Partners

The Urban Greenspaces Institute works collaboratively with other NGOs, agencies, and individuals to pursue its mission. The integration of the natural and built environments in the urban planning, regional growth management, and urban parks and Greenspaces arenas requires close coordination and cooperative efforts by both the private and public sectors.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

While the Institute works with myriad groups, our primary NGO partners are the Coalition for a Livable Future and the Audubon Society of Portland’s Urban Conservation program.

The Insitute is a core member of the Coalition for a Livable Future, which now consists of over seventy non-profit, individual, agency and business members. It's mission is: to protect, restore, and maintain healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities, both human and natural, for the benefit of present and future residents of the greater metropolitan region.

The Coalition’s objectives are:

• Changing the patterns of urban growth to more compact neighborhoods with a mix of uses conveniently served by public transportation;
• Expanding transportation options and reduce dependency on automobiles and increasing transit, bike, and walking opportunities throughout the region;
• Protecting, restoring and maintaining healthy watersheds, fish and wildlife and their habitats, greenspaces, and other natural resources within and outside urban growth boundaries;
• Ensuring that the built and natural environment are integrated in a sustainable manner that supports neighborhood livability and protects wetlands, streams, water quality, air quality and the natural landscape and recognizes that both natural resources and humans are part of the urban ecosystem;
• Reducing consumption, pollution, and waste;
• Addressing environmental equity including the distribution of neighborhood parks, trails, and greenspaces;
• Encouraging the development of food production, processing, and distribution systems that regenerate and support natural systems and biodiversity, enrich neighborhood development patterns, and build community.

The Urban Greenspaces Institute contributes to meeting these objectives participating in a variety of Coalition efforts, including:

Natural Resources Working Group: The Coalition's Natural Resources Working Group meets on a regular basis to develop consensus on local and regional policies among Coalition members and others working on urban natural resource, park, and trail issues. The working group also involves itself in on-the-ground projects that relate to the Coalition’s and Working Group’s work plan.

The CLF design team discusses ways to improve integration of office commercial and wetland habitat at Beaverton’s Creekside Corporate Park. Creekside Corporate Park in Beaverton combines wetland and wildlife habitat protection with urban development.

Designing Urban Habitats for Wildlife and People: The Coalition brings together experts in urban design and environmental protection to demonstrate how the region can develop vibrant neighborhoods while protecting wildlife habitat and reducing overall impacts on the environment

Damascus Area Planning: The Coalition has been actively involved in developing its own preferred plan for the 16,000 acre urban expansion area as well as helping craft a new Concept Plan which was adopted in December, 2005. This plan will guide the development of the Damascus, Boring and east Happy Valley communities, which were brought into the region's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in 2002. The Urban Greenspaces Institute worked with other Coalition members to craft language regarding stream protection, parks, trails, and Greenspaces.

Downy Woodpecker on the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade demonstrates that even small amounts of habitat in the urban setting, such as the willow plantings along the Esplanade, that wildlife will respond. Photo: Mike Houck

Protecting Nature In Neighborhoods: The Institute has been an active partner in CLF’s efforts to demonstrate how we can have it all: develop vibrant neighborhoods while protecting wildlife habitat and reducing overall impacts on the environment.

Wild in the City, A Guide to Portland’s Natural Areas was co-edited by the Urban Greenspace Institute’s Mike Houck and M J Cody. The book, co-published by the Oregon Historical Society and Audubon Society of Portland, describes over 100 wildlife viewing sites, trails, and natural history of the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region.

Audubon Society of Portland: The Institute cooperates closely with the Audubon Society of Portland’s Urban Conservation program, the region’s leading urban natural resource conservation effort, includes the state’s largest wildlife care facility which engages hundreds of volunteers in rehabilitating injured native wildlife and educating the public about habitat needs of native fish and wildlife species.

The program also addresses issues associated with regional growth management, Portland’s migratory bird program, and numerous other projects related to urban wildlife and natural resource issues. Portland Audubon’s Urban Conservation Program also serves as an important clearing house for information related to urban natural resources through its collaborative Urban Fauna (Friends and Advocates of Urban Natural Areas) website.

Government Agencies

The Institute’s Executive Director sits on the City of Portland’s citizen Park Board, which was appointed by City Council after almost a century-long hiatus when the Park Board was disbanded in 1913 as part of the adoption of a new city charter. The Park Board advises the Bureau of Parks and Recreation and City Council on policy issues related to the city park system.

The Institute works closely with and provides input on policies to numerous public agencies, including the City of Portland’s Bureaus of Parks and Recreation, Environmental Services and the Office of Sustainable Development; Metro’s growth management and regional Greenspaces programs; and local jurisdictions.

Dr. Joseph Poracsky (center), PSU Geography Deparment, has been actively engaged in urban natural research issues since the early 1980s.

Portland State University: We have had a long-standing partnership with Portland State University, dating to the early 1970s when Executive Director, Mike Houck, received his graduate degree in biology from PSU. Beginning in the 1980s we initiated an ongoing relationship with PSU’s Geography Department, working with Dr. Joseph Poracsky in holding seminars on urban natural resource issues and a popular series of symposia, Country In the City, that drew experts from across North America and internationally to Portland to explore the protection, restoration, and management of natural resources in the urban environment. The Institute’s office is in the Geography Department’s Center for Spatial Analysis and Research.

Portland State University is also host to the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium (UERC), which brings together researchers and practitioners from throughout the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region to share information on issues related to the urban ecosystem.

"Town and country must be married, and out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a new civilization."

-- Ebenezer Howard