BENEFITS OF
BENEFITS OF
A greenway is a corridor of protected open space managed for conservation, recreation and non-motorized transportation. Greenways often follow natural geographic features such as ridge lines, stream valleys, and rivers, but may also be built along canals, utility corridors, or abandoned rail lines. Widths may vary from thirty to a thousand feet. Most greenways include a trail or bike path, but others may be designed strictly for environmental or scenic protection.
Greenways, as vegetated linear parks, provide tree cover, wildlife habitat, and riparian buffers to protect streams. The environmental benefits include reduced stormwater runoff, flood reduction, water quality protection, and preservation of biological diversity. The trails within the greenways provide access between neighborhoods and destination points, opportunity to travel without an automobile, outdoor education classrooms, and close-to-home paths for walking, jogging, bicycling, and roller blading. Tree cover and use of bicycles instead of cars provide for better air quality , fewer hard surfaced parking lots, and reduced energy costs.
Greenway benefits improve the quality of life in a community and translate ultimately into economic viability. Businesses want to locate in communities their employees will like. Wellness and fitness promotion reduce corporate health costs. Outdoor recreation facilities draw tourists and tourists spend money.
No other conservation initiative provides so many ecological, economic, and quality of life benefits to the communities that create them. Greenways not only protect environmentally important lands and native plants and animals, they also link people with the natural world and outdoor recreational opportunities. Greenways can also:
* Help preserve the biological diversity of plant and animal species by maintaining the connections between natural communities.
* Soften urban and suburban landscapes with ribbons of green that improve the quality of life and enhance property values.
* Help protect the quantity and quality of water, a natural resource vital to people, plants and wildlife.
* Direct development and growth away from important natural resource areas.
* Provide alternative transportation routes that connect people, communities and the countryside.
* Act as outdoor classrooms.
American Greenways is a program of The Conservation Fund, a national organization committed to land and water conservation. American Greenways was created to help assemble a national network of linked natural areas and other open spaces. The program serves as an umbrella organization, promoting the greenways concept at the national, state, regional and local levels. It provides professional and technical assistance to interested citizens, private landowners, non-profit and for-profit organizations, and governmental agencies through the formation of conservation partnerships. American Greenways will help create state and regional greenway networks and carry out specific greenways projects.
Real Property Values - Many studies demonstrate that parks, greenways and trails increase nearby property values. In turn, increased property values can increase local tax revenues and help offset greenway acquisition costs.
Expenditures by Residents - Spending by local residents on greenway related activities helps support recreation oriented businesses and employment, as well as other businesses which are patronized by greenways and trail users.
Commercial Uses - Greenways often provide business opportunities, locations and resources for commercial activities such as recreation equipment rentals and sales, lessons and other related businesses.
Tourism - Greenways are often major tourist attractions which generate expenditures on lodging, food and recreation oriented services. Greenways also help improve the overall appeal of a community to perspective tourists and new residents.
Agency Expenditures - The agency responsible for managing a river, trail or greenway can help support local businesses by purchasing supplies and services. Jobs created by the managing agency may also help increase local employment opportunities.
Corporate Relocation - Evidence shows that the quality of life of a community is an increasingly important factor in corporate relocation decisions. Greenways are often cited as important contributors to quality of life.
Public Cost Reduction - The conservation of rivers, trails, and greenways can help local governments and other public agencies reduce costs resulting from flooding and other natural hazards.
Intrinsic Value - While greenways have many economic benefits it is important to remember the intrinsic environmental and recreational value of preserving rivers, trails and other open space corridors.
*Adapted from Economic Impacts of Protecting Rivers, Trails and Greenway Corridors, National Park Service, 1990