Protecting Urban Habitat
Urban natural areas are fundamental components of a city's infrastructure.
Green spaces enrich the lives of city dwellers in many ways, offering places
to watch wildlife, to rest and renew from the stresses of daily life,
vegetative buffers, water conservation, reduced air pollution, and more.
Evidence shows that urban nature reduces anxiety and stress, even helps
lower crime and violence.
Seattle Audubon works to protect and restore urban nature in the rapidly
growing Puget Sound region. Although "urban habitat" is not wilderness,
it serves a variety of important roles, not only for wildlife, but also
for people, society, and the economy.
What is the role of urban habitat - native gardens, greenspaces, forests, streams,
and wetlands - in a region that is trying to stop sprawl? Many metropolitan
regions are now practicing 'smart growth' - directing new development into compact,
transit-friendly developments in urban areas. Such planning is shown to create
more livable communities, prevent suburban sprawl, and protect rural and forest
habitat outside of cities.
Almost 80% of all Americans now live in urban or suburban areas, a trend that is
expected to continue. As cities increase in population, new developments often
displace urban habitat and greenspaces, wetlands, and other natural areas, and the
overall loss of tree cover is astounding. At what cost?
In order to increase densities, some might conclude that wildlife habitat and
natural greenspaces within the urban areas should be sacrificed for the greater
good - preventing sprawl from invading wilderness and rural habitat further out.
This is not the case -
in fact, we cannot hope to create compact, land-conserving urban development
unless we also ensure our cities are places that people want to live. A livable
city needs a vibrant, healthy urban green infrastructure, an interconnected
system of fish-bearing creeks, backyard habitats, community gardens, neighborhood
parks, greenbelts, and wetlands - for wildlife and people to enjoy.
Municipalities should encourage new development into areas that minimize the
loss of existing urban habitat, and promote design that enhances, rather than
detracts from, the public benefit. Urban greenspace, like transportation and
schools, is a vital component of the greater urban infrastructure.
Back to Top
Stress Reduction
An urban lifestyle is replete with the stress of commuting, packed schedules,
high-pressure tasks, crowding, noise, and hot summer temperatures. A little
bit of nature can go a long way to influence our everyday moods, and can improve
our quality of life in the following ways:
- Brief encounters with nature give relief from extended periods of concentration
and the tension of an artificial environment (such as an office), reducing
cognitive fatigue and increasing concentration thereafter.
- Workers with a view of nature from their desks demonstrate fewer incidences of
illness and greater satisfaction with their jobs and lives than did workers
without such a view.
- Viewing nature has been shown to decrease the physiological stress response
of increased blood pressure and heart rate, and to mitigate feelings of fear,
anger, and aggression.
- Less stress translates into a healthier immune system and better ability
to cope with challenging situations.
Interpersonal relationships
Studies show the stresses of urban living contribute to increased human propensity
for aggression and violence. In contrast, the presence of trees and green spaces
foster a "supportive, humane environment," in the words of Dr. Frances Kuo,
co-founder of the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of
Illinois. Kuo's study of Chicago housing projects found that inhabitants of
projects with more trees reported less violence and more calm reasoning in their
relationships with their spouses and children than did inhabitants of projects
without trees. The former also reported better relationships with their neighbors,
possibly as a result of the socialization facilitated by the common outdoor spaces,
and liking where they lived. Their counterparts without trees did not know
their neighbors as well or favor their residence as much.
The presence of green spaces may also reduce school violence. A University of
Michigan study by education scientists showed that neighborhoods with fewer
trees were perceived as more dangerous while neighborhoods with better-tended
landscapes were perceived as less threatening.
Economic Implications
Businesses will go pretty far in their efforts to attract new customers, but
how many of them plant trees? They should, because the area around their
places of business is part of the image they project to would-be customers,
and indicative of the quality of products and services the customer can expect.
Studies show that customers like trees.
A recent national survey conducted in a string of major cities from the Northwest
to the Southeast by Dr. Kathy Wolf of the University of Washington showed this
to be the case. If a business district has a tree-lined sidewalk, it is rated
80% higher in amenity and comfort, 15% higher in interaction with merchants,
and 30% higher in perceived quality of products than its treeless counterpart.
Furthermore, consumers are willing to travel longer and farther to get to a
shopping area with trees. They shop there more often, they stay there longer,
and they pay more for shaded parking. Finally, consumers priced goods about
11% higher in landscaped districts.
Based on such data, businesses should think of trees planted as investments
that will offer consumers an inviting atmosphere, associate them with the
positive mood engendered by well-kept plants, and make for a pleasant and
memorable shopping experience.
In response to some of the objections raised by business owners against
trees, one can easily avoid reduced visibility of storefronts and window
displays, tree-caused structural damage, and security problems by choosing
tree species carefully, placing trees in judiciously chosen spots, and pruning.
In addition to the advantages they offer in consumer appeal, trees could
offer commercial and private landowners alike the benefits of increased
property value. A survey by Weyerhauser showed that 86% of real estate
appraisers judged landscaping to increase the dollar value of commercial
property, while 92% believed it to increase sales appeal. Other studies
have demonstrated that the presence of trees on residential properties
with homes otherwise equivalent in square footage, number of bathrooms,
and location can increase the value of that property by anywhere from 3.5 to 6%.
Back to Top
Protecting Urban Habitat is one of the goals of our Advocacy Agenda for 2003.
We will:
- Work with cities to develop pesticide reduction policies for public land,
using Seattle's policy as a model
- Expand habitat protection efforts in suburban jurisdictions through
advocacy and targeted land use planning
- Inspire homeowners, communities, and businesses to "garden for wildlife"
by writing and publishing a Healthy Habitats Toolkit
Here is a sample of some urban habitat issues we are presently engaged in:
Protecting Renton's Black River Riparian Forest
One of the most spectacular urban wildlife refuges in Puget Sound is the
93-acre Black River Riparian Forest in Renton, Washington. Black River's
deciduous riparian habitat is unusually rich and pristine, and home to an
abundance of fascinating wildlife, including the largest Great Blue Heron
colony in King County. Black River Riparian Forest is one of the last
remaining, protected lowland, deciduous, riparian forests in Puget Sound.
This habitat type was once abundant, but is now extremely rare; the
protection and preservation of this area is crucial. Nearby private
developments threaten the vitality of this ecosystem and the heron colony.
Seattle Audubon and other groups were instrumental in getting this land
into the hands of the public, and have continued to be involved in its
protection ever since.
Promoting Urban Habitat at Seattle's Magnuson Park
Seattle Audubon Society has a long history of involvement at Sand Point /
Magnuson Park, one of the City's greatest treasures. Through the
Neighborhood Bird Project our members have conducted monthly bird surveys
at the Park for seven years, and have observed over 150 species of birds.
Our Nature Day Camp is based at Magnuson. Seattle Audubon helped with
the native restoration of Promontory Point, an effort which has involved
tens of thousands of volunteer hours.
Currently, Seattle Audubon continues to be positively involved with the
Sand Point/Magnuson Park design and planning process, to ensure that
the many new projects in store cause a minimum of adverse effects to
the Park's wildlife habitat and to unstructured recreational
opportunities, such as birdwatching. The final Environmental Impact
Statement for construction of a new sports fields complex at Magnuson
was release in July 2002. You can read our comment letter to the
Parks Board on this FEIS.
We are particularly excited about plans to develop a fully-functional
wetland complex at Magnuson Park. The wetland complex will provide a
unique educational opportunity, serve as an excellent compliment to
existing on-site natural areas such as Promontory Point, provide
much-needed undeveloped shoreline aquatic habitat along Lake Washington,
and improve the overall habitat value of the Park.
Advocating for Fewer Lights Near Critical Habitat
Wildlife biologists have found that artificial lighting adversely
affects birds in a number of ways - it triggers breeding out of season,
changes feeding behavior and increases predation. Light degrades and
fragments habitat, affecting populations of nearby bird species.
Artificial lighting can change the migratory behavior of salmon.
Night lighting disorients migratory birds, which navigate using the moon.
Crows and other predators use the light to prey on otherwise safe birds;
conversely, owls hunt less successfully because the light makes them visible.
The City of Seattle is currently passing a proposal (called the
Joint Athletic Fields Development Program, or JAFDP) that will
increase the number of fields in the City, and stretch the usage
of new and existing fields by lighting as many as possible. For
Seattle, this will mean 58 new turfed, lit fields over the next
several years, and most of the fields can be lit until 11 p.m. every
night of the year. Unfortunately, JAFDP does NOT consider or mitigate
for the impacts to wildlife and habitat from lighting fields.
Seattle Audubon is advocating for nearby habitat to be a criteria
the City considers before choosing lighting a field. We urge
Seattle to maximize use of existing fields first; convert fields
from natural to artificial turf without adding lights. Artificial
turf would greatly increase the number of playing hours available
in the city. Asking sports groups to tightly schedule games and to
play on weekends would also add more hours. Impacts to wildlife
and habitat should be considered, not ignored, in all lighting
decisions.
Seattle must find a balance that addresses the needs of all park
user groups, from soccer players to birdwatchers, to neighbors,
and wildlife. Let's work together to find creative solutions that
give us playfields, open space and wildlife habitat in our city.
For more information on this issue, see our Seattle Times Op-Ed
piece from May 28, 2002:
www.seattletimes.nwsource.com.
Back to Top
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Shade Coffee