Integrating the Built and Natural Environment

The Urban Greenspaces Institute works to create great cities---cities where the built and natural environments are interwoven, not set apart. We promote the integration of urban green infrastructure-parks, trails, streams and wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat, urban forest canopy, and greenspaces-with the built environment. We work to ensure our region responds to Climate Change, both mitigation and adaptation.  Our motto, In Livable Cities is Preservation of the Wild, reflects our philosophy that well-designed, nature-rich cities are beautiful, equitable, compact, and ecologically sustainable places to live, thereby reducing urban sprawl across the rural landscape.

We work in partnership with The Intertwine Alliance, a coalition of other NGOs, federal, state and local agencies, urban planners, the urban design professions, and private groups to achieve the creation, protection, and long-term management of the region's green infrastructure. To achieve this goal the Institute's work focuses on:

Regional Planning to address issues associated with regional growth management, protection and restoration of the region's green infrastructure, and integration of the built and natural landscapes.

Green Urban Design of high density, mixed-use centers and urban expansion areas that include ample parks, trails, and greenspaces.

Ecosystem Services documenting the multiple benefits and economic and social values of the green infrastructure.

Creating a Healthy Willamette River through working to bring Ross Island archipelago into publlic ownership, creating quiet, slow/no wake zones in the Portland harbor, and providing recreational activities and events that promote the protection and restoration of the river's greenspaces.

Community Outreach highlighting the social, ecological, and economic benefits of parks, trails, and greenspaces.

Symposia and Workshops for the green building, sustainable development, parks, and greenspace communities.

Policy Work at all landscape scales to ensure that parks, trails, and greenspaces are viewed, and funded, as essential elements of the urban fabric.

Information Sharing at the local, regional, national, and international levels to ensure that we learn from, and share information with, other communities.