Resources for Activity 2: Community Character

Overview:
In this activity, students explore community character and investigate the ways that communities, including their own, are responding to growth and development pressures.

Student Pages:
Character Search
Case Study - Gateway Communities in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Questions to Consider
Case Study - Local Land Use Issues
Case Study - Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative

Website Referenced in Activity 2:
Viewfinders (http://www.dunnfoundation.org/edu-vm.htm)

Case Study:
Dummerston, Vermont and its Contiguous Forest Habitat
Learn about the small community of Dummerston and its development patterns.  Are its forests being lost or saved?  What will the community look like in the future?  Using maps, surveys and statistics, learn about the various options communities have for protecting forest areas and wildlife corridors coupled with the impending pressures of future development.
Background – What is Contiguous Forest Habitat and Why is it Important?

Additional Resources
"What Happened to Our Village Green?"  Article by C.E. Hunt, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

30 Questions to help Evaluate Your Awareness of the Greater Place in Which You Live

State Specific Resources
New England (and beyond) websites and other resources described in an article by Tim Rayworth, Massachusetts PLT State Coordinator

Earth & Sky Radio Correlations
This activity can be supplemented with related Earth & Sky radio shows that you can download for use in your classroom. Learn about the PLT and Earth & Sky Initiative.

Related Earth & Sky Shows:
- Cities Ally with Nature to Solve Problems (2009)
- Michael Fishman: Pedestrian Engineering Improves Designs in Public Spaces    (2008)                    
- Sally Collins: '6,000 acres of open land lost to development daily'  (2008) 
- Mitchell Joachim Says in Building a Sustainable City, Location is Everything  (2008)
- Greg McPherson on Urban Forests Built to Last (2009)