Partnerships in Parks and Preservation

The sponsors of the Partnerships in Parks & Preservation conference are pleased to provide inthis volume the papers presented during the sessions in Albany, New York, September 9-12,1991. Together, the papers offer a broad perspective on partnerships - the historical development of the partnership concept, the importance of community support, impacts onthe quality of life, and how partnerships can be used to catalyze economic development Partnership parks are the result of a cooperative strategy for protecting natural and cultural resources and may combine privately-owned residential and commercial properties and Federal, state, and locally held lands. Thus, the partnership approach is a vehicle for protecting theseresources without total public agency ownership.The conference was designed to provide park planners, managers, developers, and public officials at all levels of government the opportunity to share knowledge and expertise on the partnership parks concept. The objectives of the conference program were:• to define the elements that are common to the concept of partnership parks in all their manifestations;• to present a detailed discussion of each of these common elements and provide participants a reference workbook that contains an analysis of the elements;• to view partnerships through a series of field workshops that emphasize the elements;• to apply the common elements so that each participant has an opportunity to evaluate the partnership concept and its application back home; and • to develop a summary of the conference for review by policy makers.Conference participants had the opportunity to select workshops in three tracks - urban/local, corridor/linkage, and regional- which were tailored to their professional interests; and field trips which gave a fll'St-hand look at pioneering and successful partnership approaches.