when I was a kid growing up in England I
used to pretend to be a badger my sister
and I would walk out our back door head
down the lane climb over an old rusty
gate to end up standing underneath a
grand old hollow tree inside of this
tree
we became badgers we’d crawl in through
the entrance slithering through the soft
sand not caring how many spiderwebs got
on our extra curly hair this is how I
learned to love nature then when I was
14 years old I moved from the British
countryside to Southern California’s
Inland Empire I didn’t so much as feel
culture shock but I did experience
nature shock my new environment totally
disoriented me I was used to living in
my old brick farmhouse where sheep were
literally my only neighbors and I had
views of hillsides like this now I was
living in a stucco home surrounded by a
sea of tract houses and I had views of
hillsides like this I thought that
because they were brown and dry that
they were dead spaces I thought that the
only places where things could grow were
in people’s well-watered front yards I
didn’t realize how wrong I could be but
it wasn’t until I got to college that I
really started to understand the new
environment I was living in for four
years at UC Riverside I studied
entomology the wonderful and sometimes
weird lives of insects this hillside did
not look dead to me anymore
I began to see it as a home for the
hundreds and thousands of insect species
that live there it was their habitat
fast forward to 2008 and I’ve just
landed my dream job at a Natural History
Museum in Los Angeles and I was gonna
get paid to geek out with scientists
about snails and slugs reptiles and
amphibians insects and all manner of
life on Earth I could not believe my
luck
but some of my friends and family were
baffled because it meant I was going to
be moving here Los Angeles someone even
said to me but Lila why would you move
to LA you love nature
from the very beginning I knew they were
wrong and so is hell-bent on proving to
them there’s so much nature here in this
city and I would share with you a few of
the things I found over the last nine
years I found wild purple mushrooms
growing up in Griffith Park the cutest
baby octopus in a tide pool in San Pedro
I know
glowing scorpions of my favorite
campground in the San Gabriel Mountains
but what about down here in the heart of
the city where it’s much more concrete
and a snarl of freeways well I’ve also
found tiny little potter wasp nests
growing on weeds in the Compton Creek
I found all weaver spiders go on a men’s
restroom in Long Beach don’t ask me what
I was doing at that men’s restroom
looking for spiders but it’s part of my
job not to mention the hundreds of
species of insects in the nature garden
at my Museum the gardens that I helped
to design and build which are only six
miles from downtown LA as I’d hoped no
matter where I was in Los Angeles I
could find nature it was simply as easy
as slowing down and looking or what I
call putting my nature eyes on I urge
you all to put your nature eyes on over
the next couple days pay attention as
you walk out your front door look up as
you go to the bank look down as you go
to the grocery store because what you
see might surprise you and I believe
that the nature here in Los Angeles
isn’t just surprising and sometimes a
little weird and what I believe is
beautiful but also it is valuable urban
nature is worthy of our study it is
worthy of our love and it’s worthy of
our care this is dr. Brian Brown he’s
one of the scientists at my Museum
and he also happens to be one of the
world’s leading fly researchers
yeah Brian studies flies for living
which means that sometimes he sits at
his microscope and looks at fly genitals
for hours on end because seriously this
is how some fly species are identified
by looking at their genitals under
microscopes one thing that most people
don’t know about brian is he’s a bit of
a betting man and one night at a dinner
with a museum donor Brian boasted I can
just as easily find a new fly here in LA
as I could in Costa Rica or Brazil the
donor reached across the table shook his
hand and said you’re on a few days later
Brian went to the Brentwood backyard and
set up an insect trap he left it up for
a week and then went back to get the
collecting jar now full of insects he
took it back to his lab in the museum
and sat down next to his microscope and
started to sort through those insects
first he pulled out all the Flies and
put everything else to the side and then
he took out just the humpback flies this
is the group of flies that Brian’s a
world expert on also known as four heads
one fly stood out in particular and so
he took it out put it under his
microscope and took it through his
scientific key to see if it would match
with anything it didn’t it was a
brand-new species to science no
scientists had ever seen this fly before
it’s that big one with the head popped
off
there were two other flies in this
sample that were very interesting
neither of them had been found here in
North America before one had only been
known to exist in Europe and the only
had known the other one only known to
exist in Africa so let’s recap in just
one week’s worth of sampling looking at
just one brentwood backyard and only
looking at the phorid flies humpback
flies Brian made three big scientific
discoveries based on this success Brian
decided he what would happen if I could
expand this survey and take it all
across the whole city what if I could
put traps in everyone’s backyard okay
not literally everyone’s but that’s
exactly what’s happened over the last
five years we partnered with 61 families
and one middle school and these families
have cared and hosted the traps in their
backyards this is what we call citizen
science it’s the general public working
with researchers to answer real-world
questions and Brian’s real-world
question how many species of flies could
he find that we’re knew 43 and Counting
so 43 new species of fly living here in
Los Angeles this all goes to show that
when we look in our cities there are
discoveries to be made and there are new
species to be found how many new species
might be living in your backyard or what
about your school yard this is Leo
politi elementary school it’s it’s just
two miles from downtown LA as the crow
flies it’s in one of the densest parts
of the city and there’s about 25,000
people per square mile
that means there’s not that much room
for nature to grow or for kids to play
knowing this principal Brad Rumble
wanted to build a garden he wanted a
space for the 817 students at his school
to get up close and personal with nature
so in 2009 he took this empty part of
the campus and he built a garden working
with the students I heard about the
transformation
and wanted to pay a visit so I went and
the garden was beautiful it was buzzing
with life birds flying overhead
hummingbirds moths ladybugs all manner
of life but even more than even more
beautiful in the nature it was the
students and how they were acting that
was beautiful to me one little boy came
up to me and told me about the black
Phoebe he’d seen sitting on the fence
earlier that day a little girl came up
and told me about the seven spotted
ladybug she’d seen eating aphids the day
before
someone must have keyed her in and told
her how much I loved a fence and it
wasn’t just me noticing the effects on
the students it was Brad noticing the
effects to student disciplinary actions
had gone down to almost zero since the
garden went in and science test scores
had skyrocketed to put it in Brad’s
words they had gone from the basement to
the penthouse in science to put it in
facts and figures before the garden was
put in nine percent of the students
tested proficient on the science test
after the garden was put in fifty-four
percent
this transformation was so stunning that
I wanted to share the story as far and
wide as I could and so a few months
later I went back to the school to try
and do just that I was given an empty
classroom and sixteen third and fourth
graders filed in they sat down and I
gave each one of them a piece of paper
and a pencil and then I had them close
their eyes and I asked them to go back
to their garden in their mind to
remember all the things they’d done
there all the plants and animals they’d
seen all the lessons they’d had and then
I had them draw their knit very first
nature memory map this was my favorite
map from that day it was by Marlon who
was 11 at the time and I love the way
you can imagine how excited the kids
were that day the hummingbird got stuck
in that classroom or how contemplative
Marlon must have been when he saw the
spider spending her little web I also
love how he puts nature into context he
doesn’t just put the Nature in the
garden he puts in the teachers parking
lot and the food for Less where he and
his family grocery shops because nature
exists in his entire community we took
every single one of those 17 maps from
that day and turned it into one
composite map we had a professional
illustrator make it and now this is that
map and it lives in our exhibit about la
nature at the Museum and on opening day
we invited Marlon and mr. Rumble and the
rest of the students to be our honored
guests we wanted to make sure that they
knew how important their stories of
nature and their garden was so I loved
talking about kids connecting with
nature but what about adults right
how do adults connect with nature in our
city for many nature is a place where we
have peace and quiet it’s a place to go
to to meditate relax and de-stress
because let’s face it our cities can be
stressful places have any of you ever
been stressed out here in LA
yeah me too when I’m stressed out I head
to the mountains to breathe in a more
pristine wilderness but more often than
not it’s the nature right outside my
front door that I can get to it’s fast
it’s easy it’s free and I can do it
every day I do what I call a nature
mindfulness meditation and I live in one
of the most dense parts of the city in
Koreatown so most people don’t expect
there to be nature there but you’ve
guessed it they’re wrong and this is
some of the nature I found over the last
few years of doing this walk for one
block I just breathe
and notice how my body feels then as I
cross over the street I begin to focus
on everything that I’m seeing and then a
block where I focus on just the things
that I’m hearing and then a block on
everything that I’m smelling on my final
block I let everything wash over me not
holding on to any of my thoughts worries
fears hopes or dreams I do this walk a
lot I did this walk just the other day
because surprisingly practicing for this
talk a little bit stressful
and to my knowledge no one has ever
studied the effects of an urban nature
walk like this but I wonder if they did
would it show some of the same health
benefits as forest bathing for those of
you that don’t know forest bathing is a
practice in Japan where people go take a
short visit to nature to literally
breathe it in researchers found over the
last few years that among other things
forest bathing serves to decrease stress
hormones lower blood pressure and lower
your pulse rate it also helps to
increase concentration and although no
one studied my health benefits I can
feel the effects when I’m done I feel ,
I feel happier I feel less stressed out
nature is helping me and that in turn
makes me love nature all the much more I
would hope that everyone could learn to
love nature in the city as much as I do
which I know is a little bit soup
idealistic and pollyannaish but it’s
still the dream that I have I came up
with an idea to maybe get towards that
dream in a bit of a unique and maybe odd
way in 2011 I thought maybe we could
make noticing and finding nature into a
competition a competition between two
cities LA and San Francisco yeah so
working working with my good friend
Allison Young who works at a San
Francisco Natural History Museum we
created a city nature challenge we
capitalize on the long-standing rivalry
between our two cities and we put the
word out on social media we got our
parents involved my mom got out there
and we even got LA’s Mayor Eric Garcetti
to be involved
he found a snail go Eric Garcetti and it
was a huge success in just one week we
got 20,000 Wildlife observations from
thousands of San Franciscans and Los
Angelenos they all became citizen
scientists and sent in their pictures of
wildlife and guess what la one
success of this challenge spread and
this year
other cities wanted to participate we
had 16 cities across the United States
take part from New York to Miami from
Dallas to Chicago people got out there
and found nature in their backyards not
to mention they all wanted to try and
beat LA we got 125,000 observations in
just five days everything from the
common pigeon which was seen in every
single city surprise to orcas right off
the coast of Seattle to a critically
endangered butterfly which was found in
Florida and this time la did not win
that honor went to Dallas Texas and as
they say do not mess with Texas next
year we’re going global Alice and I are
already in planning mode and we have
over a hundred cities get gear up to
participate and I’m really excited to
see the results scientifically I hope we
get a lot of good data a snapshot that
shows the world how much nature lives in
our cities but more than that it’s the
stories that I’m excited to hear the
stories of kids here in LA finding
nature the stories of kids in Mumbai
finding nature just like my sister and I
did when we were kids in England stories
that show that all over the world people
are loving and caring for nature in
their cities I hope that you all when
you leave today think about how you’re
gonna love nature in your city just a
little bit more are you gonna go out
there and put your nature eyes on and
breathe it in will you go out and become
a citizen scientist and take pictures
open an insect trap in your backyard so
scientists can understand how nature in
our cities works well we go that one
step further and grow a garden and love
and care for it like the kids at Leo
politi it’s up to you how you decide to
love nature in your city I’m excited to
hear the stories though particularly of
all you Angelenos because if we can do
it here in Los Angeles
imagine what it would be like when we’re
doing all over the world everyone loving
nature in their cities just a little bit
more thank you
[Applause]
used to pretend to be a badger my sister
and I would walk out our back door head
down the lane climb over an old rusty
gate to end up standing underneath a
grand old hollow tree inside of this
tree
we became badgers we’d crawl in through
the entrance slithering through the soft
sand not caring how many spiderwebs got
on our extra curly hair this is how I
learned to love nature then when I was
14 years old I moved from the British
countryside to Southern California’s
Inland Empire I didn’t so much as feel
culture shock but I did experience
nature shock my new environment totally
disoriented me I was used to living in
my old brick farmhouse where sheep were
literally my only neighbors and I had
views of hillsides like this now I was
living in a stucco home surrounded by a
sea of tract houses and I had views of
hillsides like this I thought that
because they were brown and dry that
they were dead spaces I thought that the
only places where things could grow were
in people’s well-watered front yards I
didn’t realize how wrong I could be but
it wasn’t until I got to college that I
really started to understand the new
environment I was living in for four
years at UC Riverside I studied
entomology the wonderful and sometimes
weird lives of insects this hillside did
not look dead to me anymore
I began to see it as a home for the
hundreds and thousands of insect species
that live there it was their habitat
fast forward to 2008 and I’ve just
landed my dream job at a Natural History
Museum in Los Angeles and I was gonna
get paid to geek out with scientists
about snails and slugs reptiles and
amphibians insects and all manner of
life on Earth I could not believe my
luck
but some of my friends and family were
baffled because it meant I was going to
be moving here Los Angeles someone even
said to me but Lila why would you move
to LA you love nature
from the very beginning I knew they were
wrong and so is hell-bent on proving to
them there’s so much nature here in this
city and I would share with you a few of
the things I found over the last nine
years I found wild purple mushrooms
growing up in Griffith Park the cutest
baby octopus in a tide pool in San Pedro
I know
glowing scorpions of my favorite
campground in the San Gabriel Mountains
but what about down here in the heart of
the city where it’s much more concrete
and a snarl of freeways well I’ve also
found tiny little potter wasp nests
growing on weeds in the Compton Creek
I found all weaver spiders go on a men’s
restroom in Long Beach don’t ask me what
I was doing at that men’s restroom
looking for spiders but it’s part of my
job not to mention the hundreds of
species of insects in the nature garden
at my Museum the gardens that I helped
to design and build which are only six
miles from downtown LA as I’d hoped no
matter where I was in Los Angeles I
could find nature it was simply as easy
as slowing down and looking or what I
call putting my nature eyes on I urge
you all to put your nature eyes on over
the next couple days pay attention as
you walk out your front door look up as
you go to the bank look down as you go
to the grocery store because what you
see might surprise you and I believe
that the nature here in Los Angeles
isn’t just surprising and sometimes a
little weird and what I believe is
beautiful but also it is valuable urban
nature is worthy of our study it is
worthy of our love and it’s worthy of
our care this is dr. Brian Brown he’s
one of the scientists at my Museum
and he also happens to be one of the
world’s leading fly researchers
yeah Brian studies flies for living
which means that sometimes he sits at
his microscope and looks at fly genitals
for hours on end because seriously this
is how some fly species are identified
by looking at their genitals under
microscopes one thing that most people
don’t know about brian is he’s a bit of
a betting man and one night at a dinner
with a museum donor Brian boasted I can
just as easily find a new fly here in LA
as I could in Costa Rica or Brazil the
donor reached across the table shook his
hand and said you’re on a few days later
Brian went to the Brentwood backyard and
set up an insect trap he left it up for
a week and then went back to get the
collecting jar now full of insects he
took it back to his lab in the museum
and sat down next to his microscope and
started to sort through those insects
first he pulled out all the Flies and
put everything else to the side and then
he took out just the humpback flies this
is the group of flies that Brian’s a
world expert on also known as four heads
one fly stood out in particular and so
he took it out put it under his
microscope and took it through his
scientific key to see if it would match
with anything it didn’t it was a
brand-new species to science no
scientists had ever seen this fly before
it’s that big one with the head popped
off
there were two other flies in this
sample that were very interesting
neither of them had been found here in
North America before one had only been
known to exist in Europe and the only
had known the other one only known to
exist in Africa so let’s recap in just
one week’s worth of sampling looking at
just one brentwood backyard and only
looking at the phorid flies humpback
flies Brian made three big scientific
discoveries based on this success Brian
decided he what would happen if I could
expand this survey and take it all
across the whole city what if I could
put traps in everyone’s backyard okay
not literally everyone’s but that’s
exactly what’s happened over the last
five years we partnered with 61 families
and one middle school and these families
have cared and hosted the traps in their
backyards this is what we call citizen
science it’s the general public working
with researchers to answer real-world
questions and Brian’s real-world
question how many species of flies could
he find that we’re knew 43 and Counting
so 43 new species of fly living here in
Los Angeles this all goes to show that
when we look in our cities there are
discoveries to be made and there are new
species to be found how many new species
might be living in your backyard or what
about your school yard this is Leo
politi elementary school it’s it’s just
two miles from downtown LA as the crow
flies it’s in one of the densest parts
of the city and there’s about 25,000
people per square mile
that means there’s not that much room
for nature to grow or for kids to play
knowing this principal Brad Rumble
wanted to build a garden he wanted a
space for the 817 students at his school
to get up close and personal with nature
so in 2009 he took this empty part of
the campus and he built a garden working
with the students I heard about the
transformation
and wanted to pay a visit so I went and
the garden was beautiful it was buzzing
with life birds flying overhead
hummingbirds moths ladybugs all manner
of life but even more than even more
beautiful in the nature it was the
students and how they were acting that
was beautiful to me one little boy came
up to me and told me about the black
Phoebe he’d seen sitting on the fence
earlier that day a little girl came up
and told me about the seven spotted
ladybug she’d seen eating aphids the day
before
someone must have keyed her in and told
her how much I loved a fence and it
wasn’t just me noticing the effects on
the students it was Brad noticing the
effects to student disciplinary actions
had gone down to almost zero since the
garden went in and science test scores
had skyrocketed to put it in Brad’s
words they had gone from the basement to
the penthouse in science to put it in
facts and figures before the garden was
put in nine percent of the students
tested proficient on the science test
after the garden was put in fifty-four
percent
this transformation was so stunning that
I wanted to share the story as far and
wide as I could and so a few months
later I went back to the school to try
and do just that I was given an empty
classroom and sixteen third and fourth
graders filed in they sat down and I
gave each one of them a piece of paper
and a pencil and then I had them close
their eyes and I asked them to go back
to their garden in their mind to
remember all the things they’d done
there all the plants and animals they’d
seen all the lessons they’d had and then
I had them draw their knit very first
nature memory map this was my favorite
map from that day it was by Marlon who
was 11 at the time and I love the way
you can imagine how excited the kids
were that day the hummingbird got stuck
in that classroom or how contemplative
Marlon must have been when he saw the
spider spending her little web I also
love how he puts nature into context he
doesn’t just put the Nature in the
garden he puts in the teachers parking
lot and the food for Less where he and
his family grocery shops because nature
exists in his entire community we took
every single one of those 17 maps from
that day and turned it into one
composite map we had a professional
illustrator make it and now this is that
map and it lives in our exhibit about la
nature at the Museum and on opening day
we invited Marlon and mr. Rumble and the
rest of the students to be our honored
guests we wanted to make sure that they
knew how important their stories of
nature and their garden was so I loved
talking about kids connecting with
nature but what about adults right
how do adults connect with nature in our
city for many nature is a place where we
have peace and quiet it’s a place to go
to to meditate relax and de-stress
because let’s face it our cities can be
stressful places have any of you ever
been stressed out here in LA
yeah me too when I’m stressed out I head
to the mountains to breathe in a more
pristine wilderness but more often than
not it’s the nature right outside my
front door that I can get to it’s fast
it’s easy it’s free and I can do it
every day I do what I call a nature
mindfulness meditation and I live in one
of the most dense parts of the city in
Koreatown so most people don’t expect
there to be nature there but you’ve
guessed it they’re wrong and this is
some of the nature I found over the last
few years of doing this walk for one
block I just breathe
and notice how my body feels then as I
cross over the street I begin to focus
on everything that I’m seeing and then a
block where I focus on just the things
that I’m hearing and then a block on
everything that I’m smelling on my final
block I let everything wash over me not
holding on to any of my thoughts worries
fears hopes or dreams I do this walk a
lot I did this walk just the other day
because surprisingly practicing for this
talk a little bit stressful
and to my knowledge no one has ever
studied the effects of an urban nature
walk like this but I wonder if they did
would it show some of the same health
benefits as forest bathing for those of
you that don’t know forest bathing is a
practice in Japan where people go take a
short visit to nature to literally
breathe it in researchers found over the
last few years that among other things
forest bathing serves to decrease stress
hormones lower blood pressure and lower
your pulse rate it also helps to
increase concentration and although no
one studied my health benefits I can
feel the effects when I’m done I feel ,
I feel happier I feel less stressed out
nature is helping me and that in turn
makes me love nature all the much more I
would hope that everyone could learn to
love nature in the city as much as I do
which I know is a little bit soup
idealistic and pollyannaish but it’s
still the dream that I have I came up
with an idea to maybe get towards that
dream in a bit of a unique and maybe odd
way in 2011 I thought maybe we could
make noticing and finding nature into a
competition a competition between two
cities LA and San Francisco yeah so
working working with my good friend
Allison Young who works at a San
Francisco Natural History Museum we
created a city nature challenge we
capitalize on the long-standing rivalry
between our two cities and we put the
word out on social media we got our
parents involved my mom got out there
and we even got LA’s Mayor Eric Garcetti
to be involved
he found a snail go Eric Garcetti and it
was a huge success in just one week we
got 20,000 Wildlife observations from
thousands of San Franciscans and Los
Angelenos they all became citizen
scientists and sent in their pictures of
wildlife and guess what la one
success of this challenge spread and
this year
other cities wanted to participate we
had 16 cities across the United States
take part from New York to Miami from
Dallas to Chicago people got out there
and found nature in their backyards not
to mention they all wanted to try and
beat LA we got 125,000 observations in
just five days everything from the
common pigeon which was seen in every
single city surprise to orcas right off
the coast of Seattle to a critically
endangered butterfly which was found in
Florida and this time la did not win
that honor went to Dallas Texas and as
they say do not mess with Texas next
year we’re going global Alice and I are
already in planning mode and we have
over a hundred cities get gear up to
participate and I’m really excited to
see the results scientifically I hope we
get a lot of good data a snapshot that
shows the world how much nature lives in
our cities but more than that it’s the
stories that I’m excited to hear the
stories of kids here in LA finding
nature the stories of kids in Mumbai
finding nature just like my sister and I
did when we were kids in England stories
that show that all over the world people
are loving and caring for nature in
their cities I hope that you all when
you leave today think about how you’re
gonna love nature in your city just a
little bit more are you gonna go out
there and put your nature eyes on and
breathe it in will you go out and become
a citizen scientist and take pictures
open an insect trap in your backyard so
scientists can understand how nature in
our cities works well we go that one
step further and grow a garden and love
and care for it like the kids at Leo
politi it’s up to you how you decide to
love nature in your city I’m excited to
hear the stories though particularly of
all you Angelenos because if we can do
it here in Los Angeles
imagine what it would be like when we’re
doing all over the world everyone loving
nature in their cities just a little bit
more thank you
[Applause]
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