Parks & Recreation Division

Environmental Impact of Parks and Urban Forestry

Urban green spaces provide environmental and financial benefits to a community beyond the obvious recreational and aesthetic value. These benefits include mitigating air and water pollution, combating suburban sprawl, providing opportunities for recreation, reducing crime and fostering cohesive neighborhoods, attracting businesses, and stabilizing property values. As part of a broader urban agenda, investing in open space can serve as an anchor for revitalizing neighborhoods and building healthy communities.

Natural or naturalized landscapes are fundamental components of healthy ecosystems. They provide habitat for species ranging from microscopic bacteria and fungi to large mammals. They prevent soil erosion, conserve water and maintain the cycling of nutrients. They act as large filters, keeping air and water clean.

Rainfall in urban areas produces run off that contains pollutants such as pesticide, fertilizer, oil, antifreeze, gasoline, and roadside salt and sand. This run off flows into nearby water bodies. Although run-off is generally absent in forested watersheds, in heavily paved urban areas, as much as 85 percent of all precipitation can enter nearby water systems in the form of polluted runoff. Natural areas, in particular wetlands, act as filtration systems for water, providing nutrient uptake and pollutant removal. In addition, soils filter out many types of contaminants and vegetation slows the flow of water. Open space along rivers and waterfronts acts as a buffer and significantly reduce runoff into urban fresh water and marine systems.

Urban forests also have a positive impact on a city's finances. Utility costs in compact green developments are reduced. Tree canopy cover reduces runoff, resulting in storm water service savings. Trees also provide air pollution, sediment and erosion control, and can notably reduce heating and cooling costs for buildings in close proximity.

• In our office we have recycling bins in which we recycle our paper. Once the bins become full, they are taken upstairs and placed in a larger recycling bin. The recycling company then picks up the load of paper and takes it to be shredded and recycled.
• We also have stopped printing duplicate receipts in order to save paper.
• In addition, we are doing more filing on the computer and keeping less hard copies in our drawers.
• Several of us in the office take home plastic bottles or aluminum cans to be recycled instead of throwing them away here at work. However, we now have recycling bins for newspapers, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles. We also use refillable water bottles and reusable dishes when packing our lunches.
• We recycle taxi passes by reusing them after they are returned from the taxi company.
• In the future, we hope to do more online registration in order to make information more accessible to the public, resulting in the use of less paper and printing materials.
• At the pools, they recycle all the ink cartridges from the printers and buy all recycled paper and note pads.