Scenic America

Scenic America is seeking to protect the value of the country’s transportation infrastructure and the character of our communities that we, as a nation, have created with taxpayer dollars. We should not enable blight to deplete these public assets.

In order to accomplish this, we advocate for the following policy goals:
1. Advocating for our country's scenic byways
2. Support for our nation's parks and open space
3. Fighting against visual blight on our highways
4. Undergrounding unsightly overhead wires

Taking dramatic charge of the visual environment can be a job creator and a property values sustained. Studies have shown that higher visual standards result in higher assessed values.

Investment in scenic preservation and enhancement should be seen as an integral part of our national and local policymaking. In the end, taking pride in our places will affirm our best instincts by integrating beauty into the lives of all Americans.

In addition, our long-term goal is to change the mindset of society to better appreciate scenic resources. To that end, we sponsor educational programs to instill scenic values in our country's youth, and awareness and understanding of scenic conservation issues among the general public.

Having the nationwide strength and identity of the Scenic America brand solidly behind each affiliate can leverage extraordinary opportunities. In particular, it will facilitate the generation of revenue from local philanthropic sources. Affiliates can draw upon and benefit from the fundraising expertise of the national office without having to expend vital and already limited resources. With the hub supporting the spokes, the result will be a more vibrant and robust organization protecting the scenic beauty of America.

Scenic America combines policy expertise with effective advocacy and communications. Our advocacy work includes direct lobbying and mobilizing grassroots and grasstops supporters. One of the key technologies Scenic America employs in our communication strategy is state-of-the-art constituent relationship management (CRM) software, a tool that will allow us to communicate in fast and powerful ways with our supporters, funders, public officials and the media. We also make new research tools and new information available to local scenic conservation supporters to aid their efforts.

We have a visionary Board of Directors that wrote a 44-page policy paper, "Taking the Long View: A Proposal for Realizing America the Beautiful." This important document lays out the next decades on progress that should be made regarding scenic beauty.

We also have very talented staff. Mark Falzone was selected to serve as President of Scenic America in April 2017. Prior to Scenic America, he served as Deputy Director of the National Immigration Forum, and before that was a five-term elected member of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts. As a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures he was twice elected to the Executive Committee. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Since Mr. Falzone came aboard to lead Scenic America, we have successfully (and rapidly) leveraged our assets to bring policy change to Capitol Hill. In a time of divided and gridlock in Washington, D.C., Scenic America was able to work on a bipartisan basis to author legislation that was signed into law by the president in 2019.

Stopped the construction of thousands of billboards around the country. Providing technical assistance to tens of thousands of citizens, community groups and public officials across America. Helped to establish the National Scenic Byway Program, which has resulted in the designation of 150 roads and 25,000 miles of scenic byways.

Our recent victories include the presidential signing of the “Reviving America’s Scenic Byways Act of 2019,” which reopens the nomination process for National Scenic Byways. This is a major victory, the first time our organization has shepherded a bill from its writing, through passage in Congress, to presidential signing and enactment as law.

Scenic America was also a key supporter of the Great American Outdoors Act, which was signed into law in Summer 2020 and restored key funds to our country's national parks.

Thanks to the Reviving America's Scenic Byways Act, in February 2021 the FHWA announced the creation of 49 new National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads. Through Scenic America's advocacy, this program also received its first new funding in a decade, with $16 million appropriated to support scenic byways around the country.

Scenic advocates in the Houston business community convinced city officials to pass a ban on new billboards in 1980. Since that time the city has gone from 15,000 billboards to fewer than 1,500.

Other select accomplishments:
We helped establish the Journey Through Hallowed Ground encompassing important Civil War sites throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
Developed 51 state and local affiliates around the country.
Scenic Philadelphia commissioned a study which found that homes in that city within 500 feet of a billboard are worth $31,000 less on average than those further away, and each additional billboard within a census tract reduced home values by nearly $1,000.
Helping to stop new billboard construction in more than 1,000 communities nationwide.