13 Cultural Landscapes At Risk of Disappearing

The Cultural Landscape Foundation has issued its annual "Landslide" list of the nation's precious sites most threatened by "confiscation, development, energy and resource extraction, and other incompatible uses."

The 2017 edition, "Open Season on Open Space," includes 12 sites across the country, plus one listing that encompasses all areas potentially impacted by the ongoing federal review of national park designations. The Architect's Newspaper explains:

This year’s thirteen sites were organized based on five themes: “monetization of open space,” in which parks come under pressure to generate profit; “resource extraction,” which is under particular attack by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who proposed relaxing management rules for six monuments, exposing them to mining and logging; “park equity,” charging to use parks or converting them to sport and cultural venues; “detrimental effects of shadow,” where the surrounding development is built up to the point where the park no longer receives adequate light; and “the devaluation of cultural lifeways,” in which ancestral lands and other sites of cultural significance are threatened.

TCLF also maintains an online database of notable cultural landscapes throughout the U.S.