News Experimental Landscapes: Alexander Felson on Ecology and Design:: A very interesting interview with ”Alexander Felson, an assistant professor at Yale in both the School of Foresty & Environmental Studies and the School of Architecture, is a different kind of urban ecologist. In his research and his design work, he calls for an ecological practice that moves from [...]
News Bringing natural life into buildings:: Eco-architect Dr Ken Yeang’s attempts to introduce more nature into architecture are highlighted in this article. “Many buildings have been ‘de-natured’. Human beings have simplified and fragmented nature.” Loft ambitions: why green roofs are the future of urban gardening:: This article from The Ecologist discusses the many benefits of green [...]
Today’s Friday Film features an inside look at the New Wild Garden from the 2011 Chelsea RHS Flower Show designed by Nigel Dunnett filmed by Dusty Gedge. The garden features a great many elements for wildlife including a stone wall for habitat with built-in insect shelters as well as an insect wall for solitary bees and [...]
Today’s Friday Film features a green roof in Islington, London designed by Bere Architects, Kim Wilkie and Dusty Gedge. It’s been a great success in attracting wildlife including goldfinches, house sparrows, butterflies and a variety of bees. The video features photos of a variety of plants from the roof and many of the insects which make [...]
News Vancouver Convention Centre roof a hive of insect and plant activity:: Three years on and the green roof of the Vancouver Convention Center has been greatly successful for wildlife housing ants, spiders, dragonflies, grasshoppers, bees and sparrows and finches. California Academy of Sciences’ roof is thriving:: Another green roof at three years old, the [...]
News Unleashing the Scientist in the Student:: A fantastic citizen science project enlists seventh grade students to help study salamanders in New York City. WA prison inmates raise imperiled butterflies:: This is an interesting story about local inmates trained with raising butterflies in a prison greenhouse to be released. This is a great program to help prevent [...]
News Green Roofs:: An informative article by green roof expert Dusty Gedge discusses the benefits of small-scale green roofs for biodiversity. What kind of meadow is best for wildlife?:: This interesting article from the Guardian’s garden blog discusses the benefits and differences between and urban meadow and traditional meadow. Do Golf Courses Make Good Bat Habitats?:: [...]
Written by four experts in the field of green roofs, the new book Small Green Roofs: Low-Tech Options for Greener Living was promising before it was even released. It doesn’t disappoint. Full of information about small green roofs, their construction and biodiversity and plants, over half is devoted to 40 case studies. The book is full of [...]
News London’s a real hoot after dark, say twitchers:: This article discusses another aspect of London nightlife, the owls. Owl Prowl, taking place in August is run by the the London Wildlife Trust and aims to survey urban owls to raise awareness of the city’s owl population. Troops called in to scare storks with eye [...]
Last February I visited the Woodland Park Zoo to view the green roof on the Zoomazium building. At that point, in 2010, the roof was about four years old already so I didn’t expect dramatic changes when I revisited recently. However, the roof looked completely different. What was simply low-growing grasses and small shrubs had transformed [...]
News A bird sanctuary in the city:: This is a really interesting look at habitat on the Ateneo Loyola Heights campus in Manila in the Philippines with a surprising number of birds found just steps from the buildings on campus. It also acts as one of the few green corridors in the city and as a valuable educational tool [...]
News Requiem for a Moth:: This half-hour radio program from BBC Radio 4 is a delightful blend of science and music, all focused on moths. What’s the buzz – the conservation and ecology of urban pollinators:: “Some ecologists see urbanisation as one of the major causes of insect decline, through its effects on the availability of [...]