I was delighted to see this article appear yesterday on phys.org. WIth all the discussion about biodiversity and Cop-15 at the moment this is just what we need to be reading.

Extinctions, shrinking habitat spur ‘rewilding’ in cities

Animal and plant species are dying off at an alarming rate, with up to 1 million threatened with extinction, according to a 2019 United Nations report. Their plight is stirring calls for “rewilding” places where they thrived until driven out by development, pollution and climate change.

Rewilding generally means reviving natural systems in degraded locations—sometimes with a helping hand. That might mean removing dams, building tunnels to reconnect migration pathways severed by roads, or reintroducing predators such as wolves to help balance ecosystems. But after initial assists, there’s little human involvement.

The idea might seem best suited to remote areas where nature is freer to heal without interference. But rewilding also happens in some of the world’s biggest urban centers, as people find mutually beneficial ways to coexist with nature.

Or living with beavers on main street in Martinez for a decade and seeing all the wildlife that came to their pond. Yes we were doing it long before it was cool and in Yale news.

“Climate change is coming, and we are facing an equally important biodiversity crisis,” said Nathalie Pettorelli, senior scientist with the Zoological Society of London. “There’s no better place to engage people on these matters than in cities.”

Urban rewilding can’t return landscapes to pre-settlement times and doesn’t try, said Marie Law Adams, a Northeastern University associate professor of architecture.

Instead, the aim is to encourage natural processes that serve people and wildlife by increasing tree cover to ease summer heat, storing carbon and hosting more animals. Or installing surface channels called bio-swales that filter rainwater runoff from parking lots instead of letting it contaminate creeks.

“We need to learn from the mistakes of the mid-20th century—paving over everything, engineering everything with gray infrastructure” such as dams and pipes, Adams said.

Take a count of the wildlife in our creek today versus the wildlife in our creek 15 years ago. I bet you’d be surprised that we aren’t seeing nearly as many otters, kingfishers, muskrats or hooded mergansers, The beavers WERE biodiversity makers.

“It used to be that you had to go to some remote location to get exposure to nature,” said Harris, a Philadelphia native who was excited as a child to glimpse an occasional squirrel or deer. “Now that’s not the case. Like it or not, rewilding will occur. The question is, how can we prepare communities and environments and societies to anticipate the presence of more and more wildlife?”

Rewilding can be a tough sell for urbanites who prefer well-manicured lawns and think ecologically rich systems look weedy and unkempt or should be used for housing.

But advocates say it isn’t just about animals and plants. Studies show time in natural spaces improves people’s physical and mental health.

“A lot of city people have lost their tolerance to live with wildlife,” said Pettorelli of Zoological Society of London. “There’s a lot of reteaching ourselves to be done. To really make a difference in tackling the biodiversity crisis, you’re going to have to have people on board.”

Ohhh we had them on board alright. Martinez could teach Yale a thing or two I’ll wager.

Speaking of urban wildlife, Rocklin just voted not to have any last night. Citizens showed up, did their homework, talked about floodplains and setbacks and housing. It didn’t matter. The council listened very politely and said firmly, “We’ve made up our minds. We like money better than wildlife or all of you.” And so paradise will actually become a parking lot.