US Cities Engages In Biodiversity Initiatives
Towns and cities in the US are gradually shifting from forest projects to ecological programmes, with sounding biodiversity inventiveness that focuses on what the most wildlife-friendly trees species are.
Of recent, environmental staffs have been reviewing a tree-planting proposal tabled by a local citizens group in Baltimore Country, Maryland. It advocated for the planting of five trees each of different species in an elementary school in a densely-populated neighbourhood. Speaking to the Guardian Environment Network, Richard Conniff says ‘it seemed like a worthy plan, both for the volunteer effort and the intended environmental and beautification benefits.’
This issue has been the centre stage lately in metropolitan areas around the world, as more and more people come to terms with both the dramatic increase in urbanised zones and the corresponding loss of wildlife.
Statistics from Yale Environment 360 reveals that these urbanised zones are on a triple increase from 2000-2030. This report has made it disturbingly evident that it’s not enough for cities to plant a million trees, preach the gospel of backyard gardens, or build green roofs and smart streets.
The trees, shrubs, and flowers in the ostensibly green infrastructure also need to benefit birds, butterflies, and other animals. They need to provide habitat for breeding, shelter, and food. Where possible, the habitat needs to be arranged in corridors where wildlife can safely travel.
Although it may appear too soon to call this engagement an urban biodiversity movement, initiatives focusing on urban biodiversity seem to be progressing on. Surprisingly, the US Forest Service, which in time past laughed off this initiative that anything urban could be wild, now promote a growing Urban Forest programme.
Other supporting programmes to this initiative include: Urban Ecology and Urban Wildlife Programmes, now on university campuses; Nature of Cities blog (launched in 2002) and Biophilic Cities Network at university of Virginia aimed at integrating the natural world into urban life, with Singapore, Oslo, and Phoenix among the founding partners.
And in Baltimore County, officials now stipulate that canopy trees, rather than specimen, or ornamental, trees, must make up 80 per cent of any planting on county land, and half of them need to be oaks.
In an area where local nurseries hardly ever stocked oaks before, people sometimes balk, until the county’s natural resource manager, Don Outen, explains the logic of it: Research has shown that oaks benefit everything from caterpillars to songbirds. Even fish prosper, because the aquatic invertebrates they feed on favour oak leaves on stream bottoms. At that point, says Outen, the reaction tends to shift to, "Why haven’t we been doing this before?"
