Local Ecologist

I now cannot recall where on the web I first saw Poster Child's FlyerPlanterboxes but I sent an email asking for permission to publish the photos on this blog and got this response: Of course! Please just credit the source! Thanks for asking, So, without further ado, here are photographs of a FlyerPlanterbox. (All images courtesy of Poster Child .) Click here to leave & read comments for this post.

I received this posting from a friend who worked in this position for five years. The Metro Parks Department of the city of Louisville, KY is looking for a Forestry Manager to manage their tree maintenance program. This position is responsible for all things tree related within the 14,000 acre parks system. This system includes a core of historic parks and parkways that were designed by the Olmsted firm, large natural woodland areas, and many different kinds of recreational facilities. It is a highly visible position that works with homeowners, government agencies, and local non-profits on tree preservation, neighborhood beautification, and public safety. You are also responsible for the day to day management of a team of 14 outstanding arborists and also provide consulting services on tree and natural resource management issues. You will also work with closely with the landscape maintenance and landscape architects to install and maintain new installations and reforestation projects.

by Yellow Owl Workshop Stamps (seen via Blomma Finds via Heavy Petal ) Today's entry represents a bit of a thematic departure for us. We've never written about crafts, but could not resist featuring this cityscape stamp set. With the addition of a person and maybe a bird or other wildlife, the scape could be our logo.

We received a hand-me down gift from someone leaving New York for California (we moved from California to New York this summer). The gift: Martha Fay's City Walks: New York, a boxed set of cards of "50 adventures on foot." My first adventure on foot was card #16 - Greenwich Village 2: A Stroll around Washington Square. I did not complete the entire walk. I focused on Washington Mews, a private, cobbled street north of Washington Square Park. Mews is defined as a "street lined with buildings that were originally private stables but have been remodeled as dwellings." The street is very appealing: mostly two-story brick and stone buildings adorned with window boxes and variously colored doors. Fay notes that the former carriage houses serviced the townhouses facing Washington Square. The original stables are on the north side of the street (left side of the mews in the first photograph) while the south-side buildings were constructed in the 1930s (source: Fo

Courtesy of Wikipedia : new span on the left While we've been wondering why the new span of the Bay Bridge (between Oakland and San Francisco) was not designed for multiple modes of transportation (vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and subway lines) like several bridges in our new city of New York, Ronald Rael, principal at Rael San Fratello Architects and professor in Architecture at UC Berkeley, has been designing a park for the old span of the Bay Bridge. via SF Streetsblog If you notice a resemblance to the High Line , it's not coincidental. Rael used to live in New York City. You can read Rael's proposal - submitted to a UCLA competition - via SF Streetsblog. For more about the Bay Bridge project, including the recent closure, visit the Bay Bridge Seismic Safety Projects website .

Katy Amon is an ASLA 2009 Student Awardee in the Research Category. Her submission's title is "Road Rights of Way: Connective Conduits." Here's the project statement provided on the ASLA Awards website : Using birds as a biodiversity indicator, this project develops a methodology for integrating viable ecosystems and habitats into marginalized urban spaces to augment quality and connectivity across scales. Road rights of way in Surrey, Canada are used as case studies to explore the integration of avian habitat, ecological function, and human programming as connective conduits. This project demonstrates the role of landscape architects in finer grained design within landscape ecology structural patterns. We are excited that Amon's case studies are based on urban road-side sites. Street trees are planted adjacent to roads. Amon's research not only highlights the role road-side vegetation plays in satisfying avian needs, but her clever methodology can be ap

This Friday, September 18, Mission Greenbelt Project ,in partnership with Bay Natives, will plant another garden in the Mission. The garden is called Working Bee Park but it will be a temporary installation, for now. September 18 is PARK(ing) Day : an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. Working Bee Park will "showcase native, wildlife attracting plants [and] amuse passing bicyclists" and Mission Greenbelt organizers will "put the finishing touches on [their] Community Challenge Grant (CCG) application." If you are in the area, the project's needs are: Park set-up at 7 a.m. Work tables for sketching, couches, blankets & chairs for sitting, food snacks & drink for sharing. New sites for Mission Greenbelt gardens in parks, sidewalks, planters, vacant lots & rooftops. Ask questions, take a Sidewalk Landscaping Pe

drawings by Kenyan school children Can art inspire conservation? Can conservation inspire art? BAM/PFA (Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives) in partnership with MCASD (Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) and Rare invited eights artists "to travel to eight UNESCO-designated World Heritage sites and to create new works of art in response to their travels and experiences there." The result is the Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet exhibit. Xu Bing is one of the artists invited by BAM Galleries (the exhibit closes on September 27, 2009). I photographed several tree portraits from Bing's Mu, Lin, Sen (wood, woods, forest) Project or Forest Project exhibit. What is the Forest Project? Through art, culture, education, the involvement of local folks, and the internet, Xu Bing’s Forest Project creates a system to facilitate the automatic and uninterrupted flow of funds from developed countries to Kenya, earmarked for the planting of new trees....The e

President Obama was in the Village on Tuesday afternoon, eating lunch with Bill Clinton, at Il Mulino , an Italian restaurant on West 3rd Street west of Thompson Street. Crowds gathered at West 3rd and LaGuardia Place as well as Bleecker and Thompson where the President and his motorcade exited the area. About a week ago, further west on Bleecker, I saw a long line of people waiting to get into Magnolia Bakery, where Carrie and Miranda ate cupcakes in Sex and the City. The line wrapped around the block. I've eaten cupcakes from Magnolia but really like the cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop and the lemon cake from Amy's Bread .

What's looks like an upside down canoe a boa constrictor that has swallowed an animal and protects and secures bicycles? A BikeLid bicycle parking system! Several weeks ago I spied four in a Chelsea courtyard. The uncovered bikes seem exposed and vulnerable. Each BikeLid can store two bicycles. How does the BikeLid work? Here are the instructions . My new place does not offer bike storage and though there have been rumors about storage facilities, nothing has been installed. Maybe I should forward the BikeLid testimonials to the management to get the wheels turning again (pun intended). Also, I could mention that BikeLid "is a Community partner with Clean Air New York."

The original posting of "Tree Walk: Schenley Farms, Pittsburgh" received buzz on the POP City website ("A walk through Schenley Farms: Trees thrive midst of Oakland"). We are pleased to post the entry again. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The residential section of the Schenley Farms National Historic District was designed by Franklin F. Nicola and developed between 1905 and 1920 from land purchased from Mary Schenley's estate. (One of Pittsburgh's four regional parks, Schenley Park , was also created out of Mary Elizabeth Croghan Schenley's estate.) The district is a combination of City Beautiful civic design and model planned suburban development of the early 1900s. The residential area includes "96 detached, single-family homes for upper-class residents" (Borchert and Borchert 2002) with underground utilities and several types of architecture - traditional English, French, Colonial-style homes, and Craftsman. (The architec

Update, Sept. 11, 2009: I received a kind email from Arthur Plotnick. Art has given his permission to post his email here: As the author of THE URBAN TREE BOOK, I was cheered to see that the book is one of your favorites--- and worth quoting from on your fine site (re European Beech). Though the book (now only available at online bookstores) has sold some 8,000 copies, the illustrator (my wife) and I feel that still more readers would enjoy it, and such mentions as yours are a great help. Here's to the cause, and all best wishes to you. Yours, Art Plotnik You can find Art online at artplotnik.com . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Two lone weeping European beeches ( Fagus sylvatica pendula ) occupy a grassy area near NYU's Coles gym.* It's rare to see a weeping beech outside a park setting in the city. The author of my favorite urban tree guides, Arthur Plotnik of The Urban Tree Book, writes of the European beech: the European beech is a large, slow-growing

Update, Sept. 10, 2009: A few days after posting the original entry, I saw a see of blue where the old GCEL greenhouses used to be. New GCEL greenhouses have been installed and I think the greenhouse "windows" are plexi-glass. Cannot wait to see what's planted. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * You might be asking, what is a Grow, Cook, Eat, Learn (GCEL) greenhouse? Well, Grow, Cook, Eat, Learn is a "self-contained sustainable food system and urban agricultural working laboratory" and elementary-school food education project sponsored by the NYU Graduate Program in Food Studies and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The project received seed funding from a NYU Sustainability Fund Grant for the year 2007-2008. A GCEL greenhouse is a wooden cold frame box. Nine boxes were located in a grassy area of Washington Square Village. On a recent trip to the Union Square Greenmarket, I walked by the site and noticed that only

We did not attend this tour of privately-owned public open spaces in San Francisco developed by SPUR. A relative did, with a design class from Merritt Horticulture Department. Of the tour, she said, "It makes a great afternoon walk downtown- some are great- some not- but interesting all the same." Privately-owned public open space is also known as POPOS. Most POPOS were created as a result of "incentive zoning," i.e. developers could build more floor space if they provided outdoor and indoor open space accessible to the public. Learn more about POPOS in Jerold Kayden's "Privately owned public space: the New York City experience." The City of New York's POPOS maps are available through its Department of City Planning. Question: Do you know where the POPOS are in your city?

Last year friends visited several cities in China. Among the photographs they took, these two are priceless. One elicited a "Right On" and the other, fear of being a pedestrian. What's your take?