Crevice Gardens

“But hang on to your prickly pears. I've discovered there is something even more adventurous than a rock garden, a more extreme version called a crevice garden.”

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/lifestyles/ci_32676040/crevice-gardens-urban-models-sustainability#ixzz5qSSZtenB

Don't light that pond!

“Light at night might be convenient for humans, but it's having a detrimental effect on amphibian populations, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

"Research on the effects of light pollution has recently seen a surge in popularity," said Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Jessica Hua. "It's difficult to find any place on Earth that is not affected by even minimal light pollution. We recognized a gap in the research and realized that not much was known about how light pollution can impact amphibians. Since amphibians are sensitive to environmental changes, they make great models for studying how pollution of any type can impact other species."

Hua, along with graduate student Grascen Shidemantle and undergraduate student Dyllan May, exposed wood frogs to a control and two anthropogenic light conditions: intensified daytime illuminance and artificial light at night (ALAN). They found that both the intensified daytime illuminance treatments and the ALAN treatment decreased hatching success in tadpoles. Tadpoles that were reared in the ALAN treatment, on the other hand, were larger, less active, more sensitive to road salt pollution and had more parasites.”

Earth Day 2019

Look up at the sky —
The heavens so blue, the sun so radiant,
The clouds so playful, the soaring raptors,
The meadows in bloom, the woodland creatures,
The rivers singing their way to the sea,
Wolf song on the land, whale song in the sea,
Celebration everywhere, wild, riotous,
Immense as a monsoon lifting an ocean of joy,
Spilling it down over the landscape,
Drenching us all with a deluge of delight
As we open our arms and rush toward each other,
You and I and all of us,

Moved by that vast compassionate Presence

That brings all things together in intimate Celebration,

Celebration that is the universe itself.

-adapted from “Every Being Has Rights” by Thomas Berry

Urban Forestry Toolkit

Vibrant Cities Lab (http://www.vibrantcitieslab.com/toolkit/) has produced a new urban forest toolkit for communities. Hosted by the U.S. Forest Service, American Forests and the National Association of Regional Councils, the Vibrant City Lab is an online resource for looking at the positive health impacts that urban forests have in communities. The website posts recent research on human health, economic development, water quality, air quality, public safety, and other urban issues. The urban forest toolkit walks citizens through an urban forestry process of assessing, prioritizing, organizing, building, planning and sustaining.

Bringing Nature to Neighborhoods and Advancing Urban Ecology

Bringing Nature to Neighborhoods and Advancing Urban Ecology

Attendees of the Greater and Greener Conference

07/22/2019

Description

"In this session, you'll hear how Portland, OR, is working at multiple scales to bring biodiversity back to the city and its neighborhoods. Portland Parks and Recreation's new ecologically sustainable landscapes program brings nature to neighborhood parks -- improving the ecological functions of park spaces while expanding local access to nature for urban residents. The program is adding nature patches to developed park landscapes that provide natural experiences for people and habitat for wildlife. Nature patches use a varied natural palette of native and flowering plants, logs, boulders, paths and fencing to retrofit parks with spaces that close the play gap and enhance ecological sustainability. These projects help create unique park landscapes intended to help to support native pollinators, reduce maintenance, provide education and exploration opportunities, and foster collaboration. Forest Park Conservancy is leading the Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative, a public-private collaborative strategy to restore Forest Park and 10,000 acres surrounding the park. They partner with public agencies, non-profits, and individual land owners to restore critical wildlife habitat and recreational spaces. Attendees will learn about FPC's successes and the challenges they've navigated in this 20-year initiative. This session will look at the challenges and lessons learned by the Forest Park Conservancy (FPC) over the past five years leading the Greater Forest Park Conservation Initiative, a public/private collaborative strategy to restore Forest Park and 10,000 acres surrounding the park. We partner with public agencies, other nonprofits, and individual landowners to restore critical wildlife habitat and recreational spaces. Attendees will learn from FPC’s staff about successes and challenges we have navigated thus far in this 20-year initiative. We will lead a discussion about the next five years and a group conversation about restoring large remaining tracts of land in urban areas."

Location

Denver, CO

Instructors

Alejandro Orizola, Forest park Conservancy, Eric Rosewall, Portland Parks & Recreation, Dave Hutch, Vancouver Parks & Recreation.

Website Registration

https://www.greatergreener.org

The map of life

Map of Life is a global resource for biodiversity mapping and monitoring. A set of pre-released examples illustrate a new service that taps into a vast biodiversity data store and high-resolution habitat information to pinpoint suitable species locations in unprecedented detail. This allows a transparent, interactive assessment of species potential representation in reserves. The highlighted species flag the much diminished range size and large conservation gaps remaining, especially in habitat specialists.  Go to the Map of Life at https://species.mol.org/pa

Conducting urban ecology research on private property: advice for new urban ecologists

Conducting urban ecology research on private property: advice for new urban ecologists: Abstract. Private property makes up a large proportion of urban green space and differs from public green space in ecologically important ways. While including