Tulsa Comprehensive Plan - PLANiTULSA

Parks, Trails and Open Space
Parks, Trails and Open space
part iv:
Tulsa’s Green
infrastructure
in-town parks provide places to relax,
walk the dog, and gather for picnics and
sporting events.
Green infrastructure encompasses the entire network
of environmental assets and interconnected system of
floodplains, wetlands, riparian areas, tree canopy, parks,
open space, and other undeveloped natural areas in a region.
Cities depend upon green infrastructure for stormwater
collection and filtration, natural cleansing of pollutants,
flash flood mitigation, urban heat island moderation,
wildlife habitat corridors, as well as for the public’s
recreational enjoyment. Green infrastructure provides
important ecological functions including supporting
healthy soils and clean water, and provides places for people
to play, reflect, and enjoy the outdoors.
Tulsa’s natural environment
The City of Tulsa is located in the crosstimbers and southern
tallgrass prairie ecoregion of northeastern Oklahoma,
a land of variable soils, prairie grasses, oak woodlands,
hardwoods, and the historic home of buffalo and antelope.
This ecoregion acts as a link in the chain of oak forests that
extend from Canada to Central America, providing critical
habitat to migratory birds. This habitat is now under threat
of fire suppression, urbanization, and invasive species
such as the eastern red cedar. 3 The City of Tulsa can help
protect the last remaining areas of this ecoregion within
city boundaries by focusing new housing and business
construction within existing areas of development and
actively identifying and protecting remaining vestiges of
this habitat at risk from future development.
3
The Nature Conservancy, The Crosstimbers and Southern Tallgrass Praire
Ecoregion: Preserving the Last Remnants of the Fertile Blackland Prairie.
PA
14
July 2010
Tulsa comprehensive plan – Parks, Trails and OPen sPace