Chertoff Blames Border Crossers For Land Damage
The Washington Times; October 2, 2007
"'Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,' Chertoff told the Associated Press, in remarks confirmed by his spokesman. 'And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment...'"

Immigration fueling huge population jump, study warns
Copley News Service; August 30, 2007
"In the panel discussion, Roy Beck, a former environmental journalist who now heads the grass roots activist organization NumbersUSA, called the report 'thoroughly depressing' and said it foreshadows steady deterioration in the quality of life..."

Immigration to Add 100+ Million to U.S. Population by 2060
Center for Immigration Studies; August 30, 2007
"The nation’s ongoing debate over immigration generally has not focused on the effect it has on U.S. population size. Yet, increasing the nation’s total population is one of immigration’s clearest and most direct effects..."

Corporate subsidies that feed sprawl
The Seattle Times; April 23, 2007
"Governors across the country, notes [Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First's founder-leader], have begun to talk "smart growth," urging that land-use policies undergird existing communities. But their development programs keep promoting sprawl. "It's nuts. The two-state policy silos need to be broken down and corrected..."

San Joaquin Farmland Disappearing At Record Rate
The Associated Press; February 14, 2007
"In just two years, more than 18,800 acres of farmland in several San Joaquin Valley  counties became subdivisions, shopping malls or other developments, setting a new state record for loss of  farmland, according to newly released state data. A healthy real estate and construction market spurred farmers in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Tulare and Merced  counties to sell 18,801 acres between June 2002 and June 2004, said Molly Penberth, manager of the Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program of the California Department of Conservation. Preliminary data from the program that tracks land development, found roughly 26 acres of farmland were  removed from production each day in the two-year period, Penberth said..."

Sprawl puts Florida's future at risk
St. Petersburg Times; December 27, 2006
"If you think Florida is too crowded now, just wait a few years. Over the next five decades, separate cities from St. Petersburg to Daytona Beach are expected to be joined in one big development girdle across the center of the state. By 2060, today's state population of 18-million will double, as will the problems of traffic congestion and resource depletion..."

Study suggests sprawling to burbs for social life
The Washington Times; November 13, 2006
Editor's Note: If you don't curb population growth, there will likely be many more curbs on individual liberty to live where you want.

Houses go up, aquifer goes down
The Capital Times; August 26, 2006
"You can't put 500,000 people in this county without having some impact on the water system," said Michael King, division administrator for Dane County's Community Analysis and Planning Division. "It's a question of managing those impacts."

Urban sprawl, pollution cited in temperature rise
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA; July 30, 2006
"Experts say three weeks of relentless heat and smothering humidity that punished livestock, pushed power systems to the brink and killed more than 140 people statewide are a harbinger of hotter days ahead. They say nature, pollution and overdevelopment joined to create a perfect storm of heat and humidity..."

Illinois to Try New Anti-Sprawl Subsidies
The NewStandard, NY; July 17, 2006
"Starting next year, Illinois will provide additional tax breaks to companies that build near affordable housing units or public-transportation routes, in a move legislators say will continue to attract new companies and new jobs to the state while also reducing sprawl..."

Sprawl Reaches Front Burner
The Hartford Courant; July 14, 2006
"'People don't wake up in the morning thinking about the problem of urban sprawl. 'If they do, they probably have other problems,' said former Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening...'"

Make room for a million: Significant sprawl by 2020
Alameda Times-Star; June 28, 2006
"The Bay Area needs to make room for a million more people by 2020 but is doing a poor job preparing for their arrival, according to a report today by the Greenbelt Alliance..."

Sprawl linked to rise in loneliness and crime
Fauquier Times-Democrat; June 27, 2006
"Both of these issues can be directly linked to a lack of community life in the United States. Talk to any criminologist and they will tell you that a lack of community leads to crime. Talk to any sociologist and they will tell you that a lack of community leads to loneliness..."

What urban sprawl costs you
Orlando Sentinel; March 27, 2006
"Sprawl defines life in Central Florida -- one of the most spread-out regions in the country. Sprawl means one subdivision and strip mall after the next, spread across former farmlands and natural habitat. It's marked by miles of pavement and annoying traffic jams. Sprawl separates homes from businesses. It serves cars rather than people. It is the relentless march of the city outward toward rural areas. And little stands in its way..."

As State Grows, So Does Threat to Parkland
The Los Angeles Times; March 25, 2006
"As the state's growing population continues to devour open space, the California state park system increasingly is fighting efforts to build railways, roads, utility lines and commercial ventures that threaten its scenic preserves and historical sites..."

Suburban sprawl gains momentum
Detroit Free Press; March 16, 2006
"The fastest-growing counties in the United States are suburban, rural or a mixture of both as more people seek big yards and open spaces, even if that means a long commute. New U.S. Census Bureau estimates show the nation's population shifting south and west, to the distant suburbs of metropolitan areas..."

Mini-city would be an antidote to sprawl
The Boston Globe; January 17, 2006
''Any time you see large-scale, mixed-use development happening near or on top of a train station, it's a good thing," said Douglas I. Foy, secretary of commonwealth development for the state. ''People of all ages are increasingly fed up with the amount of time they're sort of imprisoned in their cars, and are increasingly interested in going to community neighborhoods..."

Kaine to target roads, sprawl
The Daily Progress (VA); January 17, 2006
"The first governor to lay out the broad outlines of a plan to address suburban sprawl, (Tim) Kaine said the state must protect the ability of localities 'to make their own land-use decisions. We need to ensure that we don't artificially drive up housing costs for families, and we must recognize that the lack of coordination between land-use and transportation decisions is a threat to our quality of life...'"

Land developers devour mighty dairy industry
Los Angeles Times; January 17, 2006
"Once home to one of the nation's largest concentrationsof dairy farms, Southern California's so-called Inland Empire has a $500-million dairy industry that is evaporating rapidly as dozens of farmers sell out to real estate developers..."

Tackling Sprawl
GreenBiz.com; January 8, 2006
"Sprawl has been fueled by low commute costs and lower land rents, as well as a pastoral dream that modern population densities may no longer permit. So one way to control it is to shift that cost incentive back in the other direction. While some would call this a "taking" of property rights by government, others would call it an attempt to more fairly allocate costs to the generator of those costs, rather than to the commons..."

Dairies Moving Out of Inland Empire
Los Angeles Times; January 9, 2006
"Housing developers are paying top dollar for land to farmers, many of whom are relocating their herds north to the San Joaquin Valley..."

Spirit of New England imperiled by sprawl
Times Argus; January 8, 2006
"It's the worst possible combination: New England's evil twins of aging, slow or no growth population and land-gobbling, spread out development. The six states are allowing their signature asset — their picturesque towns, rolling hills, small farms and verdant forests — to be carved into just another bunch of manufactured subdivisions and strip malls stuck here or there..."

Sprawl big issue for Maine
Kennebec Journal; Janurary 1, 2006
"The head of a Maine anti-sprawl group said cities and towns need to dust off their comprehensive plans and put them to use, or the state will continue to lose its distinctive character..."

U.S. sprawl takes toll on environment
United Press International; December 28, 2005
"U.S. suburban sprawl with its increased use of septic tanks and its watering and fertilizing of lawns is taking a toll on the environment..."

Sprawl Damages Chesapeake Bay
WTOP; October 12, 2005
"The [Chesapeake Bay] foundation estimates that Maryland alone loses 30,000 acres of land to sprawl each year. And throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the overall loss of land each year is estimated at 150,000 acres -- or nearly 50 square miles..."

Why smart growth isn't the real solution
Lodi News-Sentinel; September 17, 2005
"Population growth as well as the sprawl that inevitably evolves from it are grave issues that sooner or later will have it be addressed. Sadly however, judging by political inaction to date, the day of reckoning will come later -- if at all..."

Immigration's Profound Environmental Impact
Hartford Courant via The Baltimore Sun; September 11, 2005
"'The problems caused by population are still environmental news, but population is forgotten,' says Roy Beck, whose Arlington, Va.-based group, Numbers U.S.A., advocates less immigration to protect jobs and the environment..."

The Death of Sprawl?
09/07/05; River Cities' Reader Online
An author/journalist remembered reading that former President Gerald Ford was once convinced by pictures to save part of an old-growth forest, he decided to make a picture book about sprawl in hopes of convincing more people to preserve the environment and edge out new construction and congestion...

Out West, a Paradox: Densely Packed Sprawl
08/11/05; Washington Post
"From atop this hill near the port of Long Beach, greater Los Angeles splays out through the midsummer haze as a low-rise suburban muddle stitched together by freeways. But take a closer look: What you knew about sprawl turns out to be wrong..."

Rural twp. residents plead: Tax us to keep sprawl out
08/10/05; The Detroit News
"Independence Township is home to a fierce group of grassroots activists who are doing something quite extraordinary: imploring their elected leaders to tax them in order to preserve a way of life they see threatened by sprawl and so-called big-box stores such as Wal-Mart..."

When big is too big, even in L.A.
08/03/05; Christian Science Monitor
"The trend toward building ever bigger houses, which has gained momentum for over a decade in suburbs across the nation, has now arrived in one of America's largest bedroom communities: the San Fernando Valley. This week the Los Angeles City Council approved the first 'anti-mansionization' ordinance in one small section of the country's second-largest city. More L.A. enclaves are lined up to follow suit..."

Urban sprawl crowding Florida's black bears into shrinking woodlands
07/25/05; Sun-Sentinel
"Florida black bears are missing from most of the state not because of road kills, but mainly because of urban sprawl that has concentrated most of them into only six woodland areas, state officials say..."

Urban sprawl produces rich pickings for farmland owners
07/06/05; Financial Times (UK)
Farmland is selling at a premium as developers seeking to expand their sprawling strip mall and 'cookie cutter' home empires dig deeper into America's heartland...

Cities work together to prevent urban sprawl
06/29/05; The News Examiner
City planners in Georgia are taking precautions to ensure that their region doesn't end up sprawling out of control as occurred in Atlanta. “Atlanta grew so fast and so big, we’re at that point now ... Cumberland Region is at the point where Atlanta was a decade ago,” Gallatin planning director Jim Svoboda said. “The choices we make today will impact the future...”

US cities beset by McMansion sprawl
06/23/05; The Associated Press
One person's dream house could be their neighbors' worst nightmare, especially in sprawling suburbs across America...

Sierra growth to bring more congestion, development, report says
06/22/05; The Associated Press
Poor planning for an imminent population boom in the Sierra Nevada region could devastate the local environment, according to a new report from Sierra Nevada Alliance, a 12-year-old coalition of more than 60 environmental organizations...

Changing perspectives on urban sprawl
06/09/05; Staten Island Advance
"Unless we're able to break this triangle of forces -- buyers, builders and Bureaucrats -- we're virtually guaranteed a future of unstoppable sprawl and ever-increasing congestion on our roads," opines the Staten Island Advance. "What has put us in this situation? A booming population is one obvious reason..."

Sprawl puts more crime in Pearland
06/02/05; Brazosport Facts
A surge in population growth has brought strip malls and more tax dollars to at least one county in Texas, but an unpopular by-product of the sprawl has been a rise in crime as well...

Sprawl threatens quality of life
05/16/05; The Sun Herald
"Time is not on our side," former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening told those attending the 6th annual Smart Growth conference. According to Glendenning, Americans can combat sprawl which has spread across the nation since the 1950s by revitalizing old city buildings that have been abandoned over the recent decades in favor of the suburbs...

Traffic jams just keep getting worse, study finds
05/09/05; The Associated Press
Traffic congestion is building across the America as evidenced in a new study that shows urban areas can't keep up with their population's growth and there's doesn't seem to be any relief on the horizon for millions of commuters nationwide...

Group calls urban sprawl major issue in next vote
04/23/05; Akron Beacon Journal
The next governor of Ohio's first item on his or her agenda will be tackling urban sprawl, or at least that's what one diverse environmental coalition is hoping. According to lobbyists and activists from 'Greater Ohio', urban sprawl is having an enormous impact on day-to-day life statewide, "from school financing and increased traffic congestion to air pollution and jobs, from dying inner cities to booming outlying areas and the loss of farmland..."

Bush's Immigration Plan Divides Republicans, Deadlocks Congress
04/15/05; Bloomberg
President Bush's desire to ease restrictions on U.S. immigration has produced strange bedfellows among both sides of the debate. Green groups fearing the devastating impact illegal immigration and overpopulation have on the environment are uniting with Republicans while businesses and Catholic clergy are siding with Democrats who favor massive amnesties for illegal aliens including jobs and "earned" citizenship...

Illegal immigration costs nation on many counts
04/14/05; Osceola News Gazette
When you add up the costs associated with illegal immigration and its overall impact on the U.S., the numbers don't add up in Americans' favor, writes Eduardo Montalvo an Osceola County, Florida real estate agent and regular contributor to Spanish language publications in Central Florida...

Earth Day 2005: Population Growth is Paramount Issue
04/05/05; Californians for Population Stabilization
The Census Bureau predicts that America's current population of 296 million will double by the end of the century and conservationists are warning that uncontrolled immigration is largely to blame for mounting environmental problems caused by overpopulation...

The magic of sprawl? Decidedly unenchanting
04/01/05; St. Petersburg Times
According to one of Governor Jeb Bush's economic advisers, "Urban sprawl is not the problem, but the solution" to economic and population growth concerns facing the Sunshine State...

Population shifts raise the natural disaster stakes, study says
03/29/05; Associated Press
As population trends continue to show Americans' affinity for coastal living, they might not realize they're placing themselves at greater risk of death due to natural disasters...

Automobiles driving urban sprawl in Truckee Meadows
03/22/05; Reno Gazette-Journal
Automobiles are being cited as a major contributor to urban sprawl. "If the area’s population grows by 10 percent in the next 10 years and the average household has more than one car, then it could sprawl by an additional 39 square miles," warned Robert Wassmer, an economics professor at California State University at Sacramento...

Is There Still A Population Growth Problem? You Bet There Is!
03/18/05; Population Media Center
"Few realize that the U.S. is growing by more people per year than any country except India and China," writes William N. Ryerson, president of the Population Media Center. "In fact, it is growing by more than all other developed countries combined, mostly because of immigration..."

Banks Find Mortgage Clientele in Undocumented Immigrants
03/15/05; Newhouse News Service
Illegal aliens are increasingly being rewarded by American mortgage lenders who offer legal homeownership in the U.S. According to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the roughly 6 million Hispanic illegal aliens that reside in the U.S. represent a potential $44 billion market for home sales...

Anti-Sprawl Laws, Property Rights Collide in Oregon
02/28/05; The Washington Post
A state that once prided itself for tough anti-sprawl laws has many environmentally concerned citizens in a state of panic after voters last fall approved a law that puts property owners' rights above all other concerns. Measure 37 will effectively enable farm owners in Oregon to turn their land into strip malls without any public hearings or regard for the concerns and rights of their neighbors...

Groups: Sprawl Threatens Plants, Animals
01/11/05; The Boston Globe via Associated Press
Environmental groups are warning that left unchecked, urban sprawl threatens to permanently remove nearly 1,200 species of plants and animals from the face of the earth...

Buildings to go up like never before
12/13/04; USA Today
A new report confirms that our government's forced population growth program is going to cause enormous land development and resource consumption for all the projected building needed to accomodate additional population growth...

Senate Democrats to tackle sprawl and shipping problems
12/04/04; Associated Press
Perhaps after these state legislators make every effort possible to control sprawl without dealing with population, it will soon become apparent both how little they have a possibility of controlling and also how much intrusive government will have to be made into the key choices of Californians’ lives. Maybe after that, cutting immigration will look a little more attractive...

Seattle Study Ranks Charlotte, N.C., Worst in Urban Sprawl
11/10/04; The Charlotte Observer
According to a study from Northwest Environment Watch, Charlotte, NC ranked worst in sprawl. It is interesting to note that this article uses the NumbersUSA definition of sprawl, "loss of rural land to development..."

Farmland protection program outlined
08/31/04; The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
According to the American Farmland Trust, the United States is losing 2.2 million acres of rural land to urban sprawl annually...

Demand for bigger lots drives sprawl into coulees
08/15/04; La Crosse Tribune
"Most of the development has been at the expense of farmland and pasture," acknowledges UW-L geography professor Cynthia Berlin. This article highlights the debate over what constitutes sprawl, but most seem to agree that the destruction of farmland and natural habitat are almost always a result of sprawl...

Suburban sprawl makes Sherman look like a mere nuisance
07/23/04; The Dallas Morning News
"Sprawl is one of the biggest sleeper issues in American politics. As more citizens fume in snarled traffic (their lifestyle choice, according to the pro-growth crowd), a light may go on in their heads that says this didn't have to be," writes Froma Harrop...

Sunshine State becoming paradise spoiled
09/24/03; St. Petersburg Times
Columnist Bill Maxwell reminds Floridians that as long as the state's population grows, sprawl will continue unabated...

Study: Immigration Biggest Contributor to Sprawl
09/08/03; FOXNews.com
Read this article about the recently released study of sprawl nationwide by the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA. Although some critics cited in this article correctly state that there are places in the country where population growth and immigration play a minor role in sprawl, it is worth noting that sprawl is worse in areas that have high population growth...

Skirting the Population Issue: Why Journalists Need to Tackle Growth 09/08/03; Environment Writer
Tim Wheeler, an environmental reporter, challenges other environmental reporters to make the environment-population connection. He writes, "Like many other journalists, I'd missed the proverbial forest for the trees. And I'd shied away from a controversial topic because of the "baggage" it came with. So maybe it's time to quit lecturing others and start figuring out how to talk reasonably about population again."

The death of smart growth
09/01/03; Scripps Howard News Service
An outstanding column by Bonnie Erbe, drawing attention to the recent NumbersUSA and CIS sprawl study that finds that immigration plays a key role in the loss of rural land to development (sprawl)...

The Missing Birds of Rock Creek Park
08/30/03; Audubon Population and Habitat Campaign
Human population growth and sprawl are major causes of songbird decline in the U.S. Read a report from the National Audubon Society about the role of population growth in the decline of the songbird population...

Sprawl threatens quality of life, study says
07/07/03; Spokesman Review
"At some point, America needs to understand that there are limits and come to grips with that," says Roy Beck of the loss of rural land to development that is occurring all across the United States...

Our Sprawling Suburbs
03/18/03; The Washington Post
Read Roy Beck's letter to the editor of the Washington Post responding to a front page story about surburban sprawl...

Density Limits Only Add To Sprawl
03/09/03; The Washington Post
This article makes a good point that simply restricting rural land from development will not stop sprawl, although the article never makes the connection that a growing population will continue to place demands on land that require building up or building out. "So far, the limits haven't achieved their loftiest goals: They haven't stopped the loss of farmland, they haven't stopped sprawl..."

As Population Blooms, Resources Shrivel
02/26/03; Tampa Tribune
"A 2001 study by NumbersUSA, a Washington slow-growth group, concluded Florida's urban sprawl cannot be controlled without limiting population. The authors' analysis showed the amount of Florida's urban land consumed by each resident - considered a major factor in sprawl - did not grow during the 1990s," notes this Tampa Tribune article...

Demographics steer housing destiny
01/20/03; Inman News
Notice the implicit link between immigration and sprawl in this article. A group of real estate economists suggests that, "immigration and foreign-born households are crucial to housing markets in many gateway metropolitan areas and if immigration were curtailed, the short-term effect wouldn’t be significant, but the long-term effect would be profound..."

Stabilizing growth key to managing our resources
11/14/02; The Fresno Bee via Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)
"Regional attempts to grapple with problems of growth are doomed to failure as long as we eschew the demanding task of drawing up a national population policy responsive to environmental constraints," writes Meredith Burke in this article about a recent report advocating increased density as a solution to sprawl.

The common denominator: overpopulation
10/31/02; CalNews.com via Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)
Joe Guzzardi discusses California's dramatic population growth and the way in which almost every problem currently facing the state is made worse by continued population growth.

Swallowed by Urban Sprawl
10/18/02; Los Angeles Times via California Center for Regional Leadership
Notice that this "four-category" approach to measuring sprawl does not consider loss of rural land to urbanization. Rather, this Smart Growth approach focuses on density, transportation, and jobs...

Population Dumbs Down Smart Growth (PDF)
Fall 2001, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)
"Preserving our physical environment from human encroachment requires attacking both forces feeding sprawl. Stopping population growth must re-emerge as a national priority," writes demographer B. Meredith Burke. "Neither community nor state can craft an effective land use policy without a national commitment to stabilize U.S. population..."

Birds paying a price for global sprawl
April 4, 2001; The Bergen Record
"For thousands of years, birds have been one of our most important early warning systems...now birds are telling us something is terribly wrong with the environment," writes John Flicker, President of the National Audubon Society. Flicker points out that scientists believe that the decline in certain species of birds is due to habitat destruction caused by human population growth and urban sprawl...

Sierra Club leadership fires back on immigration
March 26, 2001; Las Vegas Sun
The Sierra Club has just released a paper saying that population growth is responsible for 30% of urban sprawl in contrast to the Beck-Kolankiewicz sprawl study that finds that 50% of urban sprawl is associated with population growth. However as Leon Kolankiewicz points out, "Something that causes 30 percent of anything is certainly a significant factor..."

Proposal to curb growth divides group
March 16, 2001; Las Vegas Sun
In addition to quoting from the Beck-Kolankiewicz sprawl study that finds that as long as Americans acquiesce to rapid national population growth, smart growth alone might at its best be able to cut sprawl in half, this reporter discusses the Sierra Club ballot initiative to include population growth as part of sprawl literature. The reporter addresses the role of immigration in U.S. population growth and quotes Sierra Club Executive Director, Carl Pope as saying that claims that claims that the SIerra Club fears being called racist if it addresses immigration are "absolute garbage...