As our cities and suburbs continue to sprawl, consuming natural habitat, greenbelts have become especially important. Even though these ribbons of life, almost always along rivers and creeks, often host a hike-bike trail, they offer a vital network of riparian woodlands, meadows and wetlands that attract a surprising variety of wildlife.
Unfortunately, these branched ecosystems tend to be rather narrow, lined with homes and businesses. This limits their value as open space but also poses a threat to those human dwellings, especially in this era of flash flooding that we have recently entered.
While moving those structures will not likely occur until they are destroyed by a flood, planning commissions would be wise to widen these greenbelts before any new "development" is approved. If not, nature will do it for us.
