Urban Ecology Lectures (Ottawa)

This year the Friends of the Farm offered various Tree Walks in the Arboretum.  I was really thrilled to hear how popular these free tours were - with up to 100 people attending!  Some of the walks planned this year were on traditional topics including Flowering Trees, Tree Identification, Maple Tree Species and Fruit Trees while others introduced newer "urban ecology" topics such as:

BIRDS AND THE URBAN FOREST - Sunday, May 17, 2015
Tour leaders: Rachelle Lapensee and Owen Clarkin

From the website: "Birds and Trees are inextricably connected. Trees provide food and shelter to many species of birds, while birds act as agents for seed dispersal and greatly influence the relationship of trees with their insect and fungal pests. Come for a tour of the majestic trees at the Dominion Arboretum during the busy spring birding season, and learn more about Ottawa's birds, trees, and their relationships with each other."

TREE FORMS AND SHAPES IN WINTER - Sunday, November 15, 2015
Tour leaders: Owen Clarkin and Bettina Henkelman

From the website: "When the leaves fall, serious tree-watching can begin. Firstly, trees that were often obscured behind the leaves of others suddenly are visible; this is especially true of evergreens. Secondly, individual tree species tend to grow in recognizable patterns, and for deciduous trees this is best observed in winter. Techniques for how to learn tree recognition from a distance will be explained."

Image from Friends of the Farm newsletter

Update on Guelph's Pollinator Park (decommissioned Eastview Landfill site)

I first blogged about this Pollinator Park project in 2012!  Glad to see that it continues to expand!

From the website (Pollination Guelph Planting Sites):

(The) pollinator habitat (is) on the 45ha (112 acre) decommissioned Eastview Landfill site. (It) will be one of the first and largest pollinator initiatives to occur in Ontario, Canada, and internationally. It will also highlight the City of Guelph's commitment to being a leader in environmental initiatives.

The Pollinator Park is a long-term, multi-stage project. Work began in the fall of 2012 and the first hectare was seeded in Fall 2013. We plan to seed another two hectares in Fall 2014 and if we can raise the funds, add two hectares a year in future years.

A bee hotel was added in June 2014 through the "Wild for Bees" initiative, which Pollination Guelph was a site partner in. This initiative is sponsored by Burt's Bees, Sustainable.TO, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Pollinator Partnership Canada.

The park borders Speedvale Ave, Watson Road, Eastview Rd

From Guelph Mercury article (written by Chris Seto):

(The) project had to use the herbicide Roundup to get rid of the fescue grass, a species planted to help prevent soil erosion on the mound.

The Eastview Landfill was decommissioned in 2003 after collecting the city's garbage since 1961. For the past 10 years it sat empty, gathering various weeds and invasive plant species. Some flowering species grew out of its clay, rocky soil, but the field hasn't been much of a hot spot for wildlife.

Since 2009, Pollination Guelph has had its eye on this open space as a potential haven for bees, butterflies, birds and native plant species, but it needed to raise enough funds to be able to act on its plan. This year, the charitable organization reached its goal of raising $15,000 – the amount it cost to prep and seed one hectare of land – and was able to sow the seeds of a variety of native species.

These species include coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, milkweeds, Indian grass and several others. The first flowers are expected to appear in the fall, with the majority of the bloom occurring in 2015.

The site will have to be monitored and mowed every couple of years to ensure it isn't overrun by invasive species.  (Burning isn't an option above the methane gas producing landfill.)

Elaine Williams, executive director of Wildlife Preservation Canada, said her organization joined up with Pollination Guelph earlier this year. She hopes the pollination park will become a healthy sanctuary for various species at risk, including the meadowlark and the bobolink bird. She said once the park is more established, it may even be a good place to reintroduce the endangered rusty patch bumblebee.

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

Urban Wild "Express" - Bird Tornado (Atlanta Beltline)

Interactive Art Work on the Atlanta Beltline by Dorthy O'Connor and Craig Appel

Photo by Romanlily

(Location details from her photo page: eastside trail, near Ralph McGill - not far from Two Urban Licks)

Video (see it in action)

Info from video page:

The over population of homeless pets is a problem that plagues both the city of Atlanta and the entire Southeast. In 2013, Fulton County Animal Services took in 9,225 animals. The tornado-like mechanical sculpture O’Connor and Appel have created contains 365 birds, each bird representing 25 animals, which is the average daily intake at the shelter during a typical year. Tornado symbolizes a destructive force that can be overcome if more people get involved and help to break the cycle.

10 Native Trees for Ottawa (by Diana Beresford-Kroeger)

List of 10 Native Trees recommended as substitutes for the Ash, Fraxinus species

by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

1. Oak, Quercus 

Q. macrocarpa is called the Bur Oak. It is a native oak, an edible species of the landscape of the City of Ottawa. This oak or the white oak, Q. alba, or the northern red oak, Q. rubra, will grow rapidly and form large canopies. These trees require immense amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide to grow. They are local trees that will reverse climate change, reduce pollution and skin cancers. They have the strength to withstand ice storms and heavy snow. They are also extremely drought resistant. 

2. Honey Locust, Gleditsia triacanthos 

The natural form of honey locust is extremely healthy and hardy in city traffic conditions. It is almost resistant to disease infestations. It is drought resistant and it fixes its own nitrogen from the atmospheric nitrogen dioxide and from the soil. The locust will reverse climate change. The canopy of which produces a high filtered light for city gardens. The tree produces edible beans which can be ground as flour and added to other grains to make flour in various proportions. The flowers of the locust feed beneficial insects which in turn act as predators reducing the need for pesticides. The tree is also an 'Escape tree' for birds from city cats and racoons. 

3. American Basswood, Tilia americana 

This local native tree has flowers in June to July which are immensely fragrant. The lactone chemistry in the aerosols that are produced are beneficial to human health. The tree is the greatest feeding tree in the entire world for beneficial insects. Basswood honey is the best on the continent. This tree helps the bird populations to increase and produce more viable eggs in the spring which in turn reduces the need for pesticides. The Basswood leaves in its canopy combs the city air of its particulate pollution which is a leading cause of heart disease in the asthmatic. 

4. Eastern White Cedar, Thuja occidentalis 

Ottawa is blessed with native populations of an evergreen tree called the cedar Thuja occidentalis that the local native people called "The Tree of Life". There are golden, tall, weeping and fastigate forms. The trees’ leaves have glands on the tips of the leaves that can be easily seen by the naked eye. These glands in hot humid air release an aerosol medicine into the air that regulates the beating heart and is antiviral. The tree is also drought and fire resistant. It feeds birds and protects them in the winter adding 2 degrees centigrade to their body heat within the shelter of this evergreen. 

5. Black Walnut, Juglans nigra 

The walnut tree is a medicinal tree. It produces anticancer bio-chemicals both in the mature foliage and in the nuts themselves. Ottawa has a very high cancer rate. This tree would act as a shield for this, most especially for the children of the city who are most vulnerable because of their high metabolic rate when they are in growth spurts to adulthood. Pound for pound, the flesh of the walnut is equal in protein to the best black Angus t-bone steak. The tree is strong and wind resistant. It also has a wide canopy which reduces summer cooling costs. The wood of this tree is one of the most valuable in the world. A well grown Juglans nigra ‘Thomas’ in the city will pay for a grandchild's university education, quite easily. A full canopy of black walnut generates chemical aerosols which will neutralize toxic benzene from the traffic. 

6. Fir, Abies 

All of the fir are drought resistant. They will withstand heavy snow loads and ice. The conical form of anatomy of the tree helps them to stand straight, also, in high winds. The branches have a special form of buttresses built into them. These trees guard all the waterways, canals, lakes and river systems helping to purify potable water which is increasingly an issue for cities and urban areas across the world. The chemistry from the needles or leaves produces airborne aerosols that are antiseptic and antibiotic. These trees act as air cleansers and as deodorants on a massive scale. This super clean air is a health benefit to the city of Ottawa and to the surrounding area. There are two trees of choice, the Abies balsamea, known as the balsam fir, balsam, Canada balsam or the eastern fir. This tree is native to the city of Ottawa. The other is the Abies concolor known commonly as the white fir or white balsam. This is a Canadian species, the best cultivar for shape, form and drought resistance is A. c. ‘Candicans’. This tree is also a songbird shelter and escape route for predation. 

7. Spruce, Picea 

The white spruce is the workhorse of Canada. It has a long and important history on the landscape especially for Ottawa, where it grew on rocky areas overlooking the Ottawa River. It was one of the trees with long tracheids that made pulp which made paper that made money for the lumber barons. Their names can be found inscribed in Rideau Hall, residence of the Governor General. The tree is famous for its pharmaceuticals, one of which reduces blood pressure the other is anti-anginal and helps the heart itself to beat. This is a medicinal tree. It is evergreen and can withstand snow loads and strong winds. The resin of the tree helps all flying beneficial insects especially the honey bee. This tree helps to stop Honey Bee Colony Collapse. The best spruce for Ottawa is the common, native white spruce, Picea glauca. It is known as the skunk spruce. The latter is a common name given when the science of the aerosol medicine was not appreciated by the pioneers, but was used by the aboriginal medicine men for 40,000 years on this continent as a medicine. 

8. Catalpa, Catalpa speciosa 

The catalpa is the most spectacular flowering tree for the city of Ottawa. The bloom clusters are bigger than a man's head. The flowers are white and fluorescent purple. The long beans hang in tassels into the fall and winter. They are the food of the red cardinal birds who love to split open the bean and eat the seeds. This tree is suited to the calcareous soils of the city of Ottawa. The tree can be easily grown, it is disease and drought resistant. The horizontal limbs and main branches in the winter are flexible and will withstand heavy ice and snow. The blooms are like orchids and attract butterflies. The author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger would like to see these trees widely planted in the downtown area as a tourist attraction for a festival of their flowering in June to July. Such a tree allée would also help to maintain clean air as the huge leaf can comb air pollution of 2.5 micron sizes, reducing it for easy breathing. It is a North American tree. Its origins are unknown on this continent. 

9. Hickory, Carya ovata 

The Hickory trees that were cut down for the building of the city of Ottawa were Carya cordiformis. The tree is also known as the Bitternut Hickory, Bitternut, Swamp Hickory and by the farming community as Pignut. It is not known if other members of this family were present at the time. They may have been present because the aboriginal people often planted nuts. These trees would have been Carya ovata, the Shagbark Hickory, the antifamine trees. The Hickory is unique to the continent, except for China. It grew to enormous proportions here. Fingerprint boles account for circumferences of 18 feet on shallow soils. The Hickory is a feeding tree for birds, man and mammals. It is also a butterfly tree, used in a butterfly’s continental migration. This tree can be planted for a public park or a larger garden. In the last ice storm this Ottawa tree species was badly damaged. It needs to be replaced, also. 

10. Cucumber tree, Magnolia acuminate 

The Cucumber tree and all the other species of trees that are endangered in Canada could go on a long list. People who are interested in preserving the native heritage and stories of Canada should grow this magnificent Canadian tree. The tree produces a unique cucumber style fruit. From this fruit the frost opens the seed cases and dangles a red seed by a white thread. Birds love these rich seeds. The flower is like a steel grey tulip which is produced at the end of May. From this tree the aboriginal people made anti-malarial medicine. They made dugout canoes for inland travel on their water highways and they carved death masks from its sacred wood. These masks had an important ceremonial function. The cucumber tree is almost extinct. The City could help in a recovery program for its new World Heritage Site of its canal system. Then these trees could be enjoyed by everyone again. They were a waterway tree.

Found on Ecology Ottawa website (October 2013)


P.S. Check out my latest "urban wild" nature blog: Wild. Here.
(2017 update)

S.O.S. Ottawa Trees

Ottawa Roger's Cable company (Channel 22) has an interesting show called S.O.S. Ottawa Trees that was produced in ??. Currently there are three episodes that talk about different issues regarding our urban canopy.

From the website:

One of Ottawa's greatest assets, the trees that green our neighbourhoods, are under threat from pests, new construction and a harsh urban environment. S.O.S Ottawa Trees takes a closer look at the challenges facing our urban canopy and how you can help keep Ottawa green.

Episode 1

In Ottawa, 40 million ash trees are threatened by the Emerald Ash Borer. We take a closer look at this tiny insect and how it's changing the landscape of the National Capital Region.

Episode 2

Ottawa is a growing city, but when new homes and buildings go up, often mature trees come down. We look at infill and new construction and how to embrace change while preserving our greenspaces.

Episode 3

Planting a tree is easy, right? Get tips from the experts on how to properly plant a tree, and get inspired by our 'Tree Heroes': people who are making sure Ottawa's future is a green one.

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

Way of Nature (UK nature events)

Found this great program to provide opportunities for urbanites to reconnect with nature and destress!

From the website:

"Wilderness Spa – A Day-Long Retreat 

Wilderness Spa is a one day retreat to help you relax and recharge in a wonderful, natural way. Taking place in Epping Forest, a short trip from central London, the day consists of a series of restorative activities helped along by the magic of Nature. The highlight of the day is time alone in nature – a practice of letting nature help you recharge your batteries. Hosted with care, knowledge and fun in equal measures, Wilderness Spa is sure to leave you delighted and inspired. 

What to expect

• A beautiful restorative experience outdoors

• Activities to awaken the senses, relax and energise body and make time to stop while learning how nature helps us heal and recover from busy lives

Programme

• A wander into Epping Forest

• A silent walk exploring senses and arrival

• Awakening the body and energy with Qi Gong 

• A talk about Nature’s surprising healing properties

• A total body relaxation

• Lunch in the outdoors

• A Solo experience – a ninety minute experience alone with nature

• A last session about keeping Wildness in everyday life finishing at 4:30pm

Who’s it for?  Wilderness Spa is a great experience for people feeling a need to rest or recharge. With the busyness of everyday life, it’s easy to forget how amazing time outdoors is for us. More so, that we have forgotten the art of relaxation and of being in the moment. This experience is about reminding and practicing how to do all of this."

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

Grasses and Grass-scapes

Talk Offered December 2008:

"Grasses and Grasscapes: From the Four Corners of the Earth to You, A Talk by Dave Demers"

Dave Demers, a modern day plant hunter and garden designer, delighted his audience with his sumptuous photographs of grasscapes in the wild, and in cutting-edge gardens.

Mr. Demers, who has traveled the world to discover plants in their native habitats, outlined and described the best grass cultivars for our northern landscapes.

Dave currently owns Cyan Horticulture, a design-build landscape company in Vancouver.

www.cyanhorticulture.com

(reposting because there are such cool gardens pictured on his blog!)

Gravel Garden - Danforth (Toronto)

Ecoman shared this link with me - great project in Toronto (this was a small project done after an extensive 6000 square foot rooftop garden had been created. Cool that once the first project was done - they started looking for other areas that could be improved!)

From Ecoman's website:

GRAVEL GARDEN REHABILITATION

In an effort to transform Gravel Garden into something a bit more visually and ecologically pleasing, Green Access staff teamed up with Ecoman to take on a mini naturalization project that included edibles, native plants, and even some medicinal species!

Over the summer, purple flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) thrived and red currant bushes bore a tasty first harvest. Solomon’s Seal, Hepatica and Comfrey started to get established in the shady areas. We experimented with growing hardy Kiwi (Actinidia kolomitka) and a specially bred variety of honeysuckle with edible berries (Lonicera caerulea). Bugbane (Cimicifuga) and Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) were also nice additions.

Two small transplanted honey locust trees (Gleditsia triocanthos) and one lilac suffered a bit in the hot and dry parts of summer but they ultimately became well-established. Finally, later in the season a couple of America Elder (Sambucus nigra) trees were added. 

*****
Love that they rescued some trees from a Canada Blooms installation (saving costs!) for the Gravel Garden. And do hope that they post some after shots - would be great to see what it looks like now.
Thanks Ecoman (Jonas Spring) for sharing the info!

Suburb Re-Do

Images: Sherwood Eng, Washington Edu, Seattle PI, Mithūn Arch.

From Ecobuilding Pulse:

"Revitalizing and rethinking suburban developments offers a wealth of opportunities to builders and architects, says Ellen Dunham-Jones, who is overseeing Sustainable Communities for the Hanley Wood Sustainability Council.

A lot of your work focuses on the suburbs. What are the opportunities there?

The opportunity is that we get a do-over. We built so much, but no one was thinking about environmental issues, especially when it came to the immediate postwar buildings. We drained wetlands. We built with excess. Now that so many of those properties are failing or underperforming, we have a great opportunity to redevelop them into more mixed-use, urban places, or to regreen spaces where we never should have built in the first place.

What do you mean by “regreen” them?

In some cases, especially if there is a slow market, it makes the most sense to simply tear a building down and replace it with a park. Sometimes it means reconstructing wetlands or daylighting creeks that had been put into culverts under parking lots, or putting in community gardens. Outside of Minneapolis in the low-income suburb of Phalen, there was a big strip mall built in the 1960s. It was built before the Clean Water Act, when it was perfectly normal to drain wetlands and put a culvert under the parking lot. The site also happened to be on a major migratory route. Well, the strip mall died and so did the culvert. People at the University of Minnesota’s landscape program made a case for reconstructing the wetlands. They built a beautiful lake and created lakefront property that attracted the first new private investment in over 40 years, which also happens to be next to a big public housing development. This helped trigger improvements to the public housing. The dead strip mall was bringing property values down. So, regreening the space served multiple purposes.

Another thing that’s happening is the daylighting of creeks. One of the most dramatic examples is the Northgate Mall in Seattle. The project has received a lot of press because it features new housing and senior housing on the sides of Thornton Creek, which used to be a culvert under the mall’s parking lot. Now it’s an amenity for housing, the headwaters of a major stream, and can handle the area’s flooding."         (Image: Lisatown - Inspirational Wall)

From Ecobuildingpulse.com By Katie Weeks

Urban Wild "Express" - Bird Architecture Art

Photo by Austin Kennedy

Thanks to PARK-ing OTTAWA for this great post that linked to Sarah Sze sculpture on New York’s High Line. The piece is called Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat).

"The architecture, complex and dynamic, acts as a bird, butterfly and insect observatory, with perches, feeding spots and birdbaths throughout.

The artwork is simultaneously an observatory, an experiment, and a metropolis, evoking urban construction, scientific models, and attempts to capture nature in situ."   

From: The Highline Art

Check out this other outdoor nature art installation called The Bird Tornado!

Women for Nature

"It was on Parliament Hill, in Centre Block, where about 150 guests and one well-mannered great horned owl named Darwin attended the launch of Women for Nature. The event was hosted by Nature Canada and senators Janis Johnson and Nancy Greene Raine with nature-loving MPs Stella Ambler, Linda Duncan, Joyce Murray, Kirsty Duncan and Elizabeth May.

The female politicians are part of a new and expanding group of influential women who are using their skills and leadership to connect more Canadians to nature while also raising awareness for Nature Canada, a non-profit organization working to preserve and protect nature.

Serving as honorary chair is Johnson, who spoke about her childhood summers fishing off the dock and catching frogs in Gimli, Man. “Nature was my world,” said Johnson, who still loves to fly-fish. Her colleague, Greene Raine, summed up nicely the way nature helps to rejuvenate us. “It lets us connect with powers that are bigger than what we find in the city,” said the Olympic ski legend from British Columbia. “We get tired in our humdrum day, working all the time. We get refreshed when we step out into the nature.”

Guests included a mix of politicians and sponsors. Canadian Museum of Nature CEO Meg Beckel is a founding member of Women for Nature. So is prominent Ottawa-based photographer Michelle Valberg. Coincidentally, she’s been snapping a lot of shots of snowy owls due to their unusual migration, known as an irruption, here in the region."

Ottawa Citizen

(Great new effort (hopefully they recognize that nature is IN the city also!)

from a linked in conversation: new generation of landscape architects who are trained as social workers...

Trudy Maria Tertilt

Research Urban Biodiversity - Climate Change

Singapore

Architecture & Planning

There is a simple recipe to increase biodiversity: 

* surface waterbodies and equal distribution all over the city

* many large and old trees

* fruit trees and vegetable gardens

* no use of pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides ....artificial fertilizer

* parks with native trees and shrubs (not a lollipop design)

* no artificial lighting of parks and streets at night

But these ideas are often not implemented because:

* mosquito problem (dengue, malaria..)

* no knowledge - no interest in gardening - often look chaotic in nowadays citizen eye

* do not want to get 'dirty' hands* fruit trees causing trouble when birds are too noisy and dirtying the ground

* fruit trees are attracting unwanted insects (incl. bees, wasps...)

* old trees have an extensive root system which is a problem to infrastructure

* branches might fall and kill people

My point is: People's appreciation and understanding for real nature is missing! Mind is spoilt by to many 'manicured" green spaces in advertisements and commercialization of landscape architecture.... and most important: a sense of ownership is missing for mass housing and big apartments blocks.

Therefore we need a new generation of Landscape Architects who are trained as a social worker to work with the local community. Design and construction of outdoor space is a tool to revitalize neighborhoods. 

The journey is its own reward.

Eco Science plus Art (Patricia Johanson)

Received an email from Ottawa Greenspace Alliance:  For those interested in learning more on working with “Eco Science plus Art”. This approach to infrastructure for restoring polluted land and urban water treatment is being applied in various cities and country places in the U.S.A.  On the website link below you can watch and listen to the featured speaker, Patricia Johanson.

From the Ecoscience Plus Art wordpress site:

“Patricia Johanson’s major projects combine art, ecology, landscaping, and functional infrastructure.  They include Fair Park Lagoon in Dallas (1981-86), a municipal flood basin, and “Endangered Garden”, San Francisco (1987), a transport-storage sewer whose roof provides public access to restored habitats and is part of the Bay Circuit Trail.  Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility in Petaluma, California utilizes sequential wetlands to process sewage into recycled water, while framing infrastructure as a public park and homes for local wildlife.  “The Draw at Sugar House”, Salt Lake City, incorporates a major highway crossing for Parley’s Trail with a sculptural dam, whose floodwalls and spillway recall the Mormon journey through Echo Canyon.  And “Mary’s Garden” in Scranton, Pennsylvania reclaims mine-scarred land, where water drops through seven levels of underground mines, restoring surface flow and providing geothermal energy, storm water treatment, restored ecological communities, and sculpture, within the context of a public park.”

http://ecoscienceplusart.wordpress.com/speakers/

Image from Patricia Johanson's website

vancouver bird houses

Found on Urban Guide for Alternative Use:

"Designers Jeffrey Liu and Andrew Siu saw an opportunity to give birds a better shot at a happy home in the city by using Vancouver’s existing lamp posts and street signs as the supporting infrastructure for plug-in urban birdhouses.

By using powerful magnets as the attachment device, the birdhouses have the flexibility to not only attach to any metal post, but also to external metal buttresses, bridges, fire escapes, or any of a city’s many metal structures. The birdhouse colors were inspired by the work artists Haas & Hahn did to transform some of Brazil’s favelas, and their entry points were designed for easy access for birds from different directions, and a challenging point of entry for predators."

Additional photos and full process details can be found here.

Image Source

Urban Bats (Ottawa)

We'd love to know more about this event held at the end of May at Macoun Marsh.  We had heard that they were going to use sonar to record the bats and determine what species could be found but if it was bat tagging - that would be a whole other level!

From St. Laurent Academy Blog: Bat research scientist Brian Hickey (St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences) will join us on Thursday, May 30 from 7:30 pm to 9:15 pm to search for Hoary and Little Brown Bats!  COME JOIN US AT MACOUN MARSH!  Mr. L.

From Biodiversity Matters Blog: We had a bat and night critters evening at the Macoun Marsh. Bat research scientist Brian Hickey (St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences) came out to search for Hoary and Little Brown Bats. Both were recorded.

From Pub Patio Playdate: The man accompanied little one’s preschool class on a field trip to the Macoun Marsh last week and had an awesome time. A few days later he attended a bat-tagging excursion at the marsh and he can’t wait to spend more time exploring the area’s rich biodiversity. I had to miss the field trip but am looking forward to checking this place out soon.


Update August 2013: Bat research continues at Macoun Marsh.

**********************

(Friends of Gatineau Park had a Bat Night in June, where Rachel Hamilton, a graduate alumni from the University of Western Ontario, provided insight into bats, from the most unusual to those that can be found in backyards. She also discussed how researchers are able to study these flying friends and shared how bats impact on people's daily lives.)

The MNR has an educational Bat Fact Sheet which is part of their "Living With" series.

Tree Canopy Project (Ottawa)

Article from last fall (2012): Tree canopy project looking to gauge value to community, Old Ottawa South pilot to catalogue types, numbers - News - By Michelle Nash Ottawa West Local Community News

A tree canopy project taking place in Old Ottawa South plans to identify types of trees growing in area parks and the value the trees offer the neighbourhood and city.

On Oct. 11, a group of Old Ottawa South residents, Carleton University students, officials from the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority and Heather Hamilton, a former forests and green space advisory committee chairwoman, gathered to count the tree canopy in Brewer Park.

Hamilton said she got involved because she was looking for a fun community project and since the city is only taking stock of street trees but not in parks, it was just right.

"We're filling in the gap." she said.

The objective of the project, which is also taking a canopy count in Windsor Park, is to use the data collected to prepare a report which will include information on all the trees in the park. The report will include location maps and global positioning system data, pictures, species and size of the trees.

"It would be nice for us to get a picture from both the neighbourhood and city perspective," Hamilton said. "To see how much parks are contributing to the overall health of the city."

She explained such factors as a tree's contribution to controlling storm water run-off, air pollution and local weather temperatures.

"Without trees, it would be hotter, more polluted and your basement might be flooded," Hamilton said.

The catalyst for this project has been the emerald ash borer. The beetle has burrowed itself in ash trees all over the city and as a result thousands have been lost. For Mike Lascelles, chairman of the Ottawa South Community Association environment committee, this project will help the neighbourhood have a better understanding of what types of trees are in the parks and whether any existing ash trees are healthy.

This canopy count will help the Old Ottawa South community have an idea the amount of trees that will potentially be lost in the parks.

"We can put a plan together to replace the trees, if need be," he said. "Things are really in tough shape there (at Windsor Park), with 30 to 40 emerald ash that are on death row, wind damaged trees and vandalized trees."

Planting is nothing new for Lascelles and the environment committee. More than 15 years ago, he and other members of the neighbourhood planted around 300 trees in Brewer Park, along the river, in an effort to protect the habitat. The only thing is, at the time, they did not keep a record of what species were planted, so now they are taking note of the diversity, which is a difficult task,

Scott Danford and Dan Cooper from the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority are also helping with the project.

"Sometimes it can be very hard, these guys are the experts, it is great to have them," Lascelles said.

Erika Rose, a fourth year environmental sciences student at Carleton is one of the students participating.

For Rose, being out in the field is the best kind of experience she can get and having the opportunity to do her research in Brewer Park, her neighbourhood, is even better.

"I thought it would be cool to do something in the neighbourhood where I interact and live," Rose said. "It is better than just reading about it. Here you are in the field, learning first hand."

The project, Hamilton said is something neighbourhoods across the city can also start.

"Anyone can do this, as long as you can access some sort of expert for the identifying," Hamilton said. "Certain aspects are not difficult, and some keen naturalists could do it."

The group will complete the Brewer Park and Windsor Park counts, Hamilton said, by mid-October.



Once the inventory is done will there be some thought in terms of planting more diverse and native trees as per Diana Beresford-Kroeger?

forward to nature

This movement isn’t about “going back to nature,” but going forward to nature.

Participants include: traditional conservationists; proponents and producers of alternative energy; physicians (particularly pediatricians) who prescribe time in natural areas and green exercise to patients; ecopsychologists and wilderness therapy professionals; park professionals who help families fulfill their “park prescriptions”; public health professionals and urban designers who work to increase the number of natural amenities near where we live.

Other participants are citizen naturalists salvaging threatened natural habitats and creating new ones; community gardeners and urban farmers; organic farmers and “vanguard ranchers” who restore as they harvest; urban wildscapers replacing suburban yards with native species; nature-aware champions of walkable cities and active living; deep green design professionals, including biophilic architects, developers, urban planners and therapeutic landscapers who transform homes, workplaces, suburbs and city neighborhoods – potentially whole cities and their transportation systems – into restorative regions that reconnect us to nature.

Quote by Richard Louv from Ontario Urban Forest Council

Image from: A Better World By Design

Reconnecting to Wonder

At 40 I chose a new path.  It had been percolating in me for awhile.  I knew I wasn't happy at work but really didn't know what I wanted to do.  For awhile I thought a trip to India would be a good place to soul search but that would be a few years in the making.  While I pondered and saved, I started looking into local opportunities that peaked my interest.

First it was an urban stream monitoring program, where local citizens got in hip waders and took measurements of urban streams.  It was amazing to get outside - it reconnected me to my childhood and the river's comforting rush of water.  Next it was a lecture on urban meadows and the opportunity to create habitat where there never was before and create new opportunities for birds and birders.  Then I went to a tree planting session and heard from someone who recalled planting trees when he was 20 and how rewarding it was to go back 40 years later and see the living legacy that he had helped create.  All of these events and experiences led me to a new career of urban ecology.

Now I'm at school learning about scientific protocols, animal tracking, statistical reliability and restoration projects but it's hard to see its applicability in urban settings sometimes as it's such a new field.  What I'd like to do next year is fly to Europe and visit some of the cities that I have read about in magazines and on the web where they are doing incredible work in this area: creating beautiful urban meadows of flowers in the Prenzlauer Berg District in Berlin, designing urban nature zones and adding ponds to the different arrondissments in Paris, adding wetland habitat in the London Olympic parklands in Lea Valley and preserving the market gardens and greenbelt in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

It would be amazing to have what I learn, leap off the page and become real for me - to really live and breath the amazing opportunities that there are and to be able to learn from what Europe is doing and apply it to cities in Canada!

(Air Canada Entry - contest open until December!)

"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.

urban industrial stream restoration (U.S.)

From Susan J. Tweit's Walking Nature Home Blog

"As I worked my way gradually upstream between trail and creek, I thought about how this block of urban creek and its thread of habitat for people and wilder life has changed. When I first saw this shallow spring creek, it ran ruler-straight between dirt banks thinly hazed by a prickly growth of invasive annual weeds. Chunks of concrete protruded from the dirt here and there, along with oozing spills of asphalt, rusting fence wire and pieces of cast-iron engine blocks, and other remnants of the place's industrial past, the whole festooned with windblown trash.

It was not a thing of beauty. But Richard and I had just purchased the formerly industrial property on the other side of the creek. It came complete with six-foot-high chain-link fence topped with sagging barbed wire, crumbling century-old brick shop building, rusting junk, and knee-high weeds. (Our friends thought we were crazy.) Richard wanted the place for the shop, which he had already restored in his mind's eye for an office and studio; I was drawn to that slender thread of water.

I have always wanted a creek to play with, and I was not daunted by the shabby condition of the one I got. Right away, before we pulled up the posts and removed the fence around the property (we donated both to the town public works department), before we hauled away many construction dumpsters of unidentifiable industrial detritus to clear a space for our house-to-be, before Richard cleared the old shop building down to its beautiful timber-frame and brick bones and fixed it up, before we built our house and planted wildflowers and constructed our kitchen garden in the embrace of one old u-shaped stretch of cement wall left from the property's industrial past, we set to work reclaiming the creek.

First came weeding: Richard and I spent whole hot, sweaty weekend days pulling tumbleweed, cheatgrass, and kochia by the trailer-load. We grubbed out weedy Siberian elm trees and Canada thistle. When the annual weeds sprouted from the carpet of the previous year's seeds, we burned them with a propane torch, hoed them, and sprayed them. And then we planted native shrubs to begin the slow process of reweaving the natural community: red-twig dogwood, golden-currant, skunkbrush sumac, chokecherry, Indian plum, rabbitbrush, and my favorite, big sagebrush with its silvery-green leaves and pungent fragrance.

As we weeded and watered the tiny sprigs of shrubs that were all we could afford, other natives returned. Two clumps of streambank willow sprang up just above the creek, their wand-like stems reaching five and six feet tall and casting lacy shade over the bare bank. Soon more clumps of willow appeared, sprouting from the underground roots of those pioneers. Indian ricegrass, with its cloud of seedheads, appeared on the dry upper bank, along with purple aster and scarlet globemallow.

Over the decade-plus since, we have urged the native plants along in recolonizing this block of formerly blighted creek, spreading seeds here, pulling weeds there, planting a few more shrubs, plus a rescued clump of wild Rocky Mountain irises, and a couple of cottonwood trees. We have watched the butterflies return on fluttering wings to feed from the wildflowers and lay their eggs on their favorite plants, the bees buzz in to gather pollen, and the hummingbirds hover, sipping nectar. We have heard Northern dippers practice their warbling songs in the concrete culvert where the creek goes under the street, and seen tiny trout flash in the water under the shade of the willows."

Found this through a link from The Tangled Nest Blog. She also has a great post on the other restoration work her and her husband did on the industrial land and their house: Lighten Up - Living On Less



Read about riparian buffers and the three levels of stream restoration (2011 blog post).