Green Network

“Natural Infrastructure” includes features that grow (e.g., plants, trees), whereas “Grey Infrastructure” is made of hard materials such as concrete, steel, and asphalt (e.g., roads, sidewalks, pipes). Natural infrastructure can be used in place of or in combination with grey infrastructure to enhance the resilience, performance, and lifespan of our City’s infrastructure. It can also provide several benefits, such as:

• Environmental benefits: provides habitat, supports biodiversity, and enhances air, water and soil quality.
• Social and cultural benefits: creates opportunities for recreation, physical activity, education, community, and ceremony.
• Health and safety benefits: supports flood and erosion control, shade/cooling, climate change resilience, and food production.
• Economic benefits: attracts tourism, creates jobs (e.g., landscaping, construction, design), and can lead to cost savings (e.g., soil and plant material is often less expensive than materials such as gravel and concrete).

Part of the City’s work includes quantifying the economic benefits associated with an enhanced Green Network. For example: 

• Natural infrastructure like grasslands, forests, and wetlands are conservatively estimated to provide over $48 million in services to the City of Saskatoon each year through storm water management, the provision of clean drinking water, quality of life through access to natural spaces, recreation, carbon sequestration, and more (Natural Capital Asset Valuation 2020).
• Within Saskatoon, the river is estimated to provide over $7.5 million per year in services to citizens including clean drinking water and electricity, while wetlands contribute $38.6 million per year in ecosystem services (Natural Capital Asset Valuation 2020).
• The appraised value of public trees in Saskatoon (excluding shelterbelts and afforestation areas) is more than $530 million (Pathway to a Sustainable Urban Forest 2022).
• In 2017, Saskatoon’s urban forest was estimated to store 682,000 tonnes of CO₂ in total, growing by 26,750 tonnes per year. At $80 per tonne (2024 carbon price rate), the total value of urban forest sequestration in Saskatoon is worth over $54.5 million, with an additional $2.1 million annually (City of Saskatoon Canopy Assessment 2018). A 2017 study by SREDA estimated the economic value of the Meewasin river valley to be $182.65 million per year, providing services such as tourism, climate regulation, recreation, water treatment, and erosion control (Meewasin Strategic Plan).

Investing in the city’s Green Network can help ensure that these tangible benefits—such as public health, water treatment, access to nature, and increased resilience to climate change—continue to be delivered to our community.

Saskatoon’s Green Network encompasses our city’s natural infrastructure features, such as parks, trees, gardens, wetlands, and naturalized areas. While there are several ways to categorize natural infrastructure, the two primary categories include natural areas and green space.

Natural Areas:

• Grasslands
• Forests, shrublands, and afforestation areas
• Wetlands
• River

Green Space:

• Parks
• Naturalized areas
• Yards and gardens
• Community and allotment gardens
• Boulevard gardens  
• Bioswales
• Rain gardens
• Pollinator gardens
• Urban forest and street trees
• Food forests
• Buffer areas and greenways

Natural infrastructure can be:  

Conserved: Existing habitat such as natural areas can be conserved through approaches such as legislation, land designations, and/or management.  

Enhanced: Public parks are enhanced as part of the City’s Park Upgrade Program (e.g., irrigation improvements, playground upgrades, lighting, seating, tree planting, turf improvements), while other types of green spaces, natural areas, or wetlands can be enhanced through restoration projects (e.g., planting, invasive species removal, pathway improvements).

Engineered: Some types of infrastructure combine natural and built components that require detailed design and engineering, for example:

• Storm ponds
• Dry ponds
• Green roofs
• Wildlife bridges
• Structural soil cells
• Tree wells

Managed: Maintaining natural infrastructure is a shared responsibility. For example, parks are managed by the City, natural areas are managed by the City and/or Meewasin, and private yards are managed by residents and property owners. Depending on the type of landscape or habitat, various management approaches can be applied.

The City's work is outlined in Pathways for an Integrated Green Network (Green Pathways), a 10-year implementation plan to increase the quantity and quality of natural infrastructure in Saskatoon, enhance the urban environment, and improve quality of life. This work is guided by principles such as ecological integrity, connectivity, equity, safety, and wellness.

Our current priorities include:

• Developing a “Natural Asset Framework” for the City to ensure natural infrastructure is considered as part of the City’s asset management system.
• Monitoring the status of the Green Network, including its overall quality, connectivity, and distribution throughout the city.
• Exploring policies, strategies, and management practices to support Saskatoon’s natural areas and green spaces.
• Implementing several projects throughout Saskatoon as part of the Natural Infrastructure Fund.

The City monitors the status of the green network, including indicators such as quality, quantity, connectivity, and access.

A study completed in 2019 found that Saskatoon's Green Network includes 3,461 hectares of natural areas (grasslands, wetlands, forest/shrubland); 2,185 hectares of parks, green spaces, and rights-of-way; and an average of 10% tree canopy across the city.

The 2023 Climate Action Progress Report presents updated greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and recent progress on the actions recommended in the Low Emissions Community Plan and Adaptation Strategy. For the first time, the 2023 Report includes information on the Green Network to recognize the importance of nature-based climate solutions in the City’s climate action planning. 

In 2023-25, the David Suzuki Foundation and Habitat developed an online platform to highlight the benefits of and risks to Saskatoon's green network. The data and mapping showcase a high-level understanding of natural infrastructure in our city with a particular focus on the urban forest. It is a good starting place to visualize the interplay between green space, socio-economic factors, and climate scenarios. The City of Saskatoon is making progress to track and monitoring the quality, quantity, connectivity, and equity of its green network and will conduct further analyses over time.  

Meewasin also monitors the health of our river valley through their State of the Valley report. Meewasin's 2014-18 report found that Saskatoon and the surrounding region are home to a diversity of wildlife, including 70 species at risk such as Piping Plover, Monarch Butterflies, and Northern Leopard Frogs.

• Get out and enjoy everything our Green Network has to offer, including parks, naturalized areas, and the Meewasin trails. Remember to respect all signage in parks and natural areas including cleaning up your litter and pet waste. This helps keep our Green Network healthy and safe for people and wildlife.
• Consider becoming a citizen scientist and helping the City and its partners monitor biodiversity in Saskatoon.
• Grow more green! Add a rain garden to your yard, join a community garden, or start a boulevard garden. The City's Healthy Yards program has some tips on growing food, attracting biodiversity, and low-water gardening.
• Volunteer for community initiatives through local organizations – there are several environmental groups that would love your support! For example, Meewasin offers a variety of opportunities to get involved in activities such as planting, tree wrapping, invasive species removal, wildlife tracking, and clean up events.
• Give the tree on your boulevard some extra love: give it a drink now and again; do not attach block heater cords, signs, or other items to the tree; do not use pesticides close to the tree or roots; and be careful not to damage the tree or roots with equipment such as mowers and trimmers.
• Help prevent the spread of Dutch Elm Disease: take elm wood to the City landfill for disposal; report suspected cases of Dutch Elm Disease through the City’s online form; do not buy, store, or transport elm wood; and do not prune elms during the provincial pruning ban of April 1 to August 31.
• Go Pesticide Free. Do not apply any pesticides or herbicides to your yard and garden, especially near the roots, trunk, or leaves of trees.

• In the late 1970s, a partnership between the City, the University of Saskatchewan, and the Province culminated in the creation of the Meewasin Valley Authority Act (1979), which both undertakes long term planning along the river to support public access to the river valley and conserves the ecological and cultural resources within it. To this day, Meewasin continues to provide leadership in the management of key natural sites in our river valley.
• As Saskatoon grows, it is taking a significant role with its partners and our communities in developing an integrated approach to support Saskatoon’s Green Network.
• The Green Infrastructure Strategy was presented to City Council in 2020, which lays out the vision for a green network that provides sustainable habitat for people and nature. In 2022, the corresponding implementation plan, Green Pathways, was passed in principle by City Council.