TPL Works To Create Best Park System
Connecting Green Initiative taken on by TPL, Audubon, UGI, Metro
The Trust for Public Land
Connecting Green is an initiative taken on by TPL, Audubon Society, Urban Greenspaces Institute, Metro Council, and other community leaders to work together to create the best park system in the world. The vision for Connecting Green was developed by a 2005 task force of private sector, local government, and non-profit representatives and calls for an interconnected bi-state system of parks, trails, and natural areas.
A healthy green infrastructure provides economic, health and community benefits. In the next 25 years, the population of the Portland-Vancouver-Willamette Valley region will grow by one million people. The regions ability to preserve and maintain land that cleans our air, cleans our water, provides wildlife habitat and recreation for people is falling far below the need. Land is becoming more and more expensive while funding is becoming more and more scarce.
Oregonians proved they care about parks by passing the 2006 Metro Open Spaces bond. The $227.4 million Metro bond will be used as the foundation of a billion-dollar parks investment, partnering Metro money with local, state, and federal sources.
