The City's New Ribbon of Green Strategy

By Patsy Cotterill

On January 20, the City of Edmonton’s Administration requested City Council’s Urban Planning Committee to repeal both the Ribbon of Green Concept Plan, which had been in existence since 1990, and the Master Plan of 1992, and replace them with a new model, the Ribbon of Green Strategic Plan of 2025. The Committee councillors complied.

Like the previous plan, the new one uses land management classifications that specify different levels of ecological protection in different parts of the river valley and ravines: Protection, Conservation and Working Landscape zones (the last includes river valley parks and major infrastructure such as water treatment plants and ski hills). These areas will guide future site-specific programming. 

The new plan includes three new components:

- a river valley monitoring and reporting plan

- a trails strategy

- a land assembly and capital program (to acquire more privately owned land by purchase?)

- Indigenous partnerships

and promises regular reviewing of the Plan for trends, changes, etc.

See https://pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=282851

Problems?

To quote:

The Ribbon of Green Strategic Plan considers the many potential and desired uses of the River Valley and provides guidance on balancing environmental protection with access for Indigenous uses, health, recreation and some level of commercial activity. It defines the three land management classifications that will direct future levels of development, as well as land uses and activities within the system. This plan also provides appropriate guidance for assessing potential environmental and climate impacts of new development in the River Valley by protecting sensitive areas, minimizing development in the River Valley, aligning developments to City Policy C627 - Climate Resilience Policy and how to plan and assess site-specific locations for future proposed developments.

To me this sends mixed messages. On the one hand it talks about minimizing development in the river valley and on the other about aligning developments and assessing sites for future developments. Which is it to be? And that famous word “balance” appears again, which makes every environmentalist cringe, knowing that the scales are going to be heavily weighted in favour of human rather than ecological welfare. 

In this context it might be added that on August 18, 2025 the new River Valley Area Redevelopment Plan (RV ARP)  Bylaw 20996 was passed by Council, a statutory document (i.e., with legal implications) that had to be approved by Council. It was panned by most environmental groups because it used flexible language that made interpretation in favour of development easier. (At the public hearing in Council Chambers I gained some media attention by observing that if this was a bylaw to protect the river valley, why did the bylaw have the word “development” in it?) The RV ARP and the Ribbon of Green act in concert.

An unauthorised or user-generated trail on a steep slope in Patricia Ravine, Edmonton River Valley. Presumably the logs were an attempt to block off the trail. Several such trails interconnected at this point. 2020-09-28. Photo: P. Cotterill.

So far, no budget has been set aside to implement any of these innovations in the Ribbon of Green Strategy, although Administration sounds fairly confident that they will get it when they ask for it. That had better be the case with the trails strategy, which environmentalists have been asking for over two budget cycles. (The idea is to develop a designated trail system that will satisfy users, importantly including mountain bikers, and prevent the proliferation of unauthorized side trails, some of which we hope can be closed off to reduce habitat fragmentation.) 

I have also been critical of the fact that the proposed Protection Areas will not keep out cyclists, let alone hikers, which means they cannot function as true biodiversity protection zones. And I am concerned that these proposed Protection Areas may also be opened up to harvesting of foodstuffs, which I believe would be a dangerous step. 

Public consultation is an important precept when the City is considering major changes, but it is not totally clear to me whether much public input actually influences City plans, with one exception. The Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance has been extraordinarily diligent and successful in getting their special interests heard and accepted by the City. Their members are highly pleased with the new Plan because it proposes to allow biking in Preservation areas. (Theoretically, under the 1992 Plan, it was not allowed, not that it made any difference on the ground!)

Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We will have to see how the Strategy is implemented in the coming years! Meanwhile I have asked to have some input into the trails strategy, at least for the areas of the river valley I know well, and share the photographs I have accumulated of environmental damage over the years.