chapter seven
Management and Stewardship
G
reen infrastructure is a long-term strategy, not a matter of buying land and forgetting about it. Green infrastructure lands need upkeep and management just as highways and other forms of infrastructure do. There are many factors that affect the health of land in a green infrastructure network: invasive species, overuse by visitors, water pollution, and so on. What’s more, the character and health of land can change over time. The green infrastructure approach requires assessing the status of each component of the green infrastructure network; restoring it if necessary (by planting trees, removing exotic plants, etc.), monitoring its status and the results of management actions, and modifying the original management strategy to maintain desired characteristics. In most—if not all—cases, actions will have to be taken to complete the green infrastructure network. Habitat restoration or the creation of new habitat is often needed to connect severed network components, widen linkages where they are too narrow, fill in gaps, smooth out edges, and meet specific network goals. For these reasons, it is critical to plan for the management and stewardship of green infrastructure lands at the outset before the final work on the network has been completed. Considering management issues in conjunction with other network design issues enables green space advocates to identify during the network design process which landscapes require restoration and/or have the potential for
