Urban green infrastructure includes networks of trees, green streets, streams, wetlands, and other greenspaces that buffer or augment community resilience in the face of heatwaves, floods, droughts, and other impacts from climate change. Building and strengthening these networks is fundamental to all of UGI’s work.
Our urban forestry and native oak-prairie habitat conservation efforts support robust climate change adaptation within the region. The Portland metro region has among the most intense summer heat island effects so improving urban forest canopy cover is a crucial adaptation strategy. Native oak-prairie habitats are drought- and fire-resilient ecosystems, with a palette of plant species that may be important to adapting to a warmer climate.