Benefits of Open/Green Space
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The benefits of having open space, and in particular this Oak Savanna open space, is multifold. We have categorized many of the benefits into 5 distinct areas. Click on the links below to learn more about how keeping the Oak Savanna an open space can benefit in each area.
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What gets policy-makers’ attention is climate resilience, green infrastructure, positive health outcomes, and making sure streets are safe. I use all these other ways of bringing nature’s benefits into the conversation without saying ‘nature.'” This website (Green Cities: Good Health) provides the scientific evidence that supports efforts to better plan, implement, and manage nature in cities. Research findings are sorted and summarized across benefits themes that include healing, safety, and community building. |
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Nature Heals
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Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. |
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Community Building
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Learn about "innovative ways Blacktown City Council is working with [the] multicultural residents to build a sense of place, a connection with nature, and to strengthen [the] community," |
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Visitor Centers
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Visitor Centers can enhance the branding of the destination and Forest, serve to attract new audiences, contribute to longer stays, and increase visitor spending. Perhaps most importantly, Visitor Centers are playing an important role in fostering stewardship and connecting visitors with opportunities to participate as citizen stewards and volunteers. |
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Oak Savannas
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The oak savanna was once one of the most common vegetation types in the Midwest but is today highly endangered. Intact oak savannas are now one of the rarest plant communities on earth. However, many degraded oak savannas still remain and can be restored. |
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History Matters
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Preserving history is important - as is teaching about it. Research and archeology can provide a context to understand who has inhabited the space over time, what activities they engaged in, and how this property fits into the natural and cultural history of Saint Paul and this region of the Mississippi River (Haha Wakpa). This site is potentially rich with Native American history, as well has the history of the Juvenile Justice System and the groups most impacted by stays at BTT.
Kaposia, or Little Crow’s village, was a seasonal Mdewakanton Dakota village along the Mississippi River in the St. Paul area. Kaposia, or KA-PO-ZA (Dakota), was established around 1750 [until 1837] by a group of Mdewakanton Dakota and a succession of chiefs each known as Little Crow. ** The village was originally located on the east bank of the river where Central Avenue intersects with Chicago Northwestern Railroad tracks, below present-day Indian Mounds Park. [BTT is above where the village was and is believed to have Native American artifacts] Totem Town began in 1908 as the Ramsey County Home for Boys, on E. 7th Street in St. Paul. Five years later it moved to a log house and a frame barn on 80 acres at its present site. The current dormitory was built in 1936, and the campus was renamed Totem Town in 1957 from the local practice of converting dead trees on the property into totem poles. |