 |
|||||||
|
|
|
|
ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Championship Turf Tender Sounds of Success New Home in Urban Village In the Spirit of the Season Pace Yourself Fill 'er Up With Fries Chancellor's Column Development News Factoids Newsmakers Accomplishments by faculty and staff… |
Science and the City There
was a time when studying biology was all about fleeing the city. In the
ambitious arena of urban ecology, though, city-dwelling scientists and
students are standing still and taking a good look around. “Since
World War II, most biologists have focused on remote places,” said
Elaine Brooks, who teaches a new honors course in urban ecology at City
College. “Most biologists have thumbed their noses at anything that
smacks of a large urban impact. But because in America, most people now
live in cities, we’re starting to realize the impact of biology in
cities is enormous.” The
idea behind urban ecology is that we have much to learn about vegetation
and other natural elements within urban boundaries. By better understanding
the vegetation and other natural resources in the city around us, we have
a better chance of keeping species alive where they dwell. We can make
new vegetation a creative part of our cities, and better understand how
plants and other natural life forms affect our behavior and interaction
with each other. “The
history of agriculture and plant life in most cities is fascinating,”
Brooks said. “What we had were settlers who would build cities, then
looked around and said, ‘This is awful, we don’t have any nature
in the cities.’ From there, hundreds of thousands of plant species
were brought into American cities, and have changed everything about them.
The imported species integrated with the natural species, creating some
exciting new looks, and avenues of study.” In
the case of San Diego, some of the natural surroundings survived and prospered.
An example is the fluid and plentiful vegetation in the Balboa Park canyons
very close to City College, a perfect spot for outdoor study. “San
Diego is an ideal place to study urban ecology, because we can get outdoors
all year round,” Brooks said. “The history of horticulture and
plant introductions here has actually been quite well documented. Local
politics has increased the interest, because there is a friction between
growth and slow-growth factions that brings vegetation issues to the forefront.” Brooks
makes clear that urban ecology isn’t an effort to “save the
gnatcatcher,” or promote other popular ecological causes. It is a
field of study more so than a field of activism, though a concern for
the environment and an interest in urban ecology fit together nicely. “There
is certainly a price to be paid for the way we are packing humans into
cities,” Brooks said. Brooks
was a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography for 25 years before
returning to school to do graduate work in public policy. It was while
working on poverty issues and environmental studies that she found her
niche, learning much from the groundbreaking work done by the Baltimore
Urban Ecology project. Brooks has a master of science degree in marine
biology from UCSD and a master’s in social work from San Diego State
University. “Urban ecology is growing up, and we have much to look forward to,” Brooks said. “There needs to be a serious conversation across traditional academic boundaries, with ecologists getting together with psychologists and the anthropologists. Once that happens, though, this field could very well become an explosive source of new information.” |
||||
|
|
