On May 26, a land protection group announced it had saved 50 acres of open space in Erving, Massachusetts from development. Erving is near Greenfield. The land is at the summit of Poplar Mountain. It is open to the public for hiking. It can be reached from the Erving Town Forest on Old State Road. A sign that says "Poplar Mountain trails" is visible from the road. The group's web site is www.MountGrace.org.

Coyote and bear live on the mounatin, according to David Kotker, who works for the group. "There is a spectacular view of the Millers river valley," he said.

Over 50 acres of U.S. farm and ranch land are lost every hour, according to www.farmland.org. America's open spaces are disappearing at a rate of 6,000 acres a day, according to www.tpl.org.

Between 1982 and 2000, the Connecticut River Valley lost 27 percent of its farmland. That's according to a Trust for Public Land report, "The Connecticut River: Quintessential New England."

According to a study by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, preserving open space can be a boon to taxpayers. A league report showed that towns with the most protected open space have the lowest property taxes.

John Pucher is professor of land use at Rutgers University. His widely published research compares land use in Europe and the United States. Pucher says rural towns in Europe keep homes and businesses within easy walking distance of one another. Most people in rural Europe don't own cars because they don't need them; they can easily walk or ride a bicycle to shop, to get to school or work, or to the train station if they need to go to the city or another town. It's also easy to walk from the center of a town of 5,000 or 10,000 people to the edge of town, from which miles of uninterrupted farm and forest land extend in all directions.

When rural Americans go somewhere, 98 percent of the time they go by private automobile, Pucher told the Valley Post. That's a problem for people in rural areas who are too young or too old to drive. Pucher added that dependence on cars is bad for the environment, and even for health, because it causes obesity.

Protected open space creates jobs in agriculture, logging and tourism. It also reduces climate change.