(Nothing But) Flowers

Talking Heads, Naked

Written by David Byrne • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Here we stand

Like an Adam and an Eve

Waterfalls

The Garden of Eden

Two fools in love

So beautiful and strong

The birds in the trees

Are smiling upon them

From the age of the dinosaurs

Cars have run on gasoline

Where, where have they gone?

Now, it's nothing but flowers

There was a factory

Now there are mountains and rivers

You got it, you got it

We caught a rattlesnake

Now we got something for dinner

We got it, we got it

There was a shopping mall

Now it's all covered with flowers

You've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise

I wish I had a lawnmower

You've got it, you've got it

Years ago

I was an angry young man

And I'd pretend

That I was a billboard

Standing tall

By the side of the road

I fell in love

With a beautiful highway

This used to be real estate

Now it's only fields and trees

Where, where is the town

Now, it's nothing but flowers

The highways and cars

Were sacrificed for agriculture

I thought that we'd start over

But I guess I was wrong

Once there were parking lots

Now it's a peaceful oasis

You've got it, you've got it

This was a Pizza Hut

Now it's all covered with daisies

You got it, you got it

I miss the honky tonks,

Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens

You got it, you got it

And as things fell apart

Nobody paid much attention

You got it, you got it

I dream of cherry pies,

Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies

You got it, you got it

We used to microwave

Now we just eat nuts and berries

You got it, you got it

This was a discount store,

Now it's turned into a cornfield

You've got it, you've got it

Don't leave me stranded here

I can't get used to this lifestyle

Listen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3t5nmgRVMs

The Living Urban Matrix: Ivy on Brick Walls

“Look at the ivy on the cold clinging wall,

Look at the flowers and the green grass so tall;

It’s not a matter of when push comes to shove,

It’s just an hour on the wings of a dove.”

                        --Van Morrison

Photo: Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is used by many birds and mammals for food and habitat. (Brzuszek, 2016)

Bricks are fired handfuls of soil that once nurtured generations of grasses, shrubs and wildflowers. Now they lie dormant in plumb level rows between thin sheets of cold building mortar. Do they dream of a day to once again nurture life for an emerging seed? Maybe the ivy, used here as a general term for ivy-like things, senses this time-honored plant + soil relationship and creeps across the brick in a lover’s touch. Bricks support ivy so that its leaves can reach the sky and in return ivy drapes the building in a lace skin, cooling it to the touch in the hot summer sun.

Living Urban Matrix Element: Ivy on brick walls

Habitat: on buildings everywhere

Ecological services: the cooling of structures (2014 research by C. Bolton, et al, found that ivy coverings averaged 1.4 degrees Celsius warming at night, with 1.7 degrees Celsius cooling in day—resulting in an 8% energy savings ((Building and Environment 80:32–35, October 2014)). Plants also absorb rain water that ameliorates stormwater flooding (Living Architecture: Green Roofs and Walls, 2011, CSIRO Publishing).

Biodiversity values: creates excellent habitat and nesting for wildlife throughout the year for “many species of birds, insects and small mammals” (http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/sites/default/files/ivy_0.pdf)

A Secondhand Life

“A row of daffodils and red tulips nestled against the walkway beneath my feet. Stray weeds peeked up through the cracks in the concrete, a reminder that that nature had the final say. No matter how much mankind bulldozed or built, all was vulnerable to Mother Nature's whims.”

― Pamela Crane, A Secondhand Life

The Ruined Cottage

“It was a plot

Of garden-ground, now wild, its matted weeds

Marked with the steps of those whom as they pass’d,

The goose-berry trees that shot in long lank slips,

Or currants hanging from their leafless stems

In scanty strings, had tempted to o’erleap

The broken wall. Within that cheerless spot,

Where two tall hedgerows of thick willow boughs

Joined in a damp cold nook, I found a well

Half-choked with willow flowers and weeds.

I slaked my thirst and to the shady bench

Returned, and while I stood unbonneted

To catch the motion of the cooler air

The old Man said, “I see around me here

Things which you cannot see: we die, my Friend,

Nor we alone, but that which each man loved

And prized in his peculiar nook of earth

Dies with him or is changed, and very soon

Even of the good is no memorial left.”

---Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book I ("The Ruined Cottage")

Flora of the Now

Peter Del Tredici, senior research scientist at Arnold Arboretum and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, makes an excellent case for urban ecologies. In his article, Flora of the Future, in Places journal (April 2014, available at https://placesjournal.org/article/the-flora-of-the-future/?gclid=COrKpNWPo88CFdcWgQod1UkAEA), Del Tredici emphasizes two ecological tenets: that environmental stability is an illusion, and that an unpredictable future belongs to the best adapted. Hence, the dynamics of urban plants. Peter also points out some fun “new infrastructural taxonomies” that include:

                                                       

·         The chain link fence. “They provide plants — especially vines — with a convenient trellis to spread out on and a measure of protection from the predation of maintenance crews.”

·         Vacant lots. “Their soils typically have high pH levels, and they are usually colonized by a suite of plants that I like to refer to as a “cosmopolitan urban meadow.” 

·         The road median strip. “In short, the median strip is perfect for crabgrass.”

·         Stone and masonry walls. “From the plant’s perspective, these structures are good stand-ins for a limestone cliff, and many cliff species are well adapted to growing on city walls. “

·         Pavement cracks. “We tend to think of pavement cracks as stressful habitats, but in fact, as the water sheets off the pavement, it flows right into the crack, making it a rich site in terms of its ability to accumulate moisture and nutrients”

·         Specialized microclimates. “As an example, carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata), a summer annual from Central America, subsists only on air-conditioner drip.”

·        River corridors. “They serve as important pathways for the migration of both plants and animals into and out of the city.”

These are fun to think about, what are some other spaces unique to the urban fabric that create their own micro-ecologies—drainage swales, brick walls, flat roofs, parking lots, steps, utility rights-of-way, etc. How many species can we find?

What nature will be like?

“Because life is fueled by the energy captured from the sun by plants, it will be the plants that we use in our gardens that determine what nature will be like 10, 20, and 50 years from now.”

 -- Doug Tallamy

Transitional Ecologies

On a recent trip to Shanghai, China, I was struck by the sheer number of urban redevelopment projects happening there. The economy is booming in China, and it seemed that as soon as a residential district aged about 50 years it was slated for demolition and “renewal.” From the stacked elevated highways, the sprawling metropolis displayed dozens of recently bulldozed neighborhoods. The city was a checkerboard of grey concrete high rises alternating with walled-off rubble piles. Growing over the concrete debris were trusty early successional plants -- sumacs, grasses, plantains, and smartweeds. As a matter of fact, the rubble piles were one of the few areas where I didn’t see managed park-like landscapes in the city; they were about the only places that wildscapes can exist. 

This led me to think about economics as a driver of early successional landscapes in cities. It’s relatively easy to take down old buildings, it’s much more expensive and time-consuming to put new ones up. So the land often sits there while the wheels of economics spin. As the land waits, seeds blow in from nearby sites or emerge from the soil bank below. Flowers open in the first season, moths and butterflies dive in, spiders follow suit. Suddenly a thriving ecosystem occurs where none, and I mean none, existed before. Of course this doesn’t last long before new construction begins. But in the meantime, a foothold for new life begins its march into new territories. An age-old, time-tested march.

There are plenty of plants that follow human disturbances. Eastern American native peoples named the European plantain (Plantago major) “white man’s footprint” because it only appeared where the Colonists settled. Humans are a busy sort, and because of this, they continually create the way for opportunistic plants, animals, and diseases to thrive. Whether we like it or not, they are our constant companions and work to heal our landscapes. Urban renewal creates transitional ecologies, which in my book, can create important early successional plant communities. Maybe one will hopscotch near you.

Allowing for Landscape Dynamism

Landscape architects take immense pride in their sketches and the crafting of shining visions of what a project could be. These are beautifully rendered and often use freehand ink and marker drawings, Photoshop jpegs, 3d Sketchup models, and photo-realistic Lumion visualization software. Sometimes, these images are so lush and colorful that the clients will end up paying for a really nice sketch-- but in actuality is a dysfunctional design. But does the landscape ever really look like the image that they imagined? Does it ever take into account the droughts, the insect infestations, the eutrophic waterbodies, the reductions in maintenance budgets, or just plain decline of the entire system? Where is landscape process and the inclusion of ecosystem services in client presentations? Simple, it is intentionally and quietly not discussed for many projects. That magically falls to the realm of the client and the landscape manager.

Designers project their visions of what the landscape will look when it is semi-mature, usually 10 to 15 years out. The trees are large, the fountain is always flowing, and there are plenty of parking spaces available. Project sketches are an ideal of the project on a good day. The sun shines and has billowy clouds, there are happy children with kites and balloons in the air, and families out enjoying a Sunday stroll. Happy drawings (think Bob Ross) make for happy clients. But does this give clients a static view of their landscape that eventually guides their long term management? To account for this, do we expect the average person to have an advanced understanding of landscape succession and management? Do clients budget the landscape funding accordingly to keep that perpetual view? Landscapes are most often looked at as temporary gardens in a throw-away culture. If the old one doesn’t suffice, let’s get the dozers in and make a new one. New owners have new ideas and new image brands for their properties. And cities are ripe with areas for “redevelopment” (code for let’s take out the old and put in the new).

How can a design represent successional process?  A 2014 article in the journal Places discusses just that. Written by Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister, the article traces prior world-views of static ecological systems to today’s dynamic landscape processes.  Entitled Ecology and Design: Parallel Genealogies, the authors state “There is a growing recognition that what is needed are more flexible, adaptive approaches to managing human activities and designing within the systems that sustain us. What designers make of this has much to do with how change and dynamism are understood and interpreted in the humanities and within cultural production.”

 Lawrence Halprin waterfall sketch

There are landscape architects such as Michael Van Valkenburg, Michael Hargreaves, Richard Haag, and Ian McHarg that have incorporated some ecological process into their work; and are highlighted in the article. But this will happen only when designers realize that landscape is a living process, and not just a product. You can view the full article at

https://placesjournal.org/article/ecology-and-design-parallel-genealogies/?gclid=CMXJ1PKNvM4CFcskgQodHRIBKw

Hybrid cities

"Why can we imagine smart technologies and not smart behaviors, smart institutions, and smart societies? Why think only of technology and not of humans and their societies that co-evolve with Earth?" --Marina Alberti, from http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2013/09/27/building-cities-that-think-like-planets/

Lights Out? Give us back our Dark Skies

 Moonlight Tower, Detroit, 1900

In the early 1900s there was perpetual daylight over the city of Detroit. The Motor City had erected an extensive system of early street lights called Moonlight Towers--which stood nearly 16 stories high. These towers lit 21 square miles of Detroit and effectively turned night into day. Austin, Texas still has a few of these massive towers but they are now mostly gone from the American landscape, and were replaced by the ubiquitous shorter, less expensive utility pole. But since then we found out that artificial light at night is instead blinding us with light pollution. Excessive light at night impacts our environment, safety, energy consumption, and health. The American Medical Association has released a report affirming the dangers of excessive amounts of blue LED lights, which affect the circadian rhythms of humans and urban wildlife (AMA report available online at http://darksky.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/AMA_Report_2016_60.pdf).

The U.S. at night, 2012, NASA

Recent studies have shown that night lights are impacting urban vegetation as well. A paper entitled "Ecological effects of artificial light at night on wild plants" was published in the February 2016 Journal of Ecology by Bennie, Davies, Cruse and Gaston. In it, they find that lights at night change some plant species leaf and flowering characteristics, and can have significant effects on the health, survival and reproduction of plants. Many urban designers are now selecting night and security lights that have shields to light just the ground, rather than the entire sky. An organization called the International Dark Sky Association creates public awareness and assists conservation organizations with lighting management. You can find out more at http://darksky.org/

Meals in Wheels

 P-Patch 

Garage roof community garden, Seattle, WA

Suburban Habitats

“It is increasingly clear, as we shall see, that much of our wildlife will not be able to survive unless food, shelter, and nest sites can be found in  suburban habitats.”

—Doug Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home

Green roof by Robert F. Poore, ASLA

Urban gardens are impacting winter bumblebee hibernation

Without food and resources, bee colonies typically die off in winter with just the queen in hibernation. But in Britain, that’s changing. A study that was published in 2010 has showed that bumblebees have plenty to eat in the winter in our gardens and parks. The study team, led by Ralph Stelzer, placed active hives into heated greenhouses in winter and allowed bees to forage (Stelzer, R.J., L. Chittka, M. Carlton, and T.C. Ings. 2010. Winter active bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban Britain. PLoS ONE 5: e9559). Only cultivated ornamental garden plants were blooming at that time. The researchers found that there was plenty of high quality nectar and pollen available to bees even though it was the dead of winter. There have been reports of bees feeding on plants in winter when they should be hibernating, providing evidence that bees are establishing winter generations in southern England. Our gardens are indeed changing the world. The Stelzer, et al, article is available online at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009559

Gas Works Park, Seattle, WA USA

Four Fields

"Without fields--no us. Without us--no fields. So it has come to seem to me. 'This green plot shall be our stage,' says Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Fields were there at our beginning and they are growing still. Earth half-rhymes with life and half-rhymes with death. Every day, countless incarnations of our oldest history are played out in a field down any road from wherever we are. Yet these acres of shaped growing earth, telling our shared story over and over, are so ordinary, ubiquitous and banal that we have--mostly-- stopped noticing them as anything other than substrate or backdrop, the green crayon-line across the bottom of every child's drawing. It is in the nature of all commonplaces that they are overlooked, in both senses of the word: fields are everywhere but we don't see them for they are too familiar and homely; being the stage and not the show, they are trodden underfoot, and no one seeks them out, no one gives a sod. For Walt Whitman, prairie-dreamer of the great lawn of men, grass fitted us and suited; it was a 'uniform hieroglyphic'. It grew and stood for us and, because it goes where we are, we tread where it grows. Yet because it meant everything it could easily mean nothing."  --Four Fields, Tim Dee

Spontaneous vegetation succession

To establish vegetation on a bare soil site, most landscape architects would develop an extensive planting plan complete with turf. One that would have to be maintained that way through eternity. But what if you just allowed the landscape to grow up on its own, to stop mowing and let the weeds fill in, what would happen? To establish the Woodland Exhibits at The Crosby Arboretum in Picayune, Mississippi; that’s exactly what was done—let the seeds of trees and shrubs that were already in the soil, or from nearby plants, germinate and grow. Because these were native plants with few exotic species, it developed into a beautiful representative woodland on its own. All we had to do was to plant in some of the missing species and use pruning to turn it into a woodland garden. But would this work in someone’s backyard or on the newly graded soils of a landfill? The answer is yes, it will. Of course it depends upon the context, if you tried to do this in a front yard, I am certain the city (via your neighbors) will knock upon your door with a request to mow your weeds. But rather than highly visible areas, there are plenty of out of the way places that are mown just for the sake of being mown, that could improve plant and animal habitat by reducing lawn area.

In 2002, a study was published in Restoration Ecology entitled Restoration of a Landfill Site in Berlin, Germany by Spontaneous and Directed Succession, by Franz Rebele and Cornelia Lehmann (vol. 10, No. 2). In it, they set up a series of plots and let the vegetation grow. Five plots were mown twice a year and five plots were left uncut. Then they just recorded what plant and animal species showed up over the next few years. They found out that bare soil plots, even on poor soil sites, develop into a woodland without planting any trees or any type of management. They also found out, that if a diverse grassland is desired, that mowing twice a year gives more plant and animal species diversity than by leaving it alone. That’s because the aggressive species that move in, such as goldenrod and some grasses (Calamagrostis), can grow so thickly and shade so quickly that few other species can muscle in. Mowing a few times a year (or prescribed burning), knocks back these plant thugs and allows other species to thrive. The authors conclude that regeneration is a possible tool for restoration if the right plants are around it.

Just where do worms prefer to live?

According to a study of earthworms in Baltimore, Maryland by Eric Ellis at the University of Maryland, the density of earthworm masses were heavier in a woodland area than those found in a nearby urban subdivision. Image taken from Chapter 6, Biodiversity on the Urban Landscape by Szlavecz, Warren and Pickett in Human Population: Its Influences on Biological Diversity, Ecological Studies 214, 2011.

Biodiveristy can flourish on an urban planet

"New wildlife communities are coming together in cities, often with accidental manipulation and active management by humans. These communities can play an important role in both the urban ecosystems and for surrounding habitats. Gardens, for example, can support important reservoir populations of bees and other pollinators that could be valuable for many plants but find it difficult to survive under modern intensive agriculture. So the overall picture is not bleak. Cities can provides new habitats and niches that may be quite different from those in natural ecosystems, but still can support a variety of species. Species that evolve under such urban conditions may well represent what the future holds for much of Earth’s biodiversity."

     --Madhusudan Katti, Associate Professor, California State University, Fresno

     The Conversation Blog, 

     https://theconversation.com/biodiversity-can-flourish-on-an-urban-planet-18723

Book quote: Bringing Nature Home

"My central message is that unless we restore native plants to our suburban ecosystems, the future of biodiversity in the United States is dim." --Douglas Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home, p. 9

Biophilic Design

Landscape architects are charged with greenscaping a project--to bring life to a building and its exterior spaces. Ironically, it has been observed that plants are not a major part of their education/interests and as a result, many landscape designers are not very good plantsmen. Sometimes they put the wrong plants in the wrong place. Many LA's use a short list of plants that suit their architectural aesthetic, and are hardy and adaptable to a wide range of site conditions. Unfortunately, many of these selected few plants offer little benefit to native wildlife, and to the overall ecology of a project, effectively 'greenwashing' our cities. Compounding this are planners, architects and landscape architects jumping on any available open space in a community under the banner of high urban density. This comes at a cost of reducing green space in our environments and assumes that you can drive or take some alternate transportation outside of the city limits to 'get away'.

A number of studies have shown that people prefer plants and nature within their living environment. Not only prefer, but are healthier and happier. Known as biophilia, there is an innate human need for a connection with nature. Some designers recognize this and maximize opportunities for nature in their projects, and are called biophilic designers. Terrapin Bright Green listed the multiple benefits of nature in cities in their 2014 report "14 Patterns of Biophilic Design". Terrapin Bright Green is an environmental consulting an strategic planning firm committed to improving the human environment with environmental opportunities. The 14 patterns are grouped by "Nature in the Space," "Natural Analogues", and "Nature of the Space." These groups list the design elements of biophilic design-- such as providing visual connections, sensory stimuli, airflow, presence of water, and biomorphic forms and patterns. With each of these they list the published research that shows their health benefits, such as, stress reduction, cognitive performance, and emotional preference (see chart below).

Of course, in addition to the health benefits, biophilic design promotes environmentally sustainable practices, ultimately connecting humans to nature in a way that promotes environmental awareness and stewardship. The report is available for free on the Terrapin Bright Green website at http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/

Connecting Green Spaces Within the Urban Grid

 

(Wildlife crossing, Balmori Associates)

Just how do plants and animals migrate between green spaces in urban and suburban areas? Providing adequate green corridors are always a troubling issue in community development. Urban infill and development continues to eat at most available green spaces. The extent of the problem is noticeable with amount of wildlife roadkill along highways and interstates. In Mississippi, which is a rural state, 3,400 deer-related crashes were reported by the Mississippi Highway Patrol in 2014. For years the state has remained in the top 10 national ranking of most wildlife accidents, which of course results in higher insurance premiums. Some states provide highway overpasses or underpasses in busy wildlife corridors, but many, like Mississippi, don't. Wyoming for example is spending $9.7 million to create roadway crossings for wildlife. Their main reason, they state, is safety (Transportation Nation). Wyoming Department of Transportation engineer stated "Take the $10,000 per property damage crash, and the value of deer around $3,000 based on Game and fish values, multiply that by 100 car cases and 20 or 30 property damage crashes and run that out over 20 years, and that's a significant amount of money" (Transportation Nation).

 (BIG)

A few years back, a city in Denmark looked at organizing a new development along a waterfront in the City of Holbaek that took the shape of a patchwork quilt. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the designers tried to create smaller intimate living spaces within a large area. Interestingly, they ended up with an organized series of green corridors  or ribbons that run through the dense urban space. If designed correctly, the labyrinth could provide interesting green spaces, while also providing safe wildlife corridors.

Quote of the week

"In many ways, because urban locations are so removed from forests or meadows, plantings that recall these places can be that much more pleasurable." --Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, Planting in a Post-Wild World

Spontaneous Urban Plants

A new interactive website has been developed for New York City and its surrounding areas for tracking weeds, er, urban plants. The Spontaneous Urban Plants website (www.spontaneousurbanplants.org) contains a gallery user-generated Instagram photographs of weeds that people have found in the cities. Once they are identified, the website team assigns the positive and negative ecological services that those species have (such as wildlife habitat, heat mitigation, medicinal, erosion prevention, etc.). The website also has an interactive map of where the plants can be found. It seems to be a great educational tool for letting a community know about the value of their local ‘weeds’. Set up by the Future Green Studio in Brooklyn, the project won an Honor Award in Research from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2015.

Exotic plants are responding faster to climate change than natives in California study

The ubiquitous red clover

It seems that exotic plants are the hare to the native’s tortoise in the race for shifting climates. In a study by Wolf et al (2016) in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, the researchers studied native and exotic plant records in California to see where they were growing in response to elevation. They found that “15% of all taxa in California have ranges that have shifted upward over the past century. There are significant differences between range shifts of taxa with different naturalization statuses: 12% of endemic taxa show significant upwards range shifts, while a greater proportion (27%) of introduced taxa have shifted upward.” This is saying that introduced plants are moving upward to cooler temperatures faster than native plants. This is not surprising as many exotics, especially invasives, are adaptable to a wider range of environmental conditions than many natives. It reminds me of a story written in the 1950s by anthropologist Loren Eiseley, where he discusses taking plant seeds from the low elevations of mountains and scattering them up top, and vice versa with the upland plants. As he wrote in the story, “one never knows.”

Urban Coyotes

In 18^th century America, New Yorkers had to travel west of the Mississippi River before they first heard a coyote’s howl. Now they can hear them from home. In a remarkable story of adaptability, and despite the ample bounties upon their canine heads, eastern coyotes have successfully expanded their range to now cover most of the North American continent. Even more remarkable is that the once-shy coyote that lurked in the shadows of suburban yards and gardens, has taken an urban turn—and can now be found running through downtown plazas. Maybe this correlates to the rise in food trucks. In a study published in Urban Naturalist by Nagy, Koestner, Clemente and Weckel (2016, No. 9:1-16), the researchers found that coyotes in New York City are not only established and breeding, but within the scope of a four-year study, that they are expanding into other available greenspaces.

"2009-Coyote-Yosemite" by Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009-Coyote-Yosemite.jpg#/media/File:2009-Coyote-Yosemite.jpg"

Book Review: The Authentic Garden: Naturalistic and Contemporary Landscape Design

Quoted from The Dirt, ASLA Blog at http://dirt.asla.org/

Artfully Naturalistic Gardens

“Those familiar with naturalistic planting design, an approach that appears seemingly natural but is actually constructed, will undoubtedly recognize the names of William Robertson and Gertrude Jekyll who pioneered the style in the late-1800s. While the approach has remained popular over the last 125 years, The Authentic Garden delves into how it has evolved from the 1800s to present day. Over the centuries, two design principles came to the forefront: first, create multi-seasonal gardens and, second, make them ecological. These principles, according to the authors, have helped to ensure the naturalistic approach endures as designers adapt English traditions to their own climates.

One of the most compelling examples of this evolution is California-based Elysian Landscapes’ design for a courtyard beside an Isabel Marant store in Los Angeles, California. Using native plants adapted to the dry southwest climate, the firm formed “casual massings,” out of “loose tufts of perennials” that are bright and exotic, but subtly pay homage to a more traditional planting system. Such examples, found throughout The Authentic Garden, provide inspiration to designers in all climates.”

Published by The Monacelli Press, 2015

Urban areas reduce native wildlife biodiversity

    (Big eared townsend bat, Wikipedia, image in public domain)

Studies have shown that some wildlife species just do not adapt to urbanized areas. Marchetti (2006) and Ritzi (2004) found that there are more native fish species the farther away from urban areas, and Ordenana (2010) showed that many carnivore species decline nearer to cities. A study just published in Urban Naturalist (No. 8, 2015) supports these observations and concluded that while a few bat species can survive in urban zones, there are many more that just don’t go there. In their paper entitled Bat Species Diversity at an Urban-Rural Interface: Dominance by One Species in an Urban Area, Damm, Sparks and Whitaker (2015) determine that while Northern Long-eared Bats were caught in mist nets in urban Indianopolis, Indiana; that others include Tri-colored Bats and Little Brown Bats were negatively correlated the closer they sampled next to the urban core. They conclude that bat-species richness may be connected to specific roosting and foraging requirements, and the possible negative influence of abundant roadways.