Albuquerque Open Space

The Open Space Division partnered with the New Mexico Humanities Council on a project to delve deeper into the incredible story of how Albuquerque citizens and visionary leaders organized to save nearly 30,000 acres of Major Public Open Space and established the Division to protect and manage these special places.

The City Goals Committee wrote in 1969, that the goal is "to preserve the unique natural features of the metropolitan area by achieving a pattern of development and open space respecting the river, land, mesa, mountains, volcanoes, and arroyos." With these words the movement to preserve the features of the city's natural settings had been given official sanction.

Citizens groups were formed to watch over each element of the city's open space: the Bosque del Rio Grande Nature Preserve Society, Save the Volcanoes, Save the Sandias, and Save the Arroyos. In 1975 these groups were brought together under the banner of the citizens Open Space Task Force led by facilitator Philip Tollefsrud. That same year, the City/County Comprehensive Plan was published. The Plan for Major Public Open Space is one of three volumes of the Comprehensive Plan. It calls for acquisition or public control of the major features of the city's natural setting. Elected officials and voters got behind the effort to preserve open space.