Green Infra­struc­ture is an inter­con­nected net­work of: water­ways, wet­lands, wood­lands, wildlife habi­tats and other nat­ural areas; green­ways, parks, open space and other con­ser­va­tion lands; and work­ing farms and forests, that sup­port native species, main­tain nat­ural eco­log­i­cal processes, sus­tain air and water resources, and con­tribute to the health and qual­ity of life for com­mu­ni­ties and people.

Hubs and Cor­ri­dors
The basic build­ing blocks of a green infra­struc­ture net­work are hubs and cor­ri­dors.
Hubs are eco­log­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant nat­ural areas that pro­vide habi­tat for plant and ani­mal life. They may include large pro­tected areas, such as state and regional parks that are man­aged for nat­ural and recre­ational val­ues; com­mu­nity parks and nat­ural areas where nat­ural fea­tures and eco­log­i­cal processes are pro­tected and/or restored; and pri­vate farms and forests that remain in a pre­dom­i­nantly open and unde­vel­oped state. Large con­tigu­ous blocks of inte­rior for­est are an essen­tial com­po­nent of the net­work.
Cor­ri­dors are the lin­ear fea­tures that tie hubs together and they may include river and stream val­ley cor­ri­dors and forested upland corridors.

Mary­land Green Infra­struc­ture
The Mary­land Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources devel­oped a Statewide Green Infra­struc­ture Plan.  In this sys­tem, Howard County hubs include the Patux­ent River and Pat­ap­sco State Parks, the Mid­dle Patux­ent Envi­ron­men­tal Area, David Force Park and the Gor­man Nat­ural Resource Area. Howard County cor­ri­dors include major stream val­leys and poten­tial over­land con­nect­ing routes.

Howard County Green Infra­struc­ture Net­work
Howard County is devel­op­ing a Green Infra­struc­ture Net­work Plan (GI Plan) that will refine and expand on Maryland’s Green Infra­struc­ture net­work to include areas of coun­ty­wide eco­log­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance. The GI Plan will enable plan­ners to con­sider impor­tant nat­ural resources when prepar­ing the Gen­eral Plan, trans­porta­tion plans, water­shed plans and com­mu­nity plans; mak­ing deci­sions about zon­ing and devel­op­ment pro­pos­als; acquir­ing land for parks and pub­lic facil­i­ties; and obtain­ing agri­cul­tural, envi­ron­men­tal and other land preser­va­tion easements.

The draft Green Infra­struc­ture Net­work presents three options for the net­work hubs and two options for the net­work cor­ri­dors. More infor­ma­tion about the map­ping cri­te­ria for these options is avail­able in this handout:

Green Infra­struc­ture Net­work Map­ping Criteria

The draft GI Plan also presents poten­tial tools to pro­tect and enhance the net­work. More infor­ma­tion about these tools is avail­able in this handout:

What Does the GI Net­work Mean to You?

Click HERE for a PDF ver­sion of the County-wide draft Green Infra­struc­ture Network.

Inter­ac­tive Map

Explore the inter­ac­tive map of our draft net­work options HERE. 

(Note: Click on “Help” on the tool­bar at any time for instruc­tions on nav­i­gat­ing the map­ping page.)

Pub­lic Participation

A pub­lic work­shop was held on Jan­u­ary 18, 2012.  To view the work­shop pre­sen­ta­tion, click HERE.

The Envi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­ity Board is serv­ing as the cit­i­zen advi­sory com­mit­tee for the GI Plan and is spon­sor­ing this pub­lic work­shop to review maps, and con­sider alter­na­tive sce­nar­ios and poten­tial pro­tec­tion measures.

Con­tact Us

Please direct ques­tions and com­ments to: GreenInfrastructure@howardcountymd.gov

or call Susan Over­street, Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Zon­ing: 410−313−4345

More Infor­ma­tion

The Con­ser­va­tion Fund
The Con­ser­va­tion Fund: Green Infra­struc­ture home page
Green Infra­struc­ture: Smart Con­ser­va­tion for the 21st Century

Mary­land Green­ways and Green­print
The Mary­land Atlas of Green­ways, Water Trails and Green Infra­struc­ture, 2000
Maryland’s Green­print is a pro­gram to iden­tify Maryland’s most eco­log­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant lands and to tar­get them for preservation

Local Green Infra­struc­ture Plans
Anne Arun­del County Green­ways Mas­ter Plan, 2002
Prince George’s County Green Infra­struc­ture Func­tional Mas­ter Plan, 2005