Nature in the City

I was one of a few dozen attendees at an Earth Day webinar on the critical need to rethink how we develop our cities.

Poster for the Earth Day webinar

The webinar was presented by the Community Trees Matter Network, CreativelyUnited.org, and Programs in Earth Literacies. 

"Nature first" was the theme. "Protect nature, and fit people in", was how one speaker put it. The speakers were unanimous in their conviction that the way we are developing cities is flawed. Instead of removing all vegetation and topsoil, and diverting and culverting wetlands and creeks, we need a radically different approach. 

As the poster said, it's a matter of our survival. Here are three key points I took away.

Water. Respect watersheds, maintain water flows and reduce hard surfaces.

Habitat. Protect native ecosystems and the complexity of nature -- trees, meadows, and grasslands. 

Soil. Protect native soil, and avoid compactifying it. We cannot restore nature with soil which has been compacted and destroyed.

Many of my blog posts over the years have highlighted the positive things I've seen when I encounter development that fits these criteria -- rain gardens, permeable paving, rooftop gardens, areas of native habitat, and gardens which provide a complexity of trees and shrubs.

However, what I've seen and posted about is small in scale compared to the huge challenge before us, and the need for large-scale change. And -- we are still doing development more or less the way we always have! It's not enough.

Geographer Maleea Acker talked about the loss of Garry Oak habitat across Greater Victoria. I felt sad when I saw the map she showed.

The green is the estimated amount of Garry Oak ecosystems in 1800; the red was what was left by 1997. Source: Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (Goert.ca), with ecosystem mapping by Ted Lea, created by the BC Ministry of Environment. 

As I listened to the speakers, I was reminded of work I did over fifteen years ago, as part of a team working to improve how the BC government communicated its best practices for development. The set of guidelines had a long mouthful of a title, and I suggested the name "Develop with Care" to better convey what the essential message was.

Here's the 2014 version of the document, which I worked on in 2006. 

The subtitle (the "mouthful") says it all; these are guidelines only. There were no teeth to the document. 

I've learned since then, that telling a developer to "develop with care" is not enough. Regulation, incentives, and education -- many more approaches are needed to help protect nature in our cities.

Perhaps most importantly, we -- the people, all of us -- need a different mindset about our connection to nature. We separate it from our homes, and relegate it to parks and "natural" areas. And around our homes, we're not satisfied to let nature be. Instead, we "tidy" it. We rake leaves in the fall, remove deadfall, prune branches, remove shrubs, and fell trees. We replace nature with grassy lawns which are mostly dead ecosystems, or pave it over so it's "easier" to care for our property.

Indigenous speaker Paul Chiyokten Wagner, founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea, talked of the need for education of the next generation about how humans are part of the land, and part of the water, and not separate from nature. He said, if we do this, we can turn things around, within a generation.

Speaker Maleea Acker gave an inspiring vision of what is possible within a decade. A geographer who lectures at both the University of Victoria and Thompson Rivers University in the interior, she is also a multi-published poet.

Maleea gave the same message that I gave for many years, when I was involved in the Living by Water Project: "Leave it alone - except for invasive plants". (For more info about Living by Water see http://livingbywater.blogspot.com/.)

This is the inside image of a Living by Water brochure which was widely distributed. The image shows the importance of leaving nature alone, and the many benefits which result. 

This Living by Water poster focussed on restoration of an already altered property.

These materials were prepared over two decades ago! Living by Water was widely known, both in cities and in rural areas. As well as brochures and posters, we carried out educational workshops, talked with local governments and community groups, and wrote a book for shoreline residents. 

The need for education about nature is as great as ever though, despite projects like Living by Water.

Now, back to the webinar.

The following two photos provide a glimpse of what Maleea has done with her yard, in just a short time period. These were screenshots during her presentation, and are used with her permission.

The first photo shows Year 3 after planting a hedge row of various native species, including Nootka rose, Snowberry, Pacific Ninebark and Salmonberry.

The hedge, year three. The inset is how the hedge looked in the first year. Based on screenshots taken during talk by Maleea Acker, April 22, 2023. Used with permission.

As well as the hedgerow, Maleea began to convert the lawn. She started with a few small sections of native bulbs -- Fawn lilies, and Camas, and planted a Garry Oak tree.

An image of the front yard showing the results of planting, with camas in bloom. Screenshot during talk by Maleea Acker, April 22, 2023. Used with permission.

Maleea rescues plants from development sites; she ran out of room in her yard, and is now restoring her boulevard.  

Maleea concluded her inspiring talk with the statement that 50% of our yard should be allocated for nature. Her 50% is her front yard; her back yard is devoted to food cultivation.

There were three other speakers after Maleea. 

Herb Hammond, forest ecologist and retired Registered Professional Forester, talked about the central place of water in urban development and introduced the concept "nature-directed stewardship". He covered many of the ideas that I described in my blog posts "In Praise of Rain Gardens" (https://linesfromthecoast.blogspot.com/2023/02/in-praise-of-rain-gardens.html),  "Rain, Rain, Rain" (https://linesfromthecoast.blogspot.com/2021/01/rain-rain-rain.html), "Rain, Rivers and Watersheds" (https://linesfromthecoast.blogspot.com/2020/11/rain-rivers-and-watersheds.html)

Danijela Puric-Mladenovic is a forester in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. She spoke of some of the problems with our models of development on the larger scale -- the perception that nature is a disposable commodity, that we destroy soil and ecosystems, then try to add a bit of nature after the fact. 

Kazusa Nakajo is a multi-displinary accredited green builder, architect, eco-designer. She spoke of the importance of healthy soil in restoring nature in urban areas.

I don't have space in this post to give adequate time to the ideas of these professionals. Instead, I will finish with a couple of local examples of native plant gardening in or near James Bay. 

The first example is at the Royal BC Museum, which has created a large and intimate garden, all with native plants from different areas of BC.

This image captures the thickness of the native vegetation here.

Shrubs and trees, rocks and ground cover

Some of the ground cover in the native plant garden

There is always bird song here; the presence of the pond is an attractor.

The final image shows the signage that RBCM has installed about the garden:

Signage at RBCM Native Plant Garden

The second example is in an open area associated with South Park Elementary. It serves as both a playground for the children, and as a living science area.

Educating young people was mentioned during the webinar. This is the play area for children from South Park Elementary. In the foreground is a young Garry Oak, with a mature Garry Oak on the background. 

This area of the playground has been planted with native plants by children from the school. 

Plants are just beginning their growth for the spring; this is a variety of rose.

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I'm not positive on this plant, but it was identified by one of my apps as from the Valerian family, with the common name of Seablush.

In this post I've only scratched the surface of how we can pay better attention to protecting and restoring nature in urban areas. Much more needs to be said... and even more to be done. It is, indeed, a matter of survival!