News
- An Urban Artist: Mayor Richard M. Daley, 2010 Laureate, ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development:: An article from the Urban Land Institute that profiles Chicago’s Mayor Daley and his approach to planning and development and his belief that cities can coexist with nature.
- How to help toads survive crossing roads:: A very interesting look at a group called Froglife that has teams of volunteers who spend time moving toads across roads in the U.K. This year alone they’ve moved 65,000 toads and decreased a 90 percent average kill rate down to 10 percent.
- More Than 100 Lawns Torn Out – Cause For Celebration:: From Gazettes.com is an article featuring a community in Long Beach where 100 yards have replaced their lawn with native plants thanks to city incentives.
- Volunteers watch over Vaux’s swifts migratory birds due to fears of becoming an endangered species:: From Oregon Live, an article that discusses the latest Vaux’s Swift migration through Portland, Oregon and the concern over their possible decrease in numbers. See Urban Species Profile:: Swifts for more information about the Vaux’s Swifts and their west coast migration.
- ‘Green wall’ technology could double the plant diversity of the River Thames through London:: A very interesting article from Science Daily that talks about research which found the river contains many species of plants and with suitable places to grow they could double the plant diversity along the river.
- He speaks for the birds:: An interesting profile from Sustainable Life featuring Portland Audubon’s Bob Sallinger who has made great strides in protecting birds in the city of Portland.
- Surprising Ant “Mixing Bowl” Found in Manhattan:: From National Geographic is a fascinating article about 13 different species of ants living in major thoroughfares in Manhattan.
Resources
- The Metropolitan Field Guide now has three new resource pages: Rain Gardens & Wildlife Ponds, Habitat Elements, and Golf Course Habitat which you can find under the ‘Resources’ tab.
- Bats and Lighting in the UK:: From Bat Conservation Trust in the U.K. is a good resource for information on artificial lighting and bats.
- Encouraging Bats:: Also from Bat Conservation Trust is another good resource with documents on gardening for bats as well as making bat houses.
Urban Wildlife, Planning and Design
- The Concrete Jungle:: This is a really excellent write-up from New York Magazine that highlights the natural history of New York City and the wildlife still found there. It’s a highly recommended read.
- When Neighborhoods Work With Nature:: Featured in The Tyee, this is a really good excerpt from a new book by Patrick Condon called Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post Carbon World
. It’s an interesting look at some new community planning ideas.
- Green Roof Shelters:: A new group that is creating shelters out of old shipping containers with green roofs for wildlife on the top and habitat on the outside walls for nesting birds and roosting bats. A very interesting project and it’ll be fun to see where it goes. Also see Green Roof Shelters – A New Endeavor from the Roofs & Rambles Blog and Dusty Gedge, Duncan Kramer, Dan Monck and John Little’s innovation: green roofs from the Guardian.
- The Smithsonian has released a good video about butterfly gardens and discusses what to do now to get your garden ready for next year.
