Starting around the first of October, people of Portage County will be surveyed by telephone to gauge their feelings on open space.
Linda Stoll, who is preparing an open space plan for the county, said it's part of the information gathering stage. "Our hope is to be able to identify areas which the people of the county want to protect and preserve as green space," she said.
In order to make it statistically significant, she said, 300 responses are being sought in the county-wide survey. The survey will be conducted at random by the Rural Development Institute of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, which has run a number of surveys in Portage and other counties.
"People will be asked such questions as what type of green space they value most," said Stoll. "They will also be asked to identify areas they feel are threatened, what ways are appropriate to protect green space, and how it should be paid for."
Stoll said the goal is to complete the open space plan and present it to the Portage County Board by the end of the year.
"We hope people will be willing to respond to the telephone survey," she said, "as the information is very important and allows us to write an open space plan that accurately reflects the wishes of the citizens."