Environmental Planning Strategies

Summary

This lecture delves into environmental planning strategies aimed at protecting and enhancing biological diversity. It builds upon the concept of landscape structure, emphasizing the importance of matrix, patch, and corridor principles. The speaker outlines key planning principles, including creating diverse vegetative communities, favoring native species, and optimizing patch size and shape for habitat diversity. The talk also highlights the significance of edges, clustering similar patches, and establishing redundant networks for species movement and meta-population dynamics, illustrating these concepts with examples from rural to urban settings.

Takeaways

• 🌿 **Landscape Structure Design**: The lecture discusses the importance of designing landscape structures using the principles of patch, corridor, and matrix to enhance biological diversity.
• 🔄 **Continuity and Connectivity**: Emphasizes the significance of creating a landscape that allows for species movement and interaction, promoting a more sustainable and diverse ecosystem.
• 🌳 **Diverse Vegetative Communities**: Advocates for the inclusion of a variety of species within the landscape, contrasting monocultures like pine forests with diverse hardwood forests.
• 🏞️ **Native Species Preference**: Highlights the benefits of using native species over exotic or invasive ones for more sustainable and diverse plant communities.
• 🌡️ **Vertical-Horizontal Structure**: Explains the concept of structural diversity in vegetation, such as the multiple layers found in a deciduous forest, contributing to species diversity.
• 🛑 **Patch Size and Shape**: Stresses the importance of larger patches for supporting a greater diversity of species and the benefits of maximizing the interior core area of patches.
• 🌌 **Softening Edges**: Discusses the ecological benefits of creating soft edges between patches and the matrix to moderate the interaction and protect core areas.
• 🔗 **Clustering Similar Patches**: Suggests that clustering similar patch types can promote species movement and enhance meta-population dynamics.
• 🌉 **Creating Corridors**: Recommends the establishment of vegetative corridors to connect different patches and facilitate species interaction across the landscape.
• 🔄 **Redundant and Circuitous Networks**: Emphasizes the value of creating multiple pathways for species movement to increase biological diversity.
• 🏘️ **Applicability in Various Settings**: Demonstrates that the principles of habitat planning can be applied in various settings, from rural to urban landscapes, and even in residential areas.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the lecture on environmental planning strategies?

The lecture focuses on using concepts from biological diversity to plan for future landscape structure, emphasizing habitat planning principles that create a landscape structure based on the patch, corridor, matrix principles.

What is the significance of the matrix in landscape structure?

The matrix is the predominant cover type within a landscape, serving as the background environment in which other features like patches and corridors are embedded. It plays a crucial role in the overall landscape structure and function.

What is the difference between a patch and a corridor in landscape planning?

A patch is a spatially discrete area of a particular cover type different from the matrix, such as a forest or grassland within an agricultural landscape. A corridor, on the other hand, is an elongated feature that provides connectivity between patches, enhancing species movement and genetic exchange.

Why is creating diverse vegetative communities important in environmental planning?

Creating diverse vegetative communities is important because it increases the number of different species and age-class compositions within the landscape, which in turn supports higher levels of biological diversity and ecosystem resilience.

What is the advantage of favoring native species over exotic or invasive species in landscape planning?

Favoring native species over exotic or invasive ones is beneficial because native species are more likely to result in a diverse and sustainable plant community, and they contribute to long-term habitat and water quality benefits in the landscape.

Why is it generally recommended to favor larger patch sizes in landscape planning?

Larger patch sizes are recommended because they provide more area to support a greater diversity of species, including those that may find it difficult to establish in smaller patches, thus promoting overall biological diversity.

What does maximizing interior core area in a patch aim to achieve in landscape planning?

Maximizing the interior core area of a patch aims to promote habitat for both core and edge species. This core area is crucial for species that require protection from the influences of the surrounding matrix, thus enhancing biological diversity.

How does the shape of a patch affect its ability to support biological diversity?

The shape of a patch affects its ability to support biological diversity by influencing the amount of edge and core conditions. Geometric shapes with tendrils reaching out into the matrix can provide a high amount of core area and connectivity to other patches, promoting species movement and diversity.

What is the concept of 'softening the edges' between patches and the matrix, and why is it important?

Softening the edges refers to creating a gradual transition between the patch and the surrounding matrix, rather than a hard, abrupt edge. This is important because it helps protect the core area from deleterious influences, supports a variety of species adapted to different conditions, and promotes overall biological diversity.

Why is creating clusters of similar patch types beneficial for biological diversity?

Creating clusters of similar patch types is beneficial because it promotes species movement and better meta-population dynamics. The interaction between subpopulations within these clusters can lead to higher biological diversity over time.

How can vegetative corridor systems be coordinated with hydrologic and physiographic corridor systems in landscape planning?

Vegetative corridor systems can be coordinated with hydrologic and physiographic corridor systems by using existing drainage patterns and landforms as a basis for promoting vegetative corridors. This integration helps to connect different landscape elements and enhance species movement and habitat connectivity.

How can the principles of habitat planning be applied in urban and residential settings?

The principles of habitat planning can be applied in urban and residential settings by creating vegetative corridors along streets, boulevards, and even backyards and side lots. This can involve planting multi-tiered vegetation that provides continuous cover for species movement and enhances urban biodiversity.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Principles of Environmental Planning for Biodiversity

The first paragraph introduces the topic of environmental planning strategies aimed at protecting and enhancing biological diversity. It builds upon the concepts discussed in a previous lecture, emphasizing the importance of landscape structure planning using the patch, corridor, and matrix principles. The lecture also revisits the landscape structure diagram to highlight different concepts such as the matrix (predominant cover type, in this case, agriculture), discrete patches of different cover types (forests, grasslands), and the elongated river corridor that provides connectivity. The paragraph outlines the structural design principles applicable in both existing and new landscape structures and introduces the first principle of planning strategies: creating diverse vegetative communities. It contrasts species diversity in hardwood forests versus monoculture pine forests and discusses age-class composition, highlighting the benefits of mixed-age stands for promoting biodiversity.

05:01

🌳 Vegetation Structure and Native Species Preference

This paragraph delves into the structural diversity of vegetation, using the example of a deciduous forest with its four distinct layers: overstory, understory, shrub layer, and ground cover. It emphasizes the greater species, age-class, and structural diversity found in such forests compared to simpler ecosystems. The second principle discussed is the preference for native species over exotic or invasive ones, with examples of native wetland plants provided. The benefits of native species in sustaining a diverse and sustainable plant community and long-term habitat and water quality benefits are highlighted. The paragraph also introduces the third principle of patch size and shape, advocating for larger patches to support a greater diversity of species and the importance of maximizing the interior core area for habitat promotion.

10:03

🐦 Core Area Protection and Patch-Matrix Interaction

The third paragraph continues the discussion on habitat planning, focusing on the importance of protecting the core area of patches from the deleterious impacts of the surrounding matrix. It explains the concept of edge conditions and how they serve as a buffer, allowing for higher levels of biological diversity in patches with a well-defined core area. The principle of favoring less patch-matrix interaction is introduced, along with the idea of geometric patch shapes with tendrils to connect to the surrounding landscape. This approach is shown to promote biological diversity by providing multiple pathways for species movement.

15:07

🌲 Edge Conditions and Clustering for Biodiversity

This paragraph discusses the importance of edges between patches and the matrix, contrasting hard edges with gradual transitions that soften the interaction between different environmental conditions. The concept of creating clusters of similar patch types is introduced as the fourth principle, which enhances species movement and meta-population dynamics. The benefits of having multiple pathways for species to move between patches are highlighted, along with the use of stepping stones to facilitate this movement. The paragraph also touches on the impact of removing stepping stones on species interaction and the overall biodiversity of the landscape.

20:08

🌆 Integrating Corridors in Urban and Rural Landscapes

The fifth paragraph explores the application of habitat planning principles in various settings, from rural to urban landscapes. It describes how vegetative corridors can be coordinated with hydrologic and physiographic corridor systems, using examples from Washington County in Minnesota and the city of St. Paul. The paragraph illustrates how corridors can be created along rivers and streams, connecting larger patches with sub-corridors following drainage patterns. It also discusses the connectivity between major rivers and the importance of using existing landforms to extend these corridors, promoting species movement and enhancing biodiversity across different landscapes.

25:10

🏡 Applying Habitat Planning in Urban and Residential Areas

The final paragraph brings the concept of habitat planning into urbanized and residential settings. It discusses the potential for creating significant vegetative patches within urban areas, such as college campuses and seminaries, and how these can be connected through corridor systems like boulevards with high canopy. The paragraph also addresses the idea of backyard and side lot plantings in residential areas, suggesting that these can serve as stepping stones for species movement, even within an urban matrix. It concludes by considering the individual residence scale, proposing designs that balance open space for backyard use while providing habitat conditions for urban wildlife and plant species to thrive.

Keywords

💡Environmental Planning Strategies

Environmental planning strategies refer to a set of proactive measures aimed at protecting and enhancing the natural environment, particularly biological diversity. In the context of the video, these strategies are crucial for planning future landscape structures that are sustainable and conducive to a variety of life forms. The script discusses how to apply concepts from biological diversity to plan for a landscape that incorporates elements like patches, corridors, and matrices.

💡Biological Diversity

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life in all its forms and interactions within a given ecosystem. It is a central theme of the video, as the lecturer discusses how understanding and applying principles of biodiversity can lead to more effective environmental planning. The script mentions the importance of maintaining biodiversity through various landscape planning principles.

💡Landscape Structure

Landscape structure encompasses the spatial arrangement of different land cover types and features within a certain area. The script explains how the design and planning framework of matrix, patches, and corridors contribute to a landscape's structure, which is vital for supporting diverse habitats and species movement.

💡Matrix

In landscape ecology, the matrix is the background or predominant cover type that makes up the majority of the landscape. The script uses the example of open agricultural areas as a matrix, within which other discrete patches of different cover types, such as forests or grasslands, are embedded.

💡Patches

Patches are discrete areas within a landscape that differ from the surrounding matrix in terms of vegetation or land cover. The script discusses the importance of creating patches to enhance biodiversity, noting that larger patches can support a greater number of species and provide more area for different life forms.

💡Corridors

Corridors in landscape planning are elongated areas that connect different patches, facilitating the movement of species and maintaining genetic diversity. The script illustrates the concept of a river corridor providing connectivity within the landscape, which is essential for species to move between isolated patches.

💡Vegetative Communities

Vegetative communities refer to groups of plants that share the same habitat and contribute to the overall biodiversity of an area. The script emphasizes the importance of creating diverse vegetative communities within the landscape, contrasting species-rich hardwood forests with species-poor pine forests.

💡Native Species

Native species are those that have evolved and are naturally found in a particular region. The script advocates for the use of native species in environmental planning over exotic or invasive species, as they are more likely to result in a sustainable and diverse plant community that supports local ecosystems.

💡Age-Class Composition

Age-class composition refers to the distribution of different age groups within a plant community. The script explains that a mixed-age stand, with a variety of tree sizes and ages, as seen in hardwood forests, supports greater biodiversity compared to even-aged stands, like those in pine forests, where all trees are of similar age and size.

💡Meta-population Dynamics

Meta-population dynamics involve the interactions and movements of species between different populations within a landscape. The script discusses how creating clusters of similar patch types and providing multiple pathways for species movement can enhance meta-population dynamics and, in turn, increase biological diversity.

💡Stepping Stones

Stepping stones in the context of landscape planning are smaller patches or corridors that facilitate species movement between larger habitat patches. The script uses the concept of stepping stones to illustrate how even indirect connections between patches can be vital for promoting species interaction and maintaining biodiversity.

💡Hydrologic and Physiographic Corridors

Hydrologic and physiographic corridors are natural landscape features formed by waterways and landforms, respectively. The script suggests coordinating these natural corridors with vegetative ones to enhance connectivity and promote biodiversity. Examples include using riparian zones and following drainage patterns to create vegetative corridors that link different habitats.

Highlights

Lecture discusses environmental planning strategies for protecting and enhancing biological diversity, building on the concepts from the previous lecture.

Illustrates habitat planning principles using the patch, corridor, matrix framework to create a landscape structure.

The importance of the matrix as the predominant cover type in landscape planning, exemplified by agricultural open areas.

Concept of discrete patches of different cover types within a matrix for enhancing landscape diversity.

Elongated river corridors are highlighted as a means of providing connectivity in landscape planning.

Structural design principles are applicable in both managing existing and creating new urban, suburban, or rural landscape structures.

The first principle of planning is to create diverse vegetative communities for landscape diversity.

Comparison between monoculture pine forests and diverse hardwood forests in terms of species and age-class composition.

Importance of vertical-horizontal structure in forests, with hardwood forests showing greater structural diversity.

Advocacy for favoring native species over exotic or invasive ones for sustainable plant communities.

Principle of patch size and shape in promoting biological diversity, with larger patches supporting more species.

The concept of maximizing interior core area in patches to promote habitat for both core and edge species.

Favoring less patch-matrix interaction to protect core area diversity from deleterious influences.

Importance of geometric patch shapes with tendrils for connectivity to enhance biological diversity.

Softening edges between patches and the matrix for a smoother transition to support biological diversity.

Creating clusters of similar patch types to promote species movement and better meta-population dynamics.

The role of stepping stones and redundant networks in enhancing connectivity and biological diversity.

Impact of removing stepping stones on species interaction and the importance of maintaining connectivity.

Coordinating vegetative corridor systems with hydrologic and physiographic corridor systems for effective habitat planning.

Demonstration of habitat planning concepts applied in various settings from rural to urban landscapes.

Use of urban boulevards and residential plantings to promote species movement and enhance biological diversity in urban areas.

Individual residential habitat planting as a means to support urban wildlife and plant species within the urban matrix.

Transcripts

- Today's lecture talks about

environmental planning strategies

to protect and enhance biological diversity.

It picks up on the very last lecture

focusing on biological diversity,

understanding biological diversity,

and talks about how we can actually use the concepts

in the biological diversity lecture

to actually plan for future landscape structure.

The lecture illustrates habitat planning principles

for creating a landscape structure that exemplifies

the patch, corridor, matrix principles as discussed

in the previous biodiversity lecture.

You may remember the diagram in this slide

from that lecture.

I just want to reiterate from that diagram

the different concepts of landscape structure.

The predominant cover type is called the matrix,

and in this particular slide, the dominant cover type

would be the open areas that presumably are agriculture.

Within the agricultural matrix,

the larger agricultural matrix,

which is the most predominant land cover type

within the landscape, we have spatially discrete

patches of forest and grassland and horticultural crops,

and another patch of forest.

These are discrete patches of cover types

that are different than the predominant matrix

cover conditions.

Then we also have a elongated river corridor

that provides connectivity.

So this notion of matrix consisting of patch

and corridor is the design and planning framework

that I'd like to use today.

We can think of structural design principles

as applying in two contexts.

One is when we are managing an existing landscape structure

in an urban, suburban, or rural setting.

How do we apply the concepts of patch, corridor, and matrix

to plan a landscape structure that is already in existence.

And then of importance to planning and design

is the idea of creating an entirely new

urban, suburban, or rural landscape structure.

So what I'm gonna say has implications

both for managing the existing landscape structure,

and for creating entirely new structure.

There are a number of principles that are associated

with planning strategies, the first of which is

to create diverse vegetative communities.

We can see in the

images on the slide that in the upper right,

we can talk about

diversity in terms of species composition,

how many different kinds of species

are present in the landscape.

And in the left hand slide of a hardwood forest,

we can see a fairly high number of species

that we can actually see in the landscape.

The image on the right is of a pine forest,

and pine forests typically are

what we call monoculture, a single species,

and typically what we call an even-aged stand.

So we can talk about the pine forest

relative to the hardwood forest

as having many fewer numbers of different species,

and many fewer different age-class compositions.

The diagram down on the lower left

represents age-class composition and we can talk about

two different kinds of stands, an even-aged stand

where every species is of approximately the same age

as we can see in the pine trees,

they're all about the same diameter, about the same height,

all planted at about the same time,

versus a mixed-age stand, or multicohort stand,

such as we see in the hardwood forest

where we have very large older trees

and we have younger understory trees, we have younger

shrubbler species.

So comparing and contrasting these two images

on the upper right, we can talk about

higher species composition diversity of the hardwood forest

relative to the pine forest,

and higher age-class composition of the hardwood forest

versus the pine forest.

The third concept has to do

with vertical-horizontal structure.

I talked about this slide in the lower right hand side

in my last lecture where we can talk about

typically a hardwood forest, a deciduous forest,

as containing four levels or four layers of vegetation.

The overstory or canopy layer which are the large trees,

and we can see the large canopy trees in this image

on the upper right being these large trees

whose trunks we can see

in the foreground and in the background.

And then understory species, these are trees

that are smaller than the overstory or canopy species.

They are acclimated to growing in lower light conditions,

and they are the trees that we see growing underneath

of the high canopy

of the overstory trees.

Thirdly is the shrub layer, in the shrub layer,

we can see underneath of the

understory species.

And finally, the ground cover layer.

So we can see that in the deciduous forest,

we have much greater structural diversity,

much greater age-class diversity,

and much greater species composition diversity.

Second principle is to favor native species

over exotic or invasive species.

These are wetland plants, the blue lobelia,

the Joe Pye weed, and golden Alexanders.

These are native plants that are often used

in introduced wetland communities.

They are also found quite commonly

in natural occurring wetland communities.

The use of native species as opposed to exotic

or invasive species, you're much more likely to wind up

with a more diverse and sustainable plant community,

and you have longer term realization of the desired

habitat-water quality benefits in the landscape.

So the second principle, then, is generally speaking

to favor native species over exotic species,

and certainly over species that become invasive.

Third principle has to do with patch size and shape.

Again, patch is a stand of a particular cover type,

and we can talk about the size of that patch.

And generally speaking, we want to,

in terms of promoting biological diversity,

we want to favor large patch size that provides more area

for a greater diversity of species.

In comparing these two images here,

we can see a large patch and a smaller patch.

Relatively speaking, the large patch

has significantly more area to support

a much larger number of species.

Not only a greater number of species,

but a greater diversity of species that are more difficult

to establish within the smaller patch.

So generally speaking, favoring larger patch sizes,

either in terms of retaining patches

in the existing landscape or in planting new patches

generally favor as large a patch size as is practical,

that provides a greater diversity of species.

Secondly is the notion of maximizing interior core area

to promote habitat for both core and edge species.

Now we can look at these two images at the top here,

and we can see that one of them is very round

and the other one is shaped like an amoeba.

They both are approximately the same area,

it's just that the area is spread out differently,

concentrated in the case of the circular patch,

and again, the amoeba shape in the

instance of the right hand patch.

Both of them have approximately the same area.

The close-hatched area represents

what we call edge conditions.

These are conditions where the patch

is coming into direct contact with the surrounding matrix.

The white colored area around the patch

is part of the matrix,

the patch itself has two kinds of conditions.

One is edge conditions which are where

there is a transition from matrix conditions

to the interior of the patch,

and then the other is the interior conditions themselves.

The differentiation between edge conditions

and interior conditions is important

because there are certain species,

especially in forest communities,

but also in grassland communities, and other communities,

they will only breed in areas where they don't have

the same level of exchange with the surrounding matrix,

That is to say, where they are protected

from the deleterious impacts of the matrix

on promoting biological diversity.

And when we create a patch

that has a very defined core area that is protected

by an edge area,

we can generally talk about that patch as having

a higher likelihood of greater biological diversity

than a patch whose total area

is consumed more by edge conditions.

So in the upper diagram here, the patch on the left,

because of the higher proportion of the patch

that is in core conditions, will have a, generally speaking,

higher level of biological diversity.

Favor less patch-matrix interaction

that decreases core area diversity,

goes back to what I was just talking about.

The edge conditions, the presence of edge conditions

helps protect the core area

from the interaction of deleterious influences,

either wind or species that invade the patch

and prey upon interior area species.

Favoring less patch-matrix interaction decreases.

Favoring less interaction is going to promote

higher levels of biological diversity.

Finally, dealing with patch shape,

this lower slide shows an example of a patch

that has a pretty good regular shape to it.

High amount of core area as well as edge conditions,

and then it has tendrils that reach out

into the surrounding landscape to help connect this patch

to other patches in the adjacent landscape.

So favoring geometric patch shapes

with tendrils reaching out into the matrix

is another concept relating to patch size and shape

to help promote biological diversity.

The fourth concept has to do with the edges,

the edges between the patches themselves and the matrix.

And the edges we can think of as being hard edges

such as this pine, this edge between

a pine community and the surrounding matrix

where we have a very abrupt vertical transition

from the canopy vegetation of the pine trees

to the openness of the matrix.

And we have a very straight horizontal line,

horizontal edges

are very straight.

That can be contrasted with the condition

on the left hand side where we have a gradual transition

from the forest species themselves,

the species reaching out into the surrounding landscape

creating a smoother transition

between the openness of the matrix conditions

and the dense canopy of the core conditions.

This color image down here shows that smooth transition

more illustratively, and we can see the forest landscape

then gradually transitioning into the openness

of the matrix conditions.

So again, trying to moderate the relationship

between the core conditions, the edge conditions,

and the conditions in the surrounding matrix,

and trying to soften the edges

so that they are not so hard edges in terms of

vertical orientation or horizontal orientation.

The fifth principle is creating clusters

of similar patch types to promote more species movement

and better meta-population dynamics.

You may remember from the biodiversity lecture

that I talked about meta-population dynamics

as interaction of species in one patch

with the similar species in another patch,

and the greater

the interaction between the subpopulations,

the higher the biological diversity

that's going to be maintained over time.

So creating clusters of similar patch types

to promote more species movement

and better meta-population dynamics is an important concept.

We can see that in the images on the left.

The upper left image shows two patches,

whereas the upper right image shows five patches.

The level of interaction then, between the five patches,

the probability of interaction is much higher

than is true for any of the single patches

on the left hand side.

We can see in the lower left diagram,

the nearby patches

allow for species movement between and among

different meta-populations that exist within each of these

patches.

Then on the upper right hand side, we see the connection

between a large patch on the left hand side

and a large patch on the right hand side

by a series of stepping stones.

These are patches that species can use to move

from this large patch to another large patch.

And the stepping stones, there are enough of them

so that there are a diverse number of pathways

by which a species could move

from the patch on the left hand side

to the patch on the right hand side.

So the presence of stepping stones between patches

helps interaction between species in one patch

and species in another patch,

and the presence of multiple pathways,

a circuitous pathway allowing species to move

through multiple pathways

helps to promote overall increases in biological diversity.

Promoting redundant and circuitous networks

of patch connectivity.

We can see that nicely illustrated in the center diagram.

We have the same number of patches,

one, two, three, four, five patches,

but in the right hand diagram,

we can see that almost every one of these patches

is connected by a corridor to another patch.

So the likelihood of interaction

among all five of the patches is much higher

than the situation on the left hand side

where there are corridors that link, at most,

two patches together.

So we have the same amount of core area,

but there's less interaction between species

in one core area versus species in another core area

on the left hand side than is true

for the image on the right hand side.

So trying to produce redundant networks

that allow for multiple pathways of movement

between and among the patches

is a way to enhance biological diversity.

We can see a couple of instances,

the image immediately on the right,

the areas that are dashed lines

represent core area conditions,

and where there are multiple pathways

that allow connectivity between one core area

and another core area.

Again, the biological diversity is going to be enhanced.

We can also see that in this

image on the lower right where we have multiple patches

that are fairly sizable,

and there are multiple pathways of connection

between and among them,

allowing species to move through multiple paths

across the landscape.

Than then, providing significantly higher amounts

of biological diversity than just the patches by themselves

without any connectivity,

and certainly also providing more biological diversity

than the situation where there was only one corridor system

that connected the patches.

The stepping stones that we talked about earlier,

we can see that here, and we can see the influence

of removing a stepping stone.

For example, in the second image from the left here,

we see three stepping stones connecting this patch

with another patch.

On the far right hand side of this image,

we can see direct connectivity,

corridor connectivity between one patch and another patch.

Where that corridor connectivity is broken, then,

we have an open space that becomes more difficult

for species from this bottom patch

to interact with species in the upper patch.

We can see the impact of removal of stepping stones

on the right hand side of this image.

Here we have a series of five stepping stones

that are making it possible for species to move

from the top patch to the bottom patch.

Supposing one of those stepping stones is removed

and we wind up with a large gap

in the corridor that once connected.

Even though the corridor was not continuous,

the absence of that stepping stone

makes it more difficult for species from the top patch

to interact with species from the bottom patch.

We can see that also in the diagram

immediately underneath of it where we can see

the removal of this particular stepping stone

makes it much more difficult for species

from these two patches to interact

with species from these three patches in the lower right.

This diagram represents in section view what happens

between the stepping stone concept

that I talked about earlier.

Avian species can fly from one stepping stone patch

to another stepping stone patch, and ground species

can move across the surface of the landscape.

So this notion of stepping stones, then,

becomes vital to enhancing biological diversity

by connecting, not directly, but indirectly,

one patch with another patch.

This, the two slides in the center here

represent the notion of trying to coordinate

vegetative corridor systems with hydrologic

and physiographic corridor systems in the landscape.

So here we have a riparian or stream landscape

flowing through the landscape

and taking advantage of that stream corridor connection

to promote vegetative corridors that link

the landscape together.

We can talk about these concepts of habitat planning

in multiple settings.

I'm gonna show some images from Washington County

in Minnesota as well as the city of St. Paul

to demonstrate that these concepts can be applied

in the large-scale rural landscape, regional landscape,

but they can also be applied in urbanized landscape,

even in the residential landscape.

So looking at habitat planning in a rural setting,

we can see a situation where we have

the Mississippi River in the background,

the Vermillion River coming up through here,

and the idea then, is to create a corridor

along the Vermillion River that permits species

to be able to move through the landscape,

and then to connect that Vermillion River corridor

with sub-corridors reaching out

into the surrounding landscape,

generally speaking, trying to the extent possible

to follow drainage patterns.

So along small streams and creeks,

we might promote the development

of corridors to help connect the Vermillion River,

large corridor

with conditions in the adjacent landscape.

And we can see that final image, then,

that shows the strength of the Vermillion River corridor

reaching out into the surrounding landscape

by these sub-corridor systems that are following

localized drainage patterns.

Here we can look at connectivity

between the Mississippi River and the St. Croix River

moving across the entirety of Washington County.

And the idea then is picking up existing drainage corridors,

we can see a drainage corridor coming down

into the Mississippi River here on the right hand side,

and another corridor coming down here.

So the idea, then is to

pick up on the hydrologic and physiographic

corridor conditions that exist in landform,

and promote extension

of those corridor conditions to help connect

the Mississippi River to the St. Croix River.

So we can see the hatchered area then,

representing vegetative that has been planted,

or sustained over time to try to

provide a linkage between what's happening

in the St. Croix River landscape

and what's happening in the Mississippi River landscape.

So again, this is the notion of connecting

hydrologic, physiographic corridor systems

with vegetative corridor systems,

using the hydrology, using the physiography

as a basis for figuring out where and how

to promote vegetative corridors.

We can even bring this system into urban areas,

heavily urbanized landscapes.

We can see in St. Paul along the Mississippi River

where we have the St. Paul Seminary,

St. Thomas University, and Macalester College

in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood.

The Macalaster College campus,

the St. Thomas University campus,

and the St. Paul Seminary campus

have a fairly high canopy and a lot of understory,

so relatively speaking, they become

quite significant patches within the urban matrix.

Summit Avenue, the high canopy of Summit Avenue

provides them a corridor connection

between the St. Paul Seminary landscape,

the St. Paul Seminary natural patch,

the St. Thomas University patch,

and the Macalaster College patch.

So we can see, then, this idea of corridor connectivity

being extended now to an urban boulevard

that has a planting concept that is going to promote

movement of species between and among

these three different large natural,

natural areas,

and, also provide connectivity to the Mississippi River.

In the residential context, we can take this same idea

and start to talk about backyard plantings,

rear-property plantings

and sideline plantings

where we are essentially helping to promote species movement

by providing continuous cover conditions,

allowing species to move

within the residential area.

Here we can see an illustration

of what a side lot corridor condition

might actually look like.

So we can see, again, this notion of a node

at the intersection of rear lot lines

and side lot lines.

The rear lot line corridor

moving throughout the neighborhood and the side lot lines

connecting the rear corridor systems within the,

and adjacent to the streetscape.

And we can even take this right down to the scale

of the individual residence and begin to talk about

habitat planting at the residential scale.

Again, looking at the relationship of an individual lot

to its surrounding neighborhood,

and begin to think about how can we promote

movement of species along side property lines

and rear property lines by vegetating them

with multi-tiered

corridor systems

and we can see what that generally might look like.

The argument that one always hears is that you can't do that

because we need to have a backyard,

or we need to have a front yard.

And indeed, in this particular design, the backyard,

most, probably over 2/3 of the backyard is preserved.

So we do in fact have the open space

for active use of the backyard,

yet we've also provided habitat conditions

that allow for urban wildlife and plant species

to be able to thrive in an urban condition.

Thank you very much.