Greensboro Plan2Play Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2019

32 - FEBRUARY 2019

The city is home to 273 documented species of birds and a number of higher order predators such as otter, mink, and fox. These wildlife species regularly use the preserved corridors to forage, safely travel and create new generations of animals. The creek corridors also have become the sites of many of Greensboro’s parks. This close relationship between the city’s parks and the creeks offers a unique opportunity to enhance Greensboro’s urban ecology through on-site water quality efforts such as stream restoration, habitat connectivity, and environmental education opportunities for the public. Expanded collaboration with Water Resources to limit mowing within riparian buffers and restore stream

channels will improve the water quality of these vital corridors, enhance habitats for native plant and animal species and reduce stormwater run-off and erosion into water bodies. Often, no-mow areas are initially seen by the public as areas that were neglected during regular mowing rounds. Continued public education about the ecological benefits of no-mow areas in parks is a critical component of this effort that should continue to occur.

Figure 16. Stream restoration, pictured here at Ben- bow Park in the winter of 2018, is an important part of ecological health.