morning so I would like to talk to you
today about the power of nature and how
I believe that nature can fit into our
lives more Fillie
more fully and into all of our
communities I was really fortunate I was
raised by a family that valued time in
nature I was raised in close proximity
to nature and that’s continued into my
life now it’s been the reality for my
children this picture is a place that’s
not too far from our home here in New
Hampshire that we have open access to so
it’s still part of our daily routine and
weekly routine to have proximity to
nature now professionally I work in
multiple areas
I work as a as an environmental and
community planner I work as an
ecological designer and I work as an
educator and so my message to you today
about shifting the world from grey to
green is bridging all those areas and
thinking about how we can create a
better reality for all of us you see we
all know places that are devoid of
nature or practically devoid of nature
you’ll see small green specks there in
an urban environment this is because
we’ve created places that are dominated
by what we call grey infrastructure gray
infrastructure drains and pipes and
parking lots and rooftops and gutters
where we feel that we can better
engineer the systems and better control
the outcomes but the truth is what we’ve
done is fragmented natural environments
we’ve degraded the environment we’ve
removed people from nature which gives
them joy which has a therapeutic quality
that we now understand and so I would
like to shift us away from that and I
see huge opportunities this is not the
opportunity this is still what we’re
trying to move away from but land-use
decisions development decisions are made
by communities they’re made by you and
me I sit on a land-use board we talk
with developers about their projects we
hold them to our rules and regulations
we show them what our vision is of our
community if our vision of our community
is to fragment everything into a
developable parcel and completely remove
nature in some cases we’re doing a great
job I think we could do better so I see
this problem as the solution let’s
leverage that system people are already
coming to us and asking what the rules
are that they should play by to develop
in the community let’s help them fulfill
their vision but in a way that’s
meaningful communities the residents
property owners municipal officials they
understand the context of their
situation they understand the natural
resources that they have but also the
ones they lost they are best positioned
to communicate that to others and to
decide how to go forward together in the
way forward for me is something called
green infrastructure green
infrastructure can mean lots of
different things to different people but
one thing it can mean is understanding
where we have intact ecological systems
beautiful forests and floodplains
prairies and mountaintops and in fairly
small intact natural systems or even
degraded systems that could use our help
understanding where these are which ones
are best suited to remain that way and
should be off-limits to development in
how we can connect those places for
people for wildlife and where we have a
gray environment a more urban
environment a more developed environment
how can we start to green those places
this is a rooftop in Toronto how can we
provide a way of restoring all the
natural benefits that nature brings to
our communities in some cases that will
be retrofitting gray infrastructure like
rooftops and roadways in parking lots
finding a way to address a prob
in this case the initial problem might
be stormwater flooding but seeing that
there are lots of other benefits that
nature can also bring to the community
as we address that issue these are
opportunities so how do we do it and
who’s doing it I found that was my
question so a couple of years ago I
started to study the issue of green
infrastructure and I wanted to
understand how communities in the United
States we’re addressing this issue what
I did was I looked at 48 municipalities
from across the country big urban places
like Los Angeles and Philadelphia and
Seattle small communities like mound
Bayou Mississippi Dunbar in New
Hampshire and what I wanted to
understand was how do they define green
infrastructure what is their vision for
their community what do they understand
about their natural resources they want
others to understand as they come to
make changes to their land-use pattern
and I was especially interested in
knowing to what degree are they talking
about a range of systems and services
within their community or do they just
have one issue that’s important to them
in Phoenix they’re really worried about
shade trees and cooling the urban
environment so I used something called
ecosystem services as a way of
evaluating these municipal planning
efforts and it was incredibly surprising
for one these communities are
considering much more of range of
services than I would have guessed
they’re considering not only stormwater
management in air quality and storing
carbon but they’re also considering
preserving native species biodiversity
some are considering food many actually
out of 48 about 20% the therapeutic
benefit to humans of access to nature
what was also interesting is they’re not
they’re not being contained to a list of
ecosystem services from the literature
they’re coming up with things that are
meaningful to them the vast majority of
the communities considered economics a
reason
green infrastructure in one of my
interviews municipal staff person said
to me I knew we were doing a good job
when I saw a real estate listing that
said this property is prime because it’s
next to a green infrastructure project
the other thing that was interesting
beyond economics is communities are
addressing equity issues many of the
more urban communities are saying we
need to be thinking about bringing
nature into all of our neighborhoods 48
communities approaching it different
ways but seeing a range of possibilities
and yet a lot of what we see is still
voluntary it’s the landowner who
preserves a piece of land because they
love it and they want to be good
stewards of and they love their
community it’s not accessing that
regulatory system so green
infrastructure could be voluntary
efforts like land conservation but green
infrastructure could also be in
development making sure there are places
where we can grow our food connect as a
community and build social capital
educate each other overcome differences
many many yields are possible green
infrastructure can also be in the
smallest urban and suburban places
providing a diversity of plant life for
a diversity of species providing beauty
aesthetics are valuable
Beauty inspires all of us did you know
that in London England there’s a
pollinator pathway being constructed an
intensely historic and urban landscape
where they’re greening rooftops and park
spaces initially for the thought that it
creates a pollinator trail but the other
benefits are office spaces and
apartments that look out onto greenery
instead of out onto a roof membrane or
something less exciting as we consider
doing this in communities as we get
creative as we work across backgrounds
we can also rethink our recreation and
transportation systems we can promote
walkability and bikeability we can
address other environmental concerns we
can address other
Namah concerns we can address equity in
new ways but we need to have a plan and
we need to be ready to leverage the
power that we have as municipalities
picture this a developer comes before
the community and it’s clear to them
what the goals are but they have some
freedom to meet those goals in a way
that works for them and allows them to
have the the creativity and create a
unique thing that will best utilize
their property in a way it’s meaningful
for them but they’ll know that what
we’re looking for are many different
ecological services to be identified on
the site and to be integrated now if you
pull into a new development you may
notice a beautiful stormwater feature on
one side and a little bit of landscaping
that’s supposed to represent nature on
the other side but they’re seldom
integrated we don’t really create
parking features that integrate nature
we could do that we can have
multifunctional solutions and we can
experiment tactical urbanism has become
a really powerful tool that’s used by
planners by community advocates to come
into places and to show something that’s
missing
whether it be seating places to sit on
the ground in a natural setting but it
allows for us to actually experiment so
we need to continue to experiment show
people what’s possible before we make
large capital improvements or before we
ask others to do so but what if what if
every time a local board approved a
development the community became more
resilient the natural systems became
more intertwined and weari stitch
connections between places what if an
opportunity to develop a site was
actually an opportunity to restore a
greater number of natural services for
the people and for the species what if
it resulted in greater value for the
property owner as well
that’s possible but we need to get
started and some of the benefits of
doing this will be generations of people
that will grow up whether they recognize
it or not with close proximity to nature
with an understanding of the natural
world and with all the benefits afforded
to them people who will understand the
resources in their backyards and across
their communities people who will
hopefully have better health mental and
physical from their access to green
spaces and other species and this isn’t
a small job I realize in the United
States alone we have over 39,000
municipalities I looked at 48 I could
only find a hundred and eight that we’re
actually doing anything so I have work
to do I’m hoping many of you will join
me in this work and we’ll bring your
ideas to the table so that we can push
it forward and with that I thank you [Applause]
today about the power of nature and how
I believe that nature can fit into our
lives more Fillie
more fully and into all of our
communities I was really fortunate I was
raised by a family that valued time in
nature I was raised in close proximity
to nature and that’s continued into my
life now it’s been the reality for my
children this picture is a place that’s
not too far from our home here in New
Hampshire that we have open access to so
it’s still part of our daily routine and
weekly routine to have proximity to
nature now professionally I work in
multiple areas
I work as a as an environmental and
community planner I work as an
ecological designer and I work as an
educator and so my message to you today
about shifting the world from grey to
green is bridging all those areas and
thinking about how we can create a
better reality for all of us you see we
all know places that are devoid of
nature or practically devoid of nature
you’ll see small green specks there in
an urban environment this is because
we’ve created places that are dominated
by what we call grey infrastructure gray
infrastructure drains and pipes and
parking lots and rooftops and gutters
where we feel that we can better
engineer the systems and better control
the outcomes but the truth is what we’ve
done is fragmented natural environments
we’ve degraded the environment we’ve
removed people from nature which gives
them joy which has a therapeutic quality
that we now understand and so I would
like to shift us away from that and I
see huge opportunities this is not the
opportunity this is still what we’re
trying to move away from but land-use
decisions development decisions are made
by communities they’re made by you and
me I sit on a land-use board we talk
with developers about their projects we
hold them to our rules and regulations
we show them what our vision is of our
community if our vision of our community
is to fragment everything into a
developable parcel and completely remove
nature in some cases we’re doing a great
job I think we could do better so I see
this problem as the solution let’s
leverage that system people are already
coming to us and asking what the rules
are that they should play by to develop
in the community let’s help them fulfill
their vision but in a way that’s
meaningful communities the residents
property owners municipal officials they
understand the context of their
situation they understand the natural
resources that they have but also the
ones they lost they are best positioned
to communicate that to others and to
decide how to go forward together in the
way forward for me is something called
green infrastructure green
infrastructure can mean lots of
different things to different people but
one thing it can mean is understanding
where we have intact ecological systems
beautiful forests and floodplains
prairies and mountaintops and in fairly
small intact natural systems or even
degraded systems that could use our help
understanding where these are which ones
are best suited to remain that way and
should be off-limits to development in
how we can connect those places for
people for wildlife and where we have a
gray environment a more urban
environment a more developed environment
how can we start to green those places
this is a rooftop in Toronto how can we
provide a way of restoring all the
natural benefits that nature brings to
our communities in some cases that will
be retrofitting gray infrastructure like
rooftops and roadways in parking lots
finding a way to address a prob
in this case the initial problem might
be stormwater flooding but seeing that
there are lots of other benefits that
nature can also bring to the community
as we address that issue these are
opportunities so how do we do it and
who’s doing it I found that was my
question so a couple of years ago I
started to study the issue of green
infrastructure and I wanted to
understand how communities in the United
States we’re addressing this issue what
I did was I looked at 48 municipalities
from across the country big urban places
like Los Angeles and Philadelphia and
Seattle small communities like mound
Bayou Mississippi Dunbar in New
Hampshire and what I wanted to
understand was how do they define green
infrastructure what is their vision for
their community what do they understand
about their natural resources they want
others to understand as they come to
make changes to their land-use pattern
and I was especially interested in
knowing to what degree are they talking
about a range of systems and services
within their community or do they just
have one issue that’s important to them
in Phoenix they’re really worried about
shade trees and cooling the urban
environment so I used something called
ecosystem services as a way of
evaluating these municipal planning
efforts and it was incredibly surprising
for one these communities are
considering much more of range of
services than I would have guessed
they’re considering not only stormwater
management in air quality and storing
carbon but they’re also considering
preserving native species biodiversity
some are considering food many actually
out of 48 about 20% the therapeutic
benefit to humans of access to nature
what was also interesting is they’re not
they’re not being contained to a list of
ecosystem services from the literature
they’re coming up with things that are
meaningful to them the vast majority of
the communities considered economics a
reason
green infrastructure in one of my
interviews municipal staff person said
to me I knew we were doing a good job
when I saw a real estate listing that
said this property is prime because it’s
next to a green infrastructure project
the other thing that was interesting
beyond economics is communities are
addressing equity issues many of the
more urban communities are saying we
need to be thinking about bringing
nature into all of our neighborhoods 48
communities approaching it different
ways but seeing a range of possibilities
and yet a lot of what we see is still
voluntary it’s the landowner who
preserves a piece of land because they
love it and they want to be good
stewards of and they love their
community it’s not accessing that
regulatory system so green
infrastructure could be voluntary
efforts like land conservation but green
infrastructure could also be in
development making sure there are places
where we can grow our food connect as a
community and build social capital
educate each other overcome differences
many many yields are possible green
infrastructure can also be in the
smallest urban and suburban places
providing a diversity of plant life for
a diversity of species providing beauty
aesthetics are valuable
Beauty inspires all of us did you know
that in London England there’s a
pollinator pathway being constructed an
intensely historic and urban landscape
where they’re greening rooftops and park
spaces initially for the thought that it
creates a pollinator trail but the other
benefits are office spaces and
apartments that look out onto greenery
instead of out onto a roof membrane or
something less exciting as we consider
doing this in communities as we get
creative as we work across backgrounds
we can also rethink our recreation and
transportation systems we can promote
walkability and bikeability we can
address other environmental concerns we
can address other
Namah concerns we can address equity in
new ways but we need to have a plan and
we need to be ready to leverage the
power that we have as municipalities
picture this a developer comes before
the community and it’s clear to them
what the goals are but they have some
freedom to meet those goals in a way
that works for them and allows them to
have the the creativity and create a
unique thing that will best utilize
their property in a way it’s meaningful
for them but they’ll know that what
we’re looking for are many different
ecological services to be identified on
the site and to be integrated now if you
pull into a new development you may
notice a beautiful stormwater feature on
one side and a little bit of landscaping
that’s supposed to represent nature on
the other side but they’re seldom
integrated we don’t really create
parking features that integrate nature
we could do that we can have
multifunctional solutions and we can
experiment tactical urbanism has become
a really powerful tool that’s used by
planners by community advocates to come
into places and to show something that’s
missing
whether it be seating places to sit on
the ground in a natural setting but it
allows for us to actually experiment so
we need to continue to experiment show
people what’s possible before we make
large capital improvements or before we
ask others to do so but what if what if
every time a local board approved a
development the community became more
resilient the natural systems became
more intertwined and weari stitch
connections between places what if an
opportunity to develop a site was
actually an opportunity to restore a
greater number of natural services for
the people and for the species what if
it resulted in greater value for the
property owner as well
that’s possible but we need to get
started and some of the benefits of
doing this will be generations of people
that will grow up whether they recognize
it or not with close proximity to nature
with an understanding of the natural
world and with all the benefits afforded
to them people who will understand the
resources in their backyards and across
their communities people who will
hopefully have better health mental and
physical from their access to green
spaces and other species and this isn’t
a small job I realize in the United
States alone we have over 39,000
municipalities I looked at 48 I could
only find a hundred and eight that we’re
actually doing anything so I have work
to do I’m hoping many of you will join
me in this work and we’ll bring your
ideas to the table so that we can push
it forward and with that I thank you [Applause]
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