Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
What We Want and What We Don’t: Forging an Urban Nature that Works for Everyone
Living with so much nature right in the heart of your city can be a challenging business. How we manage the process of taming, “making benign,†and what we choose to harness, and what we choose to discard in the ongoing process of city building is something that changes through time and across space. The experience of nature in our cities and how what we see and brush up against is different for all of us, different to people at different times, and different to people at the same time, and it begs the question ‘how do we forge a nature that works for everyone?’
Getting to Know Our National Parks
With close to 400 park areas spanning 84 million acres of land in the U.S., our national parks offer some of the most awesome sights on the planet and commemorate important people and events in our history. The National Park System added its latest national monument at the home and gravesite of farmworkers’ leader Cesar Chavez in Keene, Calif. Here are a few cool things that make our national parks worth bragging about — and protecting and preserving for future generations to marvel over.
New Survey Asks How Can Cities Become Ecological?
Now that we have become an urban species, we are compelled to harness urban ecosystems to improve sustainability and human health and strengthen our relationship to the natural world. But are ecological functions really being prioritized? A short, 3-minute YouTube video gives a brief introduction to urban ecology and presents a case for collaborative, ecological urban design, which could create a more optimistic future for our cities and planet.
When Trees Die Off, Human Health May Also Suffer
Whether it’s lush palms or piney groves, the health of trees in your neighborhood might influence your physical health, a new study suggests. Research from the U.S. Forest Service found that the loss of 100 million trees on the East Coast and in the Midwest was associated with an increase in deaths from heart and lower respiratory disease. Although the study adds to existing evidence that exposure to the natural environment can improve health, the researchers pointed out that their findings do not prove a causal link, so the reason for the association between trees and human health remains unclear.
