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KEY POINT #I: <br />Creating an interconnected system <br />of parks and open space is manifestly <br />more beneficial than creating Barks <br />in isolation. <br />No single park, no matter how large and how well designed, <br />would provide citizens with the beneficial influences of nature; <br />instead parks need to be linked to one another and to sur- <br />rounding residential neighborhoods. —Frederick Low Olmsted' <br />The recreational and social values of city parks are well <br />known. However, linking parks, greenways, river corridors, <br />and other natural or restored lands together to create an <br />interconnected green space system provides far greater <br />benefits for people, wildlife, and the economy. It helps <br />connect people and neighborhoods, provides opportunities <br />for exercise that can counter today's trends in obesity and <br />adult onset diabetes, and enhances emotional well-being <br />by bringing nature "close to home." A network of parks can <br />also provide pathways for wildlife moving from one isolated <br />natural area to another. And just as it is necessary to design <br />and construct road networks and other built infrastructure <br />in advance of metropolitan growth, it is also important to <br />plan and protect urban green infrastructure as a city grows. <br />Montgomery County, Maryland, initiated green <br />infrastructure planning in the 1940s by planning a stream <br />valley park system far in advance of the county's rapid <br />growth.The county began buying land along all of its major <br />stream corridors in the 1940s and 1950s—well before land <br />development had made it impossible to preserve these <br />ecologically important areas.Today all of the county's major <br />stream corridors are public parks. In 2001,the county began <br />adding to this system with a 10-year, $100 million initiative to <br />complete a county -wide network of open space <br />composed of protected farmland, stream valley parks, <br />ecological reserves, trail corridors, and green space preserves. <br />KEY POINT #2: <br />Cities can use parks to help preserve <br />essential ecological functions and to <br />protect biodiversity. <br />When managed to maintain and restore natural ecological <br />communities, city parks can help protect the biological diver- <br />sity of local plants and animals.When connected strategically <br />with riparian areas, wetlands, and other urban green spaces, <br />the ecological value can far exceed the value of any one <br />park -This is because isolated natural areas can "leak" native <br />plant and animal species and suffer from the disruption of <br />natural ecological processes, while connected parks can <br />thrive as a wildlife habitat system and help to restore and <br />maintain vital ecological functions and services. <br />Portland, Oregon: Forest Park, Covering more than <br />5,000 acres and containing old growth trees and many types <br />of wildlife, Portland's Forest Park is one of the largest natural <br />forested urban parks in the U.S. A 1982 wildlife survey identi- <br />fied more than 112 species of birds and mammals in the park' <br />It serves as the anchor for Portland's regional parks, trails, and <br />greenspaces system.The Metropolitan Greenspaces Master <br />Plan, adopted in 1992 by the Metro Council, describes a vision <br />for a unique regional system of parks, natural areas, greenways, <br />and trails for wildlife and people.The plan, being implemented <br />by local park providers, schools, businesses, and citizen groups, <br />identifies 57 urban natural areas and 34 trail and greenway <br />corridors that define the green infrastructure for the Portland <br />metropolitan region <br />Chicago Wilderness is a regional system of nature reserves <br />that includes more than 200,000 acres of protected natural <br />lands from southeastern Wisconsin through northeastern <br />Illinois and into northwester Indiana.The protected lands <br />include forest preserves, state parks, federal lands, county pre- <br />serves, and privately owned lands. Chicago Wilderness is a <br />coalition of more than 160 public and private organizations <br />working together to protect, restore, study, and manage the <br />precious natural ecosystems of the Chicago region for the <br />benefit of the public.Their vision, as described in the <br />Biodiversity Recovery Plan, includes "a network of protected <br />lands and waters that will preserve habitat for a complete <br />spectrum of the region's natural communities... A critical mass <br />of sites will be large enough to maintain a sustainable complex <br />of interdependent species and natural communities. Carefully <br />monitored habitat corridors will connect sites, both small <br />and large, opening paths for ancient patters of migration <br />and dispersal.."' <br />2 OF 4 American Pla.nn.ing Association <br />