Nature in the City Again

Here at beaver central I’ve been getting ready now for my upcoming presentation at Safari West on Mother’s Day. It’s usually a crowded, family bustle with coughing and crying and plenty of aaawww so I’m trying to make my talk less educational and more inclusive this year. My theme is that you don’t have to go to Africa to see Nature. It’s right in your own backyard, schoolyard, or city. In fact the nature all around you might be the nature that needs your help the most!

Here’s a fun clip I’ll be starting with before I talk about how Martinez helped the beavers.

I think the blossoming interest in urban wildlife is part of a much larger trend, daylighting creeks, replanting natives, and helping green cities. It makes good sense since it’s where we’re all going to spend most of our time. Just look at this great article from Vancouver.

5 ways Vancouver is bringing more wildlife back to the city

The Vancouver Park Board biodiversity strategy is starting to take root, one year after the wide-ranging plan was approved to bring wildlife back to the city.

“There’s a social aspect to nature in the city — people want to be able to experience it as part of their daily lives,” said Nick Page, a biologist with the park board.

1. Salt marsh restoration in New Brighton Park

Vancouver has drastically altered its shoreline to make more space for industry and housing. But in New Brighton Park on Burrard Inlet, Port Metro Vancouver and the park board are working to remove fill that was placed there in the 1960s and restore a tidal salt marsh. The aim is to restore a habitat that once supported clam beds, juvenile salmon and shore birds.

4. Create wildlife corridors

To thrive, wildlife needs to be able to move around the city, Page said. So finding ways to make corridors through the city — like the still-under-design Arbutus Greenway — is also an important part of the strategy.

5. Return of the wild

One way to measure the success of biodiversity efforts is when animals come back to areas they left decades ago. Beavers are a common sight in Stanley Park — but recently they returned to Charleson Park in south False Creek. Page would like to see the return of smaller predators such as the American marten because that would signal the ecosystem is healthy enough to support the full food chain. He acknowledges humans and animals can come into conflict in the city. But “I think we can co-exist. Our alternatives are much more difficult and probably unsuccessful in terms of trying to manage or remove [animals].”

Vancouver is doing an excellent job thanks in part to this man who can definitely see the forest for the trees. Nick Park is exactly the kind of biologist we all want working in our cities, and we’re thrilled that he is a positive force for beavers in the region.

We should be working with biologists like Mr. Park to teach us to value what is right in front of us. Whether it’s baby ducks OR beavers. Say it with me now:
“Because, in the end we will conserve only what we love;
we will love only what we understand;
and we will understand only what we are taught.”
(Baba Dioum, 1968.)