• Research
  • Center for City Park Excellence
  • Center for Conservation Finance
  • Center for Land & People
  • Center for Land & Water
  • Benefits of Parks
  • Brownfields to Parks
  • Park Equity & Public Health Toolkit

Benefits of Parks

1: Conservation Returns $6 for 1 in Colorado
A recent study of conservation easements adds to a growing body of research highlighting the economic benefits of land conservation.

2: Conservation: An Investment That Pays
Conservation: An Investment That Pays can help agency personnel and community conservationists make the case for conservation as a long-term economic investment.

3: Measuring the Economic Value of a City Park System
The Trust for Public Land's Center for City Park Excellence gathered two dozen park experts and economists in Philadelphia for a colloquium to analyze how park systems economically benefit cities. While not every benefit can be easily quantified, this report examines seven major factors. 30 pages. (2009)

4: White Paper: Quantifying the Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Urban Parks
The Trust for Public Land commissioned this report that addresses climate change and urban parks. Urban green space serves diverse purposes, ranging from neighborhood and city parks to river parkways, bike paths, and street trees, which in turn can produce different types of greenhouse gas benefits. This white paper, prepared by ICF International, outlines the greenhouse gas benefits of adding green space to an urban area and introduces methodologies for estimating potential greenhouse gas reductions. 43 pages. (2008)

5: The Economic Benefits of Land Conservation
Book: The Economic Benefits of Land Conservation presents quantitative and authoritative research on the economic benefits of land conservation. It brings together for the first time scientists, economists, and researchers from all sectors—academia, government, nonprofits, and industry—to summarize the best current studies, to present new original research, and to suggest areas for further inquiry into the economic benefits of land conservation. 54 pages. (2007)

6: The Health Benefits of Parks
The Health Benefits of Parks: How Parks Help Keep Americans and Their Communities Fit and Healthy draws from the latest research to outline ways in which parks support and promote healthy lifestyles, particularly in cities, where eighty percent of Americans live, work...and play! 24 pages. (2006)

7: Benefits of Parks White Paper
White Paper: As the nation's leading conservation group creating parks in and around cities, The Trust for Public Land has launched its Parks for People initiative in the belief that every American child should enjoy convenient access to a nearby park or playground. This white paper outlines how desperate the need is for city parks—especially in inner-city neighborhoods and describes the social, environmental, economic, and health benefits parks bring to a city and its people. (2005 reprint)

8: The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space
Report: The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space: How Land Conservation Helps Communities Grow Smart and Protect the Bottom Line. Communities around the country are learning that open space conservation is not an expense but an investment that produces important economic benefits. TPL's entire report on the economic benefits of open space is available in portable document format (pdf) or in text format by chapter. 48 pages. (1999)

9: Bibliography: The Economic Benefits of Open Space
Compiled several years before TPL's Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space report, this annotated bibliography contains over one hundred citations on the economic benefits of protecting open space.

10: Healthy Communities/Healthy Economies
"Show me a healthy community with a healthy economy and I will show you a community that has its green infrastructure in order," said TPL's President Will Rogers in May, 1999, remarks before the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in Detroit. "Around our nation, communities are recognizing that land conservation is one place where healthy communities and healthy economies meet."