"The Case for Urban Nature" - The New School Panel

Biodiversity in Our Cities: The Case for Urban Nature - watch this You Tube video on the Tishman Environment and Design Center Panel Presentation (from the New School) discussing "the status of urban ecology in regional policies and national trends and how cities can develop comprehensive, collaborative, and proactive strategies for biodiversity conservation, management and restoration through government policies, public education, grassroots initiatives, business strategies and living systems design."

Moderator: Marielle Anzelone, Conservation Biologist & Executive Director, NYC Wildflower Week

Panelists:

Marcia Bystryn, Executive Director, New York League of Conservation Voters

Chris Garvin, Partner, Terrapin Bright Green & Senior Associate, Cook+Fox Architects

P. Timon McPhearson, Tishman Environment and Design Center, The New School

Samara Swanston, Pratt Institute Graduate School of Urban Planning and Hunter College Graduate School for Urban Affairs and Urban Planning

Location: Eugene Lang Building, Wollman Hall.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Tishman Environment and Design Center | http://www.newschool.edu/tedc

Description for Panel Presentation:

Did you know that there is nature in New York City? The five boroughs are rich with forests, marshes, and meadows -- more nature than any other city in North America. Yet these natural resources are threatened by habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation - the same factors that threaten biodiversity everywhere. In fact, about one-third of the native flora and fauna in the United States faces extinction. In our urbanized world, the idea of cities as "concrete jungles" is inaccurate and only further alienates people from the natural world. Conserving and maintaining the ecosystems on which cities depend is essential to the health, wellbeing, and quality of life of their citizens.