles to guide economic growth away from the open space periphery and toward traditionally developed areas.
Open Space Funding from the Environmental Protection Fund - The New York State Environmental Protection Fund provides mechanisms for open space conservation and land acquisition.
Recent Land And Conservation Easement Announcements and Acquisitions - The Bureau of Real Property is DEC's Real Estate Agent, handling all land conveyance transactions for all DEC Divisions. This page lists recent land and conservation easement announcements and acquisitions.
New York State Conservation Partnership Program - New York State Conservation Partnership Program - Capacity building grants for land trusts in New York State.
Open Space Conservation License Plate - New York's conservation license plate helps conserve open space.