Subject:  Viridian Note OOO56:  Viridian Commentary

Key concepts:  urban wildlife, biodiversity

Attention Conservation Notice:   Who are these people?

Links:
http://www.bespoke.org/viridian
http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades


Entries in the Viridian Teakettle Design Contest:
http://www.stewarts.org/users/stewarts/teakettl.html
http://www.dnai.com/~catnhat/teapots.htm
http://www.interlog.com/~shamann/
http://www.powerbase-alpha.com/bigmike/teakettle.html
http://www.altguides.com/teapot/
http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades/viridian/olga.html

*********************************************************
The winner of the Viridian Teakettle Contest is Ocean 
Quigley, whose work was found to be "previously 
unimaginable."  Ocean Quigley's contest prize is a big 
hefty copy of *Art Nouveau* by Gabriele Fahr-Becker.
**********************************************************

From: Cassandra Thomas (cthomas@10fold.com^^^*):

In response to Note 00055, I present this website to you:

http://ser.org/

This organization works to recognize efforts to restore 
habitat.  For instance, Dr. Thomas J. Goreau and Wolf 
Hilbertz  of Global Coral Reef Alliance, have pioneered 
the use of solar panels to grow large limestone structures 
in the sea.  These sustainable structures might also 
protect shorelines from erosion and rising sea levels.

   A forthcoming conference in September in San Francisco 
concerns   "Ecological Restoration of Public Lands:  
Watershed Politics and Management, Community, Connection 
and Stewardship."   They plan to discuss ways to 
accomplish restoration on the personal level as well as 
the large scale.  It sounds promising.

    I respect the goals of this organization.  They have 
inspired me to come up with a more "systems" approach to 
replanting the acreage my s.o. owns in Hawaii.  We want to 
reintroduce native vegetation. As a side note, I include:

http://www.hawaii.gov/health/oeqc/eioegidx.htm

    This is an interesting handbook for planting your 
backyard with native species in an attempt to restore a 
native ecosystem == at least on your own property. Many 
alien species in Hawaii are escaped  ornamental ones 
originally planted in gardens. However, I heard from park 
rangers on my trip to the big island this year that koa 
and  other native trees are making a comeback.

Hope this helps,  Cassandra Thomas


From:  Michael Goldhaber (mgoldh@well.com^^^**)

Bruce,
I  fully agree with  your idea of  urban wildlife refuges. 
Consider the sea lions, hundreds of them, who have decided 
to make their home at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Around 
here == semi-suburban Oakland == deer, raccoons, skunks, 
opossum, coyote and even mountain lions are making a 
return. It is not really a refuge of course, but merely a 
new kind of ecological niche many animals and plants can 
fill.  It is part of a new, humanly constructed bio-
diversity that would seem to be the only realistic hope 
for the future.

Michael Goldhaber
http://www.well.com/user/mgoldh/


From: Alex Steffen  (steffen@ems.org^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****)
Re: Viridian Note OOO55:  Biodiversity Maps

Ironic, that when I pulled up the biodiversity map page, 
the first thing that loaded was a Subaru four-wheel drive 
ad of an SUV cruising over a meadow.
alex

From:  Steve Cisler (cisler@pobox.com^^^**)
Re:  Note 00055 

"..dwindling herds of the blue-tongued mango vole."

Well, I saw a couple of these, but they were on a serving 
tray at Chez Butch's in Palo Alto.


From AdrianC@frogdesign.com^* 
Re: Viridian Note OOO55:  Biodiversity Maps

   "For the sake of breaking up the trance, there should 
have been one or two maps showing *expanding*  ranges for 
natural organisms in today's environment.   Zebra mussels, 
crabgrass and anopheles mosquitoes leap to mind, as do 
domestic fleas, Asian cockroaches and walking  catfish."

There was a very good article in Harper's magazine about 
such expanding species: referring to them as "weedy" 
species. Weedy species are species that thrive in my 
different environments and tend to choke out their 
competitors and species in neighboring niches.

Pigs in Australia
Goats in the Galapagos
Red foxes in California
All sorts of plant species in California
the little fire ants

Of course, the punchline of the article is that man is the 
ultimate weedy species. And maybe the only species that 
survive us will be species  that are similar to us in one 
important aspect == that they are able to adapt to many 
different environments and conditions.


From: "Obstinately Persistent Idealist" 
(jczemek@ouray.cudenver.edu^*) 
Re: Viridian Note OOO55:  Biodiversity Maps

     What, in your experience, is the breaking point of 
apathy in the average US citizen?   Does "art" lower this 
point faster/better than politics?  I suspect you think 
so, and that's (one reason) why you're trying to foster an 
art/design movement and minimize the political action 
aspect.  Admittedly, I've trouble remembering this on 
occasion, although I'd *rather* participate in a design 
movement myself (as it de-emphasises the defensive, 
hopeless stance you mention).

      I just wonder what we could do as individuals along 
the lines of expanding urban biodiversity.  It reminds me 
of the guerrilla gardening note, and while it seems much 
more difficult, it also seems more worthwhile.  The Feds 
are having enough trouble reintroducing wolves to the 
wild; exactly which noncuddly species would stand a chance 
at surviving their urban transplanting?  

     Here in Denver, prairie dogs, which have generally 
been tolerated, are now under serious attack as plague 
spreading (laughable), eyesore-creating (??), horse-
injuring (burrows on suburban spreads) nuisances to be 
deported to the plains, where of course the farmers also 
cite all the aforementioned complaints.  Don't get 'em 
started on what's to be done with such horrifying critters 
as coyotes and rattlers (personally, I'd LOVE to see them 
around).

        If we can't even tolerate a relatively innocuous 
and fairly cute species like prairie dogs, how are we 
supposed to generate a mindset conducive to reurbanizing 
large/intrusive/reptilian critters? (I wish we could get 
past the mammal/raptor requirement for attracting public 
attention to an animal's plight)  I think the best way to 
catalyze this sort of thinking is to envision new city 
shapes: condensed, elevated, reintroduce the city wall as 
a growth restrictor and a wildlife barrier.

    Or, taking the opposite extreme, no wall and no roads, 
with travel conducted along skyways ("futuristic," indeed) 
while wildlife occupy the ground level.  I think bison in 
the skyscraper (a new twist on "grain elevator", to be 
sure) sounds cool, but will it work if they continually 
stop traffic on the ground level?

        It won't be enough to plan a wildlife refuge in 
the city; the city will have to plan around the wildlife, 
for we're the ones who'll be able to adapt to them.   The 
opposite will occur rarely, especially with the 
large/intrusive/venomous contingent.  

      This is certainly an interesting design challenge.  
If you're considering the focus for the next contest, this 
is my vote. 

Joe--Astrolinguist, Marginal Prophet, & Nanoscale 
Chairborne Vortex
Glen Canyon Dam delenda est.

(((bruces remarks:  if every wolf and rattler in Denver 
had an IP address and a global locator chip, they would 
soon be re-interpreted by city fathers as a major quality-
of-life asset.)))