ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the "green infrastructure" of communities: what it is, how it functions, the benefits it provides, how it can be better protected, and how it can be restored, once degraded. It focuses on individual elements of the green infrastructure network such as woodlands, wetlands, vernal pools, and floodplains, their mutual survival depends on protecting an interconnected network of these features. The chapter discusses restoration efforts involving wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, rivers, and floodplains. According to the agency, secondary environmental corridors are concentrations of significant natural resources at least 100 acres in area and at least one mile in length. New policies and efficient mechanisms for trading environmental credits or offsets are needed to make these projects cost-effective. To guide landowners and others interested in restoring landscapes to earlier or original vegetation patterns, pre-settlement vegetation maps are available in some parts of the country, particularly the upper Midwest.
