In recent years, landscape architecture has expanded beyond traditional projects to include land art projects, community-driven designs, and creative temporary uses for urban space. The range of these projects is vast and driven by human creativity, from Richard Serra’s project ‘Viewpoint’ in Germany, to Rebar Art and Design Studio’s ‘bicycle parklet’ located on Filbert and… More
Green Streets have become a more common feature of the urban landscape in cities and towns across the United States and abroad. And for good reason: they provide substantial value in community aesthetics, redevelopment, livability and environmental compliance. You may know from personal experience or previous blog posts that water resources and ecological engineers use… More
Using green streets for stormwater management has become popular in many cities because they allow engineers, planners, and municipal officials to integrate water quality and regulatory compliance with pedestrian access, safety, traffic calming, multimodal transportation, enhanced community livability, urban greening, aesthetic improvements, and better air quality. The multifaceted benefits of Greet Streets are undeniable, but… More
Healthy trees can grow anywhere, including cities, provided they receive enough water, soil, and sunlight. Research shows that vigorous urban trees keep people healthier, cool cities in summer, warm homes in winter, help kids learn better, decrease car accident rates, raise real estate values, and decrease crime dramatically. Even with these myriad benefits, recent heat… More
Thanks to widespread efforts to raise awareness of the large declines in bee and Monarch butterfly populations, most people are aware of the need to protect pollinators. Monarch butterfly populations have declined 90% in the last 20 years. Bees and other pollinators are in trouble too. Primary causes of the drastic declines in pollinator populations… More
Having started with the simplest ways to quantify stormwater benefits of Tree Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs), we now arrive at the most complex ways. Part 1 of this series provided an overview of various ways to quantify stormwater benefits of Tree Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs), and gave an overview of tree benefits calculators and stormwater… More
In part one of this post, I gave my recommendations for how to address tree maintenance needs in a smarter and more financially (and ecologically) sustainable way. Those recommendations are great, but also general. I think we benefit the most when we share as much specific information about implementing ideas as possible, so today I… More
If you’re a municipal arborist, you probably got into the field of tree care because you love working with trees and you could make a modest living. You know that that in cities maintenance is the only way that trees get large – and that size matters when we talk about the kind of ecosystem… More
We are all searching for signs in our lives. Which way do I go on this highway? Where should I live? Where should I work? We take internet quizzes to tell us what career we should have and what kind of dog we would be and in what country we were meant to live. We look… More
Urbanization is occurring rapidly – not just in the United States, but globally – and squeezing people, transit, and housing into denser and denser areas. This shift isn’t just about buildings and roads, of course, it also affects the way we plan, integrate, and care for urban nature. Given that trees and plants are more… More
Everyone, regardless of where they grew up, has a “primal landscape.” This term was coined by Don Gayton, a writer from British Columbia, Canada, and it refers to the landscape a person most identifies with. At some point in every person’s life they bond with a landscape, whether it’s the forest where they grew up, or… More
Landscape architects, architects, and engineers have many tools available to them in the design of healthy long-lived trees, and no single one of them can guarantee the establishment or long-term success of the trees. These tools need to be applied within a larger understanding of general principles of arboriculture, soil, and urban conditions in order… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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