Public Values and Conservation Land

This paper explores public values and attitudes toward conservation land by tracing the history of a proposed conversion of town conservation land to water supply purposes in Weston, Massachusetts. Private citizens, local government, the regional water authority and the state legislature each placed a different value on the same 36-acre parcel of land. These values ranged from its appraised development value, to its replacement value, to its unbounded public value. A case study approach is utilized which relies extensively on personal interviews to understand the individual motivations and institutional priorities which decided the final outcome.