Transcript Intertwine Alliance (Houck) - The Resource Innovation Group

The Intertwine & The Intertwine Alliance
Addressing Climate Change: A Regional Response
Mike Houck, Director
Urban Greenspaces Institute
My Assignment
Example of an Existing Program,
The Intertwine Alliance
Success Through Regional Collaboration
Challenges We’ve Faced
Regional Conservation Strategy, A Model?
Role of Watershed Planning
Replication Through the Willamette Valley
Example of an Existing Program,
The Intertwine Alliance
Success Through Regional Collaboration
Role of Watershed Planning
Urban Biodiversity
Is Not An Oxymoron
DIFFERENT SCALES =
DIFFERENT ANSWERS
Low
Richness
Gap Analysis
Hi
Richness
• Same 57 species
• Same Coarse Filter
• Different MMU
Metro Gap
Pond Turtle
“What’s the extinction of the Condor to a
child who has never known a wren?”
Robert Michael Pyle, “The Extinction of
Experience” from The Thunder Tree
Dr. David Goode, Director of the London Ecology Unit
Speaks at City Club of Portland as Country in the City keynote
address
East Bay Regional Park District Tour 1990
PSU’s Dr. Joe Porascky and
graduate student Paul Newman
create first regional natural
areas map for Metro regional
park study and inventory,
June, 1989
~ July 22, 1992 ~
Greenspaces Master Plan
is adopted by Metro Council
1995 bond measure
• 62% voted “yes”
• $135.6 million total
• 8,120 acres and 74 miles of
river and stream frontage
• $25 million local share for
over 100 natural area
related projects
Natural Areas, Parks & Streams
Bond Measure, Fall 2006
• $227.4 million total package:
– $168.4 million for regional
target areas
– $44 million local share
– $15 million opportunity
grant fund
• Cost to property tax payers is
estimated at 22 cents per
$1,000 assessed value.
Natural Areas in the Metro Region
20,000
'06 Bond Measure
18,000
16,000
14,000
'95 Bond Measure
Acres
12,000
10,000
Sm ith & Bybee
8,000
THPRD Nature Park
Tryon Cr. Park
6,000
Oxbow Park
4,000
Forest Park
2,000
Washington Park
0
1870
Linnton & Holm an Parks
1891
1913
1933
1953
Year
1973
1993
The Intertwine Vision
Exceptional interconnected system of parks, natural
areas, and trails, equitably throughout PortlandVancouver region…..
Regional Greenspaces
System
Forest Park
Metro Fish and Wildlife Habitat with
Bond Acquisitions, Public Land,
and Anchor Sites
Metro Fish and Wildlife
Habitat Protection Resources
Classes I and II
Classes A and B
Urban Growth
Boundary
Existing Anchor Sites
Proposed Anchor Sites
Metro Bond Acquisitions,
Parks, and Greenspaces
Other public land
Drives the Economy and Tourism
Preserves significant natural areas
The system is considered an
essential part of the urban
infrastructure.
“Someday, all this will be infrastructure.”
Valuing Nature:
Ecosystem Services
Economic benefits of the system are
integrated into economic development
and marketing strategies.
Documenting Ecosystem Services:
Portland Bureau of Environmental
Services
After
Johnson Creek floodplain before
Protects biodiversity across urban
and rural landscapes and beyond the
region.
Willamette Valley
Cascadia
Attracts federal, state, and regional funding to
expand, operate and maintain the system.
Springwater on Willamette Trail
The Regional Conservation Strategy, A Model?
Regional Conservation
Strategy - Geography
June 20 2006
Charette
FEMA Floodplains
Willamette Basin
Ecosystem Consortium
New Look
Metro Title 13
Fish and Wildlife
TheNature
Conservancy
Metro Parks and
Greenspaces
Oregon Department of
Expert Panel
Charrette with RCS model over
CAP cover (full screen)
April 2009
• Adapt successfully to a changing climate.
– Strengthen capacity of natural systems to
respond to more severe weather events,
streamflow changes and flooding.
– When planning investments, consider
physical, social, environmental, economic
and regulatory impacts of mitigating and
adapting to climate change.
Climate change already is affecting the region’s air and
water resources, the quantity and distribution of habitats,
and the ranges and behavior of native fish and wildlife species.
Given the many unknowns and the interconnectedness of
natural, built, and human systems, it would be wise to adopt
a flexible, proactive approach to climate change that is
consistent with the precautionary principle—i.e., to act now
and manage assuming severe impacts.
Fortunately, across the region there are on-the-ground
examples of how climate change adaptation strategies
can be combined with other regional and project-level goals.
Theme:
Protecting existing high-functioning areas, maintaining
connectivity across the landscape, restoring and integrating
natural areas and features into the built system provides
multiple benefits, including mitigation for and adaptation to
climate change.
Challenges We've Faced
Political, resistance to regionalism
Silos, including state and local land use programs
Inadequate documentation and documentation
re ecosystem Services and multiple benefits of
green infrastructure
Lack of O & M Funding
Moving from “one offs” to sustained effort
Patience
Could The Intertwine Alliance be Replicated in the Valley?
The Intertwine Alliance
www.TheIntertwine.org