The total area of land estimated to be acquired by DEEP as preserved open space is approximately 264,500 acres. Over the previous ten years, the state has preserved an average of 901 acres per year. While DEEP has made steady progress to increase the amount of land preserved, DEEP’s preservation efforts are not on track to reach the state’s preservation goal of 320,576 acres by 2023. At the average acquisition rate of 901 acres per year, it would take DEEP approximately 62 years to achieve the ten percent goal. As the cost of land increases, that goal will become more remote unless the rate of open space acquisition increases significantly.

Open space provides Connecticut's residents with options for outdoor activities, preservation of scenic beauty, habitat protection, increased biodiversity, protection of unique bedrock and surficial geologic features, water protection and flood control. In addition, forests, farmland and other natural habitats absorb more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than they emit.*** Land conservation offers a double benefit for the climate: it helps absorb GHG emissions and it prevents significant GHG emissions that would result from development.

_{Goal #1: The State shall acquire ten percent of Connecticut’s land for preserved open space. This goal was set in statute in 1997 (Connecticut General Statutes, (CGS) Section 23-8(b)).} 

_{Technical Note: *The right vertical axes in the land preservation charts have been shortened, beginning at 200,000 acres rather than the customary zero. **State land is primarily owned in fee by the State. A notable exception is a 111-acre easement acquired in 2020, which is included in the State acquisition total. Acquisitions by “conservation partners” often include easements. State “preserved land” does not mean land that is not managed or harvested. The lands acquired by the state as open space might not be restricted from logging or other types of management or from recreational  activities. ***Nationally, the Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) sector resulted in a net increase in carbon stocks, which represents an offset of 13.6 percent of total (i.e., gross) greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.¹⁶}

Goal #2: Other Conservation Lands – 11 percent

In 2022, state grants helped municipalities and land trusts acquire or protect 1,613 acres through the Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program (Grant Program), whereby DEEP provides financial assistance to municipalities and nonprofit land conservation organizations to acquire land for open space, and to water companies to acquire land to be classified as Class I or Class II water supply property.¹⁷ The amount of land preserved as the result of grants from the Grant Program in 2022 was greater than last year and greater than the ten year average of 1,231 acres.

Unfortunately, the exact amount of land held by DEEP’s conservation partners is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine because land trusts are continuously acquiring properties for conservation and outdoor recreation, the inventory of municipal land is incomplete, it is very difficult to track easements, and there is no centralized accounting of privately preserved lands. In 2021, the Council estimated that more than 299,500 acres**** are held as open space land in fee by DEEP’s “conservation partners.” This would be approximately 85 percent of the goal of 352,634 acres. The spike in 2021, depicted in the chart above as “Partner’s Area”, is due to the addition of the Council’s assessment of land trust land and water company land.

As noted above, it is estimated that DEEP has preserved approximately 264,500 acres (Goal 1) and its conservation partners “hold” approximately 301,000 acres (Goal 2) as open space for a total of approximately 565,500 acres or 84 percent of the total statewide goal of 673,210 acres.

Connecticut General Statutes (CGS), Section 7-100l requires that each town that possesses or contracts for services for the creation or maintenance of a digital parcel file shall transmit such file to the regional council of governments (COGs). The Office of Policy and Management (OPM) subsequently asks the COGs to voluntarily provide the files, which are available in one location on the OPM website. The digital parcel files and associated assessor data, including the ownership, use and area of each property, might be used to help determine the total amount of open space in Connecticut.

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¹⁵ _{DEEP, Monthly Open Space Reports to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and the State Bond Commission; portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Open-Space/DEEP-Monthly-Open-Space-Reports.}
¹⁶ _{EPA, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2020; www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-04/us-ghg-inventory-2022-main-text.pdf.} 
¹⁷ _{DEEP, Monthly Open Space Reports to the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and the State Bond Commission; portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Open-Space/DEEP-Monthly-Open-Space-Reports.}