More Green Space in Chicago!

Photo by Justin Breen The Field Museum

Chicago continues to inspire!!

First I found out about their bird friendly skyscraper design and then next it was Milwaukee Avenue Green Development Corridor.  After that I read about all these other green nature initiatives that had been happening:

 - City Hall's Rooftop Garden
- the Green Roof Grant Program
- Nature and Wildlife Plan
- Green Alley Program
- Urban Forest Agenda
- 606 (green line)
- Chicago Botanical Garden's "Horticultural Therapy Program"
- Burnham Wildlife Corridor

and now it's Northerly Island!

They are rejuvenating the island with 400 trees and 12000 shrubs by 2017, which will add a more diverse habitat and resting spot for birds.

From DNA info "Northerly Island Is Now A Bird Paradise With 250 Species And Counting" by Justin Breen:

Stotz said that Northerly Island's new look has saved the lives of countless birds. The island used to feature only dry grassland, which kept birds from landing there. Instead, they would fly from Lake Michigan into the city and often crash into McCormick Place. 

"Northerly Island has become an important habitat for preventing birds from hitting McCormick Place," he said. "There used to be no place to stop, and now there is."

Read more about it at DNA Info article and "Northerly Island Reopens" by The Field Museum, Joshua Engel.

Another great organization in Chicago is Open Lands which "has helped protect more than 55,000 acres of land for public parks and forest preserves, wildlife refuges, land and water greenway corridors, urban farms, and community gardens."  Currently they are working on a green vision for some empty industrial sites along Lake Calumet.

Very inspiring!!

urban forest in Detroit

You gotta love this!

(Hauled from my archives.)

What about creating an urban forest overnight?

"This week, 150 mature trees — 20 feet high, trucked to Detroit from as far away as Buffalo, N.Y. — are being planted at Van Dyke and Goethe on vacant lots. They add heft and height to John Hantz's big idea: That reclaiming land for agriculture or trees will help restore pride and beauty to an area that's been demoralized by abandonment."

Here are two views of before (2011) and after (2015).  It'll be great to continue to monitor this urban forest!

Detroit vacant lot (before):

Detroit urban forest (after):

News Articles: 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/metro-detroit/2014/10/13/overnight-detroit-forest-years-hantz/17218305/

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/10/14/trees-hauled-detroit-jump-start-urban-forest/17238189/


Plus: read these other posts about the urban ecology opportunities for Detroit streams called daylighting (for Michigan urban waterways)!



P.S. Check out my latest "urban wild" nature blog: Wild. Here. (2016 update)

North American Urban Ecology Centres

Here's a starter list of urban ecology centres: some are run by the city, some are non-profits, some are research centres.  Some implement public education programs, some run environmental remediation programs and other are studying (with the help of students or citizen volunteers) urban ecological issues.  Share with me others that you know of!

CANADA:

Montreal Urban Ecology Centre
http://www.ecologieurbaine.net/en/

"Projects include the Green, Active and Healthy Neighbourhoods where the organization’s expertise grew to include greening, urban agriculture, planning, active transportation and participatory democracy.  Today, the MUEC has expanded its scope of activity to other municipalities in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. It remains, however, true to its approach and scope of action: citizens and their neighbourhoods." (from the MUEC website)


Humber College’s Urban Ecology Centre
http://humberarboretum.on.ca/humberandthearb.php

"The Humber Arboretum is a joint venture of the City of Toronto, Humber College and Toronto and Region Conservation. The park includes trails and boardwalks through gardens, forests, meadows and wetlands. The Centre for Urban Ecology provides a first-rate venue for education and research on urban ecology and an up-to-date example of environmental sustainability. The Centre for Urban Ecology teachs by example how we all can help work towards a healthy sustainable environment in our own urban spaces." (from the Centre's website)


John Janzen Nature Centre (City of Edmonton)
http://www.edmonton.ca/attractions_events/john-janzen-nature-centre.aspx

 Run by the City of Edmonton:
"A gateway to the heart of Edmonton’s River Valley, the John Janzen Nature Centre takes visitors for a walk on the wild side with programs, events and interactive exhibits designed to promote awareness and engagement with nature in an urban setting." (from the website)


Institute of Urban Ecology (Douglas College, Vancouver)
http://www.douglascollege.ca/programs-courses/faculties/science-technology/institute-of-urban-ecology

"IUE has been involved in a myriad of community-based activities and projects. These projects include: an environmental outreach and education program that reaches about 2000 participants in schools and community organizations in Metro Vancouver each year; working with the Britannia Food Garden Project; and giving input to a number of local and regional initiatives related to ecology and development, such as the Metro Vancouver Biodiversity Conservation Strategy. The IUE also undertakes a variety of research projects related to urban sustainability issues. Recent and current projects include: Urban Bug Gardens, which examined beneficial insects in a community garden and the Delta Migratory Bird Study, which looked at the impact of various land uses on migratory bird foraging behaviours." (from their website)



UNITED STATES:

Urban Green Spaces (Portland)
http://www.urbangreenspaces.org 

"Motto: In Livable Cities is Preservation of the Wild

Mission: To ensure that parks, regional trail systems, greenways and greenspaces are integrated with the built environment in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region, and to promote urban greenspace efforts nationally and internationally." (from website)


Urban Ecology Center (Milwaukee)
http://www.urbanecologycenter.org

"The Urban Ecology Center provides year-round educational programs for kids, families and adults of all ages. The cornerstone program is the Neighborhood Environmental Education Project serving kids in 55 urban Milwaukee schools each year. This program enables students to get to walk in the woods, stand in a river in hip waders or run along the beach at Lake Michigan when they might have no other opportunities to do so." (from website)


Urban Ecology Institute (Cambridge)
http://urbanecologyinst.blogspot.ca/

"The Urban Ecology Institute (UEI) was started in 1998 teaming up community and educational partners to improve the health of urban ecosystems through environmental education, action, and advocacy programs. Their programs reached more than 30,000 people each year throughout Massachusetts and beyond. UEI's core programs harnessed the potential of young people and the power of citizen groups to create physical and social transformations in the midst of neglected communities." (from their website)


Boston Metro Ecological Research (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)
http://www.umass.edu/urbaneco/index.html

"Exploring past, current and future socio-ecological dynamics in a founding city - We are a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of ecologists and social scientists at several universities and the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and partnered with the City of Boston." (from their website)


Wild Metro (New York City)
http://www.wildmetro.org/

"WildMetro, a non-profit organization aims to protect wildlife in natural areas within and around New York City. The organization advocates a sensible balance of development and nature protection in urban regions and promotes intelligent management of resources. It also works to involve communities in the protection of nature by offering various programs such as an after-school nature program and an ecological field techniques course." (from their website)


EcoCity Builders (California)
http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/

"Ecocity Builders reshapes cities for the long-term health of human and natural systems. We develop and implement policy, design and educational tools and strategies to build thriving urban centers based on “access by proximity” and to reverse patterns of sprawl and excessive consumption." (from their website)


Centre for Urban Resilience (Los Angeles)
http://cures.lmu.edu/

"CURes works with faculty, staff, students and community members to develop research and other interventions that lead to more resilient and just communities. Our goal is to pair the study of urban ecology with local issues that can benefit from the talents and resources at LMU. We support a variety of projects ranging from science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teacher professional development; urban biosocial research; graduate education; restorative justice; and regional climate change initiatives." (from CUR website)


P.S. I also wrote about Debs Park in Los Angeles which is another great example of an urban ecology centre!

*Image above of Milwaukee Riverside Park Centre (from website)

Let us Build Cully Park! (Portland)

"For over twenty years, Cully residents set their sights on the conversion of a 25-acre grassy field in the neighborhood, well-located and large enough for a range of community activities – even if it happened to be the site of a former landfill."

 Read more here: Community-Led Park Partnership (Sustainable Cities Collective)

Images from SCC website.

interesting projects by the U.S. Forest Service

Meet Erika Svensen of the U.S. Forest Service and read about a couple of her projects:

SACRED SPACE.
Recently, my colleagues and I received a grant from the TKF Foundation, a private non-profit that funds publicly accessible urban green space. The project, entitled Landscapes of Resilience: Understanding the Creation and Stewardship of Open Spaces Sacred Places, focuses on acute disasters (such as the Joplin tornado and Hurricane Sandy on the east coast) and compares these disturbances with chronic, longer term economic disruption in our communities. We are studying when, where, how and why residents use greening activities as a mechanism for resilience and restoration. You can learn more about this project here: http://civicecology.org/tkf.php for more details. 

URBAN FIELD STATION.
In addition to my current research, I am part of the New York City Urban Field Station. The field station’s mission is to improve the quality of life in urban areas by conducting and supporting research about social-ecological systems and natural resource management. It began as a partnership between the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. Here is a link to the NYC Urban Field Station site: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/nyc/ 

LIVING MEMORIALS.
One of my first research projects with the U.S. Forest Service resulted in a multi-year study to understand the meaning of community-based memorials and acts of environmental stewardship after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Living Memorials Project http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/ documented and investigated over 700 memorials nationwide, made them accessible in an on-line national registry, and findings were synthesized in articles, presentations and multi-media exhibits. Our research examines the emergence of September 11 memorials as part of a social-ecological process of resilience and the ways in which ordinary space becomes sacred. Our partnership with artists and designers enabled us to produce an exhibit, Land-Markings: 12 Journeys through 9/11 Living Memorials at the National Park Service’s Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street. We were honored to receive the 2007 EDRA/Places Award for Living Memorials National Research: 9-11 and the Public Landscape.

Full bio here: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/esvendsen

Nature in the city (San Francisco)

Nature in the City is a non-profit working in the City of San Francisco to help connect people to nature though both restoration and stewardship programs.  They provide public education and also habitat and plant consultations for both public and private spaces.  There was a great article in Earth Island Journal about a specific project that helped restore butterfly habitat in the city:

From Earth Island:

One of our keystone projects is the “Green Hairstreak Corridor,” a butterfly habitat restoration project situated in the inner Sunset District. The iridescent green, nickel-sized green hairstreak butterfly (Callophrys viridis) was once common throughout the area. It was often seen with the now-extinct Xerces blue (Glaucopsyche xerces), the first butterfly in the US said to go extinct due to urbanization. But today, the green hairstreak survives only in small and isolated populations. Because this butterfly can only fly a few hundred feet from its original habitat, the species might vanish unless we intervene to save it.

Credit: Michael L. Baird

To help the butterfly, in 2006 local lepidopterist Liam O’Brien launched this wildlife habitat corridor project, which aims to connect two isolated green hairstreak butterfly populations via strategically placed “Street Parks” full of host plants and nectar sources.

It’s working. With the help of a handful of paid staff and volunteers, Nature in the City is recreating more of the upland dune habitat on which these butterflies depend. In spring 2011, the first green hairstreak butterfly was seen in a restored plot, and in spring 2013, dozens were witnessed darting between plants or perched in the sun. We have successfully connected the two isolated breeding populations and, for the time being, secured this threatened butterfly’s survival.


Such a great project to read about during these cold winter months and while hoping for a resurgence in the Monarch population in 2014!

Wildflowers of Detroit (Kickstarter Project)

Found this great kickstarter project from 2011.  They wanted to do ground source mapping of the return of wildflowers to the City of Detroit due to the increase of abandoned lots.  How interesting!!

Here is an Huffington Post article on the project: Wildflowers of Detroit Smartphone App

More information from the website:

Wildflowers of Detroit ??

One pervasive vision of Detroit is its ruins - the monolithic hulks of an industrial era gone by, documented in striking photographs and tales of urban exploration. Missing from this narrative is the other side of the coin.  In place of those decaying buildings grow plots of wildflowers and wildlife. After knowing these secret gardens and hidden blooms, we feel this crucial story needs to be told.  Thats where you come in.  Wildflowers of Detroit is a community technology project for cataloging wild plants growing in Detroit, an effort which can enable people's appreciation of its open space.  Though experiencing and appreciating the "empty" fields, we can discover together the emerging ecology of this area.  Our technologies collaborative WinterRoot is teaming up with Detroit's Omnicorp Hackerspace and Alley Culture's Seed Exchange to bring this vision into being.

A link to one of the creators Tumblr Site.

All Images from Wildflowers of Detroit

Burnham Wildlife Corridor (Chicago)

Found more on the Burnham Wildlife Corridor in Chicago.   This is the second project of the Chicago Park District, who first worked on the west shore of Lake Michigan.  They were addressing the need of about 300 species of birds migrating through the area.  This newest corridor will address the south shore creating a 2.2 mile strip (103 acres).  This "restoration" of land created by fill will be mostly with hardy oak trees which are great hosts for many species of caterpillars which will provide the resting birds with nutrients also.  Since the project was started a couple of years ago, local residents have already seen a change and have spotted "more kestrels, hawks and warblers".

Read more here: A lakefront landing strip for migrating birds

"Finding nature in a strip of land sandwiched by railroad tracks and Lake Shore Drive"
Details and Image from WBEZ article written in April 2013 by Chris Bentley

Constructed Wetland for Wastewater (Washington D.C.)

The Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington D.C. has gained international recognition as the first LEED Platinum K-12 school building in the world built in 2006.

"Its green features include a constructed wetland that treats wastewater on site, recycled building materials (such as reclaimed wine caskets to make the building's skin), three green roofs (that provide habitat, reduce urban heat island effect and insulate), sunshades, solar chimneys (which enhance natural ventilation), and rooftop photovoltaic panels (that provide for all the school's electrical needs)."

More on the Constructed Wetland:

"Constructed wetlands use less energy to process waste than traditional municipal systems while creating habitats for plant and animal life. After first flowing through a treatment tank to remove solids, wastewater is treated using biological processes. Aquatic plants, water, microorganisms, sun, soil, sand, and air filter and clean the water. The process is completed with additional filtration of particulates and an ultra violet (UV) filter. The constructed wetland behind the Middle School building treats wastewater to the same standards as the city’s municipal system but due to current health codes, the water is reused only in the toilets and urinals. Models show that the building uses 93% less District water by treating our sewage in the wetland and reusing the water, as well as through water-efficient landscaping"

More information here: Green Building (Sidwell Friends Middle School)

All Images from Sidwell Friends website.

P.S. Check out my latest "urban wild" nature blog: Wild. Here. (2016 update)

green bus shelters (Philadelphia)

My friend mentioned last year that she had seen green roofs on Philadelphia's bus stops and I just got around to find out what they were all about. Here's more information:  

"The 60 square foot bus stop green roof at 15th and Market was based off of Roofmeadow’s idea to create a prefabricated kit that can be used to install a green roof on any standard bus shelter in Philadelphia and is meant to help promote PWD’s efforts to raise awareness around urban storm water issues. Any future replications of this first design will be paid for not by the city but by funds from advertising on the side of the bus shelter where the green roof has been installed."

Found at Inhabitat's website: Philadelphia Gets a Bus Stop Green Roof

"In Philadelphia alone, 52 green roofs have sprung up, totaling 10.6 acres by the count of the Water Department, which is tracking them as part of its effort to amass data on storm water.

Storm water is a historic problem for Philadelphia because most of the city's underground pipes combine rainwater and sewage. During storms, the system becomes overwhelmed and water polluted with raw sewage and road dirt overflows into streams and basements.

"Every acre manages or eliminates roughly a million gallons of storm-water runoff a year in the city," said Chris Crockett, acting deputy commissioner of environmental services for the Water Department."

From Philly Dot Com.

2016 Update: I've also heard about green bus stops in Sheffield (U.K.) by Groundwork Sheffield and the TTC Finch West Station is going to have a green roof!

P.S. Check out my latest "urban wild" nature blog: Wild. Here. (2016 update)

inspiring

Image Source: Fast Coexist

(Congress Avenue Bridge, Austin, Texas)

Steve Vogel on Daylighting (Detroit)

Two minute video on You Tube:  Detroit architect, Steve Vogel discusses the topic of day lighting and it's benefit to the environment.

Also an article from The Nautilus, Spring 2011 about the potential for one project for Bloody Run Creek.

High Line Park (NYC)

I've been to the Promenade Plantée and rejoiced about the incredible forethought this took and delighted in the magic that it is now.  It opens up amazing views that weren't available before, it allows people to see and travel the city in a completely different way and it "takes you away" even though you are still immersed in the city.

A local Ottawa blogger visited New York City this spring and got to experience the High Line Park - which is similar to the Paris park and being appreciated just as much.  While watching the movie Urbanized, I was shocked to hear that it was a battle to get this created - that even though the Paris Park had been built there were doubters about whether the old rail line in NYC could be revitalized like the Paris one.  Now that it has been built, it's effect is being felt in the city and beyond (see Huffington Post article).  All I can say is that I'm so glad that people did fight to get this built.  It's such a unique experience and has become such a success!

Read and see more in Childfree's Blog: High Line Park.  (Images from Childfree.)

reviving old streams (Detroit)

Ever since I saw the daylighting project that Ecocity Builders did in California, my dream has been to be part of a team that daylights a stream.  This type of work doesn't happen too much.  As in the Ecocity Builders project, a parking lot was being decommissioned so there was an opportunity.  What daylighting entails is taking a stream that has been routed underground (through pipes) and reintroducing it at ground level, which means you have to have the area/space to allow the stream to burble and gurgle across a stream bed, through rocks, around bends and along a stream bank.

Ultimately this means more green and less grey (yeah!) but it's hard to redesign a space and take away infrastructure if it is needed.

I was talking to a teacher at the end of the semester about my dream to daylight and how it is very hard to find potential projects and all of a sudden it came to me - the opportunity in Detroit - so many empty properties, so much change... so I googled for it and found that other people are realizing the how promising their situation could be:  Detroit Officials are looking into "daylighting" Bloody Run Creek.

There was also this link to a Masterplan Memorandum about the potential for Urban Stream Restoration in Detroit: which "provides a description of urban stream restoration, identifies the benefits and challenges to restoration and the application of this information to a specific area in the City of Detroit.

And here's a Mahalo article about Daylighting Streams that provides an example of a completed project.


Image from: Landscape Online

Debs Park (Los Angeles) opened 2003

As a follow up to yesterday's article on nature in Los Angeles I found information on the Audubon Society's first urban nature center in L.A., along the Pasadena Freeway, northeast of downtown. "It will be called a nature classroom, and will cover a 16-acre parcel within the 282-acre Ernest Debs Regional Park near Montecito Heights. The space hosts more than 130 species of birds. The center will include an amphitheater, nature exhibits and a hummingbird garden. It is expected to open by 2003 at a cost of $15.5 million."

 Here are some links:

March 2004 Urban Oasis Magazine - Article written by Dan Koeppel about the Audubon Center at Debs Park

Direct Link to the urban nature center at Debs Park, Los Angeles

Update 2013: New link for Debs Park

P.S. Check out my latest "urban wild" nature blog: Wild. Here. (2016 update)