Georgia Tops List of States with Threatened Parks.

• Position: Brief Article

Development near 25 of Georgia's 63 state parks earned the state the designation of most threatened in a recent survey by the National Park Trust, a private land conservancy. According to the report, 8,212 of 74,542 acres of Georgia slate parkland is endangered by sprawl, commercial and residential development, traffic, and rising land values, which all make it difficult for governments to buy open land. The parks said to be in jeopardy, in states including Nevada, Florida, and Ohio, are not themselves at risk of disappearing. Rather, they are ringed, or soon will be, by buildings, rushing traffic, and neighbors who may consider fragile areas extensions of their own backyards. Much of the development near Georgia state parks might have been prevented had adjoining property been bought by the state or donated by' landowners. Donations of this kind are less common since changes in the tax code in 1986 made deductions for philanthropy less generous. And purchases have been stymied...