Sense of Place - An Open Space Toolkit

Sense of Place
How do we choose where we live? What makes us settle in the places that we settle? There is no one answer to these questions, and the answers will be very different depending upon whom you talk with or where in the world you are. The Sierra Business Council believes that it is this sense of place that provides the connection between the human communities and natural and built landscapes of the Sierra Nevada.

When undertaking the work of open space preservation, we need to understand why we want to conserve land in the first place. Why buy land and protect it? Why provide market-based mechanisms that restrict development on some properties and not others? The answer is that as a population and society, we find intrinsic value in open land, clean air, magnificent scenery, and clear water. People enjoy viewing and smelling the wildflowers bloom year after year, seeing the cattle graze on the valley floors, and celebrating the bounty of their surroundings at local markets and festivals.

The information contained in the following pages is meant to be a guide and a resource. This is a collection of the works that have been researched and published throughout the country and in some cases the world. It is not an exhaustive discussion of what brings value to every individual, rather, it is a discussion of what brings value to communities, and how communities can work together to achieve a higher understanding of their place in the region, the country, and the world.

This is a working report and will be updated, so please tell us the story of what connects you to your community and how that community celebrates itself within the larger world.