Landscape Architect Quarterly 08/ Features The Cutest Nuisances ...

Publication # 40026106

Landscape Architect Quarterly

08/ Features The Cutest Nuisances12/ Public Creatures

14/ RoundTable Critters and Conflict

22/ Barcoding Life 26/ Sodding Raccoons!

Winter2015 Issue 32

32

02Section .30

FPO

A NEW DIMENSION IN URBAN PAVERSTranspavé provides landscape architects with a full array of urban grade paving solutions for heavy and light trac as well as pedestrian applications.

Transpavé large dimensional pavers incorporate peripheral grooves to maximize the interlocking e�ect for long-term stability.

Upgrade to urban grade and you’ll see the di�erence.

To schedule a product presentation, contact Devin Stuebing, CET at (647) 938-1656.

Find out more by viewing New Dimensions in Urban Landscaping at transpave.com/video.

Nom du document : 1122_Transpave_UrbanAd_Ground31 ÉPREUVE STUDIO D.A. CLIENT

Client : Transpavé Campagne : Fall 2015

1Format trim (pces) : 9 x 11,75 po. Publication : Ground Magazine #31

Bleed : 0,25 po. Ville/région : SERV. CLIENT RELECTURE

Rédacteur/Réviseur : Parution : Sept. / Oct. 2015

Pers. ress. : Diane Bazinet Linéature : 100 lpi Échelle : 100%

Infographiste : Patrick Hay Couleur : CMYK August 3, 2015 4:07 PM

Impression à

100 %

Contents

Winter 2015Issue 32

President’sMessage

Editorial Board Message

03/ Up Front Information on the Ground

Creatures:

08/ The Cutest Nuisances TexT and CompilaTion by emily Waugh

12/ Public Creatures Calm cows in the downtown core TexT by Claire nelisCher

14/ Round Table Critters and conflict Co-moderaTed by neTami sTuarT, oala, shannon baker, oala,

and ruThanne henry, oala

22/ Barcoding Life Advances in eDNA TexT by ian king and sTeven hill

26/ Sodding Raccoons! The battle gets personal TexT by eriC gordon, oala

28/ Letter From...Iran Inside/outside: Persian gardens TexT by Jill Cherry

32/ Notes A miscellany of news and events

42/ Artifact Going to the dogs TexT by shannon baker, oala

President’s MessageThis past year has seen many advances in

OALA programs and services to the benefit of the

membership. Many active members have contributed

fresh perspectives and unique approaches. As we

move forward in this new year, we will continue to

realize the benefits of this participation.

The OALA’s 48th Annual General Meeting & Conference

will take place on April 1, 2016, in beautiful Niagara Falls.

The suitably themed Landscape Architecture and Tourism

is sure to inspire. The AGM Planning Task Force, led by

Sandra Neal and comprised of the Continuing Education

Committee, supported by OALA staff, is developing

an excellent program for the event. Plan to attend for

speakers, networking, the AGM, awards ceremony, and

more. We look forward to seeing you there!

The OALA is pleased to announce a new addition to

our office team. Sarah Manteuffel, the new Coordinator

for Communications & Marketing, officially started

in December, 2015. Sarah holds a Bachelor of

Environmental Design from the University of Manitoba

and has an employment background in graphic

design, media, and marketing. She has considerable

experience in the non-profit sector gained through on-

going volunteer involvement in the arts and athletics

communities. As Coordinator for Communications &

Marketing, Sarah works closely with senior association

staff to deliver member programs and services aligned

with the strategic plan and in accordance with the

organizational chart. Welcome Sarah!

A new contract position has been created to support

Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly. Since 2008,

the association’s celebrated and award-winning print

publication has provided a voice for our profession

across the province—and beyond. The OALA Web

Content Editor will oversee the online posting of written

and visual material from the print edition and create a

social media promotions strategy. The Ontario landscape

architectural perspective will benefit from increased

exposure to a wider audience, including affiliated

professionals and the public at large.

Thank you to the many volunteers who have

generously contributed their time and expertise this

past year. I also wish to acknowledge Aina Budrevics,

OALA Administrator, for her exceptional commitment

to the OALA and continued work to the benefit of the

membership. Together, as volunteers working with

dedicated staff, you have made a positive impact on

our profession and helped to make 2015 a success!

sarah Culp, oalaoala presidenT

Editorial Board MessageHumans have a complex yet close relationship with

the non-humans of the earth, from the unseen and

microscopic to the furry and huggable.

Co-moderated by Netami Stuart, Shannon Baker, and

Ruthanne Henry, the Creatures Round Table explores our

relationship with wilder animals in urban settings, with

an emphasis on understanding unintended habitats and

mixed ecologies. Also in this issue, Emily Waugh provides

an atlas of global urban wildlife; Claire Nelischer asks

us to look again at Joe Fafard’s sculpture The Pasture to

ponder its message about our own habitat; Ian King and

Steven Hill review emerging genetic-based approaches

to species identification; and, Eric Gordon echoes many of

our travails with raccoons when we are gardening in an

urban environment.

In our semi-regular column Letter From..., Jill Cherry

showcases Persian gardens in Iran and expands our

vocabulary of garden design.

The Editorial Board wishes you a wonderful winter

season and all the very best in 2016.

Todd smiTh, oalaChair, ediTorial board

Masthead OALA OALA.32 .32

About Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published

by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects

and provides an open forum for the exchange of

ideas and information related to the profession of

landscape architecture. Letters to the editor, article

proposals, and feedback are encouraged. For submission

guidelines, contact Ground at [email protected].

Ground reserves the right to edit all submissions.

The views expressed in the magazine are those

of the writers and not necessarily the views of the

OALA and its Governing Council.

Advisory PanelAndrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage

Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman

Botanic Garden

John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor,

University of Toronto

George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal,

Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto

Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape

Architects, Toronto

Donna Hinde, OALA, Partner, The Planning

Partnership, Toronto

Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect,

Novatech, Ottawa

Alissa North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of

Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto

Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University

of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto

Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate

Professor, University of Guelph

Jim Vafiades, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect,

Stantec, London

’s environmental savings with Cascades paperGround is printed on paper manufactured in Canada by

Cascades with 100% post-consumer waste using biogas

energy (methane from a landfill site) and is EcoLogo, Processed

Chlorine Free (PCF) certified, as well as FSC® certified.

Compared to products in the industry made with

100% virgin fiber, Ground: Landscape Architect

Quarterly ’s savings are:

About the OALA The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects works

to promote and advance the profession of landscape

architecture and maintain standards of professional practice

consistent with the public interest. The OALA promotes

public understanding of the profession and the advance-

ment of the practice of landscape architecture. In support

of the improvement and/or conservation of the natural,

cultural, social and built environments, the OALA undertakes

activities including promotion to governments,

professionals and developers of the standards and

benefits of landscape architecture.

EditorLorraine Johnson

Photo EditorTodd Smith

OALA Editorial BoardShannon Baker

Doris Chee

Michael Cook

Eric Gordon

Ruthanne Henry

Jocelyn Hirtes

Vincent Javet

Han Liu

Graham MacInnes

Kate Nelischer

Denise Pinto

Tamar Pister

Phil Pothen

Maili Sedore

Todd Smith (chair)

Netami Stuart

Dalia Todary-Michael

Art Direction/Designwww.typotherapy.com

Advertising [email protected]

416.231.4181

CoverSalamander eggs attached to

red-osier dogwood. Photograph by

Steve Hill. See page 22.

Ground: Landscape Architect

Quarterly is published four times a

year by the Ontario Association of

Landscape Architects.

Ontario Association of

Landscape Architects

3 Church Street, Suite 506

Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2

416.231.4181

www.oala.ca

[email protected]

Copyright © 2016 by the Ontario

Association of Landscape Architects

All rights reserved

ISSN: 0847-3080

Canada Post Sales Product

Agreement No. 40026106

2016 OALA Governing Council

presidentSarah Culp

vice presidentDoris Chee

TreasurerJane Welsh

secretaryChris Hart

past presidentJoanne Moran

CouncillorsDavid Duhan

Sarah Marsh

Sandra Neal

associate Councillor—seniorKatherine Peck

associate Councillor—JuniorMaren Walker

lay CouncillorLinda Thorne

appointed educatoruniversity of TorontoPeter North

appointed educatoruniversity of guelphSean Kelly

university of Toronto student representativeJordan Duke

university of guelph student representativeChen Zixiang

OALA Staff

registrarLinda MacLeod

administratorAina Budrevics

CoordinatorSarah Manteuffel

upcoming issues of GroundGround 33 (Spring)

Scale

Deadline for advertising space reservations:

February 1, 2016

Ground 34 (Summer)

Question

Deadline for editorial proposals:

March 7, 2016


April 18, 2016

Ground 35 (Fall)

Edges


June 6, 2016


July 13, 2016

Ground 36 (Winter)

Data


September 12, 2016


October 10, 2016

15 trees

55,306 l of water 158 days of water consumption

838 kg of waste 17 waste containers

2,178 kg Co2 14,566 km driven

25 gJ 113,860 60W light bulbs for one hour

6 kg nox emissions of one truck during 20 days

www.cascades.com/papers

03UpFront .32

UpFront: Information on the Ground

SuNdiaLS

timeanddesign

Victoria Lister Carley, OALA, a landscape

architect who often designs large country

estates, recently had an unusual request

from a client: “We have a wall, so how about

a sundial?” Carley thought the idea was

“grand,” but there was a problem: the wall

faces northwest.

Sundials placed flat on the ground are

relatively easy to install in a way that makes

them tell time with some measure of accuracy,

but wall-mounted units, particularly those with

limited solar access, are a different story.

As Carley notes: “Why include a sundial

if it doesn’t tell time? That would be silly.”

Most of the reference books she consulted

focused on ground units, but Carley had

seen wall-mounted sundials in Britain, so

knew it was possible.

While researching the options, she came

across the experts she needed—the North

American Sundial Society. “These fellows are

amazing,” says Carley. She connected with a

sundial designer in Victoria, British Columbia—

Roger Bailey, Walking Shadow Designs—and

they worked together to produce a fixture that

was both decorative and functional.

01

02

First, Carley had to get exact scientific

coordinates for the location, accurate to

within 1 degree. Bailey then calculated the

positioning that would work. On site they

made a gnomon (a stylus, in effect—and

“a good Scrabble word,” notes Carley) from

a nail hammered into a piece of wood,

and used it to measure where the shadow

would fall on a particular day and time.

Using that information to confirm his original

calculations, Bailey then fine-tuned the

configuration. “The mathematics of it just

blew my mind,” says Carley.

The aesthetics, of course, were more imagi-

native than scientific. The owner of the estate,

near Creemore, Ontario, is a Beatrix Potter

fan, and Carley, herself an animal lover,

drew her inspiration from this popular British

children’s author, famous for her Peter Rabbit

books and others. The design represents

bunny rabbits in the grass set within a frame

based on the doorway to Ms. Potter’s house,

Hilltop. Although cute in conception, the

design is quite stylized and the mechanics

of it were solid: “It weighs a lot and we had

to make sure the wall could support it.”

A NEW DIMENSION IN URBAN PAVERSTranspavé provides landscape architects with a full array of urban grade paving solutions for heavy and light trac as well as pedestrian applications.

Transpavé large dimensional pavers incorporate peripheral grooves to maximize the interlocking e�ect for long-term stability.

Upgrade to urban grade and you’ll see the di�erence.

To schedule a product presentation, contact Devin Stuebing, CET at (647) 938-1656.

Find out more by viewing New Dimensions in Urban Landscaping at transpave.com/video.

Nom du document : 1122_Transpave_UrbanAd_Ground31 ÉPREUVE STUDIO D.A. CLIENT

Client : Transpavé Campagne : Fall 2015

1Format trim (pces) : 9 x 11,75 po. Publication : Ground Magazine #31

Bleed : 0,25 po. Ville/région : SERV. CLIENT RELECTURE

Rédacteur/Réviseur : Parution : Sept. / Oct. 2015

Pers. ress. : Diane Bazinet Linéature : 100 lpi Échelle : 100%

Infographiste : Patrick Hay Couleur : CMYK August 3, 2015 4:07 PM

Impression à

100 %

The result is a whimsical statement, specific

to the site and to the client’s interests—and

unique in Ontario. “No one else has done

one like this in recent history,” says Carley,

clearly proud of surmounting this unusual

design challenge. “I couldn’t for the life of

me have figured it out on my own,” she

notes, but with help from experts in an

arcane art, the sundial is up and keeping

track of time’s passage.

TexT By LoRRaiNe JohNSoN, The ediToR of Ground.

03

05

04

01-02/ VictoriaListerCarley,OALA,recently designedasundialforalargecountry propertynearCreemore,Ontario.

iMaGeS/ VictoriaListerCarley

03/ ThedesignincorporatesaBeatrix Pottermotif. iMaGe/ VictoriaListerCarley

04/ Woodmock-up iMaGe/ VictoriaListerCarley

05/ Thewall-mountedsundialin situ iMaGe/ VictoriaListerCarley

04UpFront .32

Local residents of Roncesvalles Village, in

Toronto’s west end, might wonder why

city planners seem to have overlooked

the triangular intersection of Roncesvalles

Avenue and Dundas Street West when they

carried out the 2011 Roncesvalles Avenue

streetscape improvements. Mary Tremain,

a partner at PLANT Architect, was curious

enough to make some inquiries with the

city’s planning department—inquiries that

led to the design and installation of a small

parkette at the intersection.

A red brick building built in 1911 for the

Merchants Bank of Canada sits squarely

on the triangular site and presides over the

small open space in columned, corbelled

dignity. To pedestrians, cyclists, and streetcar

passengers, the position of the building in

the centre of the “Y” intersection gives the

building and the space in front of it a strong

visual prominence.

The intersection represents the threshold

between two neighbourhoods: Roncesvalles

Village to the south and High Park to the

northwest. Hence, when Tremain received

a positive response to her inquiries, she

and PLANT’s Andrea Mantin saw an

opportunity to create a gateway to

Roncesvalles Village and a community

space that connected people to the

streetscape. The result is the Dundas

Roncesvalles Peace Garden.

An exploration of the site’s constraints (“there

were many, many constraints,” according

to Tremain), presented challenges, primary

among them the whopping number of utili-

ties. Overhead TTC wires and underground

Toronto Hydro and Bell utilities meant that

all new construction needed to occur above

ground. This imposed limitations on the size

and scope of the project to design a small

garden for the site.

In Tremain and Mantin’s initial concepts, a

planted bed wrapped around the building,

but at the request of Starbucks, the former

bank building’s sole occupant, they scaled

back the soft surface and created a separate

sidewalk immediately in front of the store. The

final footprint, approximately 100m2, left little

room for three trees that the community had

requested during the public consultation

process. The initial budget of $80,000

increased somewhat to accommodate the

changing footprint. (According to Tremain, the

fees for small projects like this one are “not

always commensurate with the costs.”)

When the project is finished in the spring of

2016, a centrally located red oak tree will

stand sentinel to the Roncesvalles neigh-

bourhood and will punctuate the gritty,

exposed streetscape with cooling shade.

The redesigned intersection will also

feature a circular open area surrounded

by raised planting beds and high-end

curved wood seating. Salt-tolerant

grasses and perennials will block some

of the traffic and create a respite from the

heat. This circular area mimics in built

form a motif that Tremain envisioned

when exploring the concept of a threshold.

When the paving in this area is complete,

two rings of contrasting engraved pavers

will overlap, visually representing the joining

of the two neighbourhoods.

Beyond the circular open area, bands of

granite and luminescent pavers will create

more dynamic paving in the walkway in front

CoMMuNiTy SPaCeS

apeacegarden

06

07

08

09

06/ TheDundasRoncesvallesPeace Garden’sdesignisbasedontheidea ofathreshold.

iMaGe/ PLANTArchitectInc.

07-08/ Curved“Rough&ReadyBenchTops” installedintheNetherlands iMaGeS/ CourtesyofCMStreetlife

09/ SchematicdrawingoftheDundas RoncesvallesPeaceGarden iMaGe/ PLANTArchitectInc.

10/ Renderingofanearlierphasein designdevelopment iMaGe/ PLANTArchitectInc.

05UpFront .32

of the Starbucks. Some of these pavers have

been engraved by school children, others

by an artist from the First Nations community.

Two straight benches, carefully sited to

take advantage of view corridors of the

neighbouring streets, Bousted Street and

Dundas Avenue, will provide seating while still

ensuring a sense of prospect and refuge.

The community has been behind the

Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden since

the beginning. And when local residents or

visitors pause in the garden, either to sip a

coffee while sitting on a bench or to meet

a friend under the limbs of a stately tree,

they’ll do so in a community space that has

become much more than a desolate and

overlooked intersection.

TexT By CoRiNNe MeadowS, BLa, who ReCeived heR CeRTifiCaTe iN PRofeSSioNaL CoMMuNiCaTioN fRoM The uNiveRSiTy of ToRoNTo, aNd ReCeNTLy LauNChed heR wRiTiNG BuSiNeSS (www.ThewoRdBiSTRo.CoM).

11

10

12

13

14

11/ RoncesvallesAvenueandDundas Streetintersectionduringconstruction

iMaGe/ CorinneMeadows

12/ Seatwallunderconstruction iMaGe/ CorinneMeadows

13/ SomepaverswereengravedbyaFirst Nationsartistandsomebylocalchildren. iMaGe/ CorinneMeadows

14/ Thecurvedbench,underconstruction, willraisethestandardofstreetfurniturein theneighbourhood. iMaGe/ CorinneMeadows

06UpFront .32

aRT

thrivingkitchenerscene

The plan is to construct a pedestal in

the middle of an open, unused building. When two or more people link hands

and touch the pedestal, an electric field

will be created and interpreted through

lights and sound bouncing off the building

walls. It’s interactivity at its best, relying on

the willingness of strangers to touch, and

changing based on the unique quality of

personal electric fields.

This installation, by French collective

Scenocosme, is just one of the works

planned for CAFKA, the Contemporary Art

Forum Kitchener and Area. CAFKA is an

artist-run organization that presents a

biennial exhibition of contemporary

art throughout Kitchener, Waterloo,

and Cambridge.

CAFKA was founded in 2001 by a group of

Kitchener-based artists. The first project was

at the Kitchener City Hall plaza, and subse-

quent years saw the exhibition expand to

other public spaces, and to privately owned,

publicly accessible spaces.

“We’re looking for artists to activate public

spaces,” says CAFKA Executive Director

Gordon Hatt. “We think carefully about the

degree to which proposals integrate the

concept of public space.”

Through its growth, CAFKA has become

a fixture in the local community. The

2014 exhibition drew 91 volunteers who

lent 3,500 hours of work. Local residents

are encouraged to participate as artists,

spectators, critics, and guides. “It involves

people who don’t necessarily go to art

galleries,” says Hatt. “It engages the entire

community in debates on contemporary

art and its role in our lives.”

Earlier this year, the organization distributed

an open call for applications for the June,

2016, exhibition. Submissions were reviewed

by the Board of Directors, and, to date,

ten works have been selected, with more

anticipated. Each year the pieces vary widely,

including sculptural, social practice, relational,

digital, performance, and land art. Local,

national, and international artists are included.

15

15/ SamuelRoyBois,TheBrittle Edges of Coherence,2014 iMaGe/ RobertMcNair

16/ LucyHowe,Wilt II,2011 iMaGe/ GordonHatt

16

07UpFront .32

Landscape architect Michelle Purchase,

OALA, joined the CAFKA Board earlier this

year. “I haven’t had that much fun in a long

time,” she says of the submission review

process. Purchase is the first landscape

architect to sit on the Board, and she sees

great potential for the profession to be

represented within the organization and

through the exhibitions: “They’re landscape

projects as much as they are art projects.”

Since its founding, CAFKA has garnered

substantial support. The City of Kitchener

and the City of Waterloo are key funders,

Christie Digital serves as a lead corporate

sponsor, and the Ontario Arts Foundation

and other granting programs offer support.

Having exhibited more than 189 projects

by 175 artists over its 14 years of operation,

CAFKA undoubtedly operates at an interna-

tional level. However, it remains committed

to its founding principles of strengthening

the local arts scene and engaging residents.

When asked about the core mission of

the organization, Hatt replies simply:

“Our ambition is to be a thriving part of

this community.”

CAFKA’s upCominG exhibition tAKes plACe in June, 2016.

TexT By KaTe NeLiSCheR, a SeNioR PuBLiC CoNSuLTaTioN CooRdiNaToR aT The CiTy of ToRoNTo, aNd a MeMBeR of The Ground ediToRiaL BoaRd.

20/ WaltervanBroekhuisen,The Green Room,2011 iMaGe/ JKBedford

21/ ImagebyphotographerJimmyLimit, whowillbeexhibitingatCAFKA16. iMaGe/ JimmyLimit

17-18/ Swintak,The Gallows,2014 iMaGeS/ RobertMcNair

19/ BrokenCityLab,ReflectOn Here,2011 iMaGe/ JKBeford

20

18

19

21

17

08TheCutestNuisances

.32

Problems CausedThese masked creatures have become

the unofficial symbol of Toronto—the

raccoon capital of the world. Despite their

cultural status as mascot and symbol, rac-

coons have irked city residents with nightly

domestic disruptions: upsetting garbage

bins, nesting in attics, chewing through

screen doors, fighting, and digging up

gardens. Their roundworm larvae-laden

feces can be harmful to children and pets.

As these highly adaptable animals be-

come more entitled (I have had more than

one raccoon let herself into my home),

52 percent of Toronto residents surveyed

support a raccoon cull.

extreme MeasuresControl methods include: limiting access

to food waste, custom locking mechanisms

on compost bins, and live trapping by

private companies. One frustrated resident

attacked a family of raccoons with a shovel

and has since been charged with cruelty

to animals, issued a fine, and ordered to

perform 100 hours of community service.

In the midst of whispers about culls,

Toronto’s mayor, John Tory—who

jokingly equates feeding raccoons

with high treason—has launched a

war on “raccoon nation,” including the

introduction of a $31,000,000 “raccoon

resistant” compost bin program.

ottawa, CanadaBeaver (Castor canadensis)

estimated Pop. 2,500-5,000

Nuisance urban wildlife species highlight the

conflict between human interests and the

natural world. Many of these opportunistic

species are attracted to cities by plentiful

resources. Some (for example, London’s

red foxes) have migrated to cities as their

natural habitats are threatened by human

populations, some are introduced (Hong

Kong’s macaques), and, for some, the city

has gradually expanded into the animal’s

natural habitats (Mumbai’s leopards). All

have adapted to life in the city, and we have

adapted to life with them.

They are often cute and fun to watch.

In some cases, they are the beloved iconic

animals of their regions—until they start to

damage our property, threaten the safety

of our children and pets, and otherwise

inconvenience our urban lifestyles. Then,

they become nuisances and must be

controlled with extreme and/or contro-

versial methods, such as “contraceptive”

pigeon lofts in Paris, snipers to kill

foxes in London, and massive culls of

kangaroos in Canberra, Australia.

These so-called “nuisance” species

cause severe damage to our designed

landscapes, require expensive physical

interventions, and force us to question

what our threshold for ecological diversity

within the city is.

When does a creature become a nuisance

and what do we do about it?

Toronto, CanadaRaccoon (Procyon lotor)

estimated Pop. 100,000-200,000

Problems CausedThe beaver is the national emblem of

Canada. It is featured on our currency, on

our first stamp in 1851, and is an official

symbol of sovereignty (via Royal assent in

1975). But these semi-aquatic rodents can

be destructive. Although beaver dams are

responsible for creating and maintaining

much of Ottawa’s 500-sq-kms of biodiverse

wetlands, they also interfere with municipal

infrastructure—blocking culverts, drains,

stormwater management ponds, and even

flooding land and roads. And, of course,

cutting down city-planted trees.

extreme MeasuresCity-hired trappers kill approximately 150

beavers annually. The practice is widely

protested by advocacy groups, residents,

and local farmers. There is a plan to imple-

ment more “beaver deceivers” (engineered

pond-levellers, diversion dams, and con-

structed fences around bridges and road

culverts), but many feel that the manage-

ment plan is timid and cannot handle the

growing population of urban beavers.

TexT aNd CoMPiLaTioN By eMiLy wauGh


.32

London, englandRed fox (Vulpes vulpes)

estimated Pop. 10,000

Paris, francePigeon (Columba livia)


Moscow, Russiawild dogsestimated Pop. 30,000-35,000

Problems CausedKnown to many in Paris as “flying rats,”

pigeons—and, more specifically, pigeon

poop—have become a major civic nuisance

in the City of Light. Pigeon feces causes

minor irritations like unsittable park

benches, but also major heritage concerns

as many of the cities’ historic limestone

buildings and monuments have been

severely damaged by the acid content

in pigeon poop.

extreme MeasuresFeeding pigeons in Paris is forbidden

by law and could cost “nourrisseurs” up

to �450. The city has also introduced

�20,000 contraceptive pigeon lofts in

its parks and gardens. These 5m-high

structures encourage pigeons to nest,

but discretely shake their eggs to prevent

them from hatching.

Problems CausedAfter London’s postwar suburbs crept further

into their rural surroundings, London’s newly

minted urban foxes adapted well to city

life. They share sidewalks with pedestrians,

ride escalators, and even allow themselves

to be petted. Their offences range from

minor—digging up gardens, scattering

garbage, screeching at night—to more

problematic—attacking pets and chewing

through brake lines on cars. Recently, they

have also snuck their way into a few rare,

but media-friendly situations that heighten

the illusion of their threat: one fox was found

napping on a filing cabinet in the Houses of

Parliament, another broke into the grounds

of Buckingham Palace and reportedly killed

some of the Queen’s pink flamingos. In

2010, 9-month-old twin girls were mauled in

their cribs, and a 4-month-old boy had his

finger bitten off in his home in 2013. Urban

foxes are also to blame for an increase in

mange, a skin disease that affects pet dogs.

extreme MeasuresWhile some feel that the media and the

fox-hunting lobby are trying to “reinvent the

fox as a pest,” others find the nuisance very

real and have hired private snipers to shoot

foxes. Other means of control include elimi-

nating food sources and den opportunities.

Problems CausedMoscow’s stray dog population has been

alive as long as the city itself. At a density

of about 32 per square kilometre, these

dogs are everywhere—in the streets, in-

stitutions, apartment courtyards, and even

riding the metro (some getting on and off

at their regular stops). The stray dogs are

(mostly) beloved by most Muscovites, but

official numbers from 2008 report 20,000

attacks on humans.

extreme MeasuresIn the Soviet era, stray dogs were routinely

captured and killed. Today, animal control

methods are more humane, but most of the

money the government allegedly spends

on shelter and sterilization programs

remains unaccounted for. Some joggers

carry sausage and pepper spray to ward

off attacks, while Internet-based vigilante

“dog hunters” have taken it on themselves

to “clean the city of the fanged pests” by

setting traps of poisoned meat in city parks.

This controversial method is dangerous to

the city’s pet population and a survey shows

that only 9 percent of Russians support

dog hunting.


.32

Problems CausedThese storybook fluffballs are a nuisance

to local gardeners and city planners alike

as they gnaw their way through the city’s

flowers, shrubs, and trees. A large popu-

lation (some call it an infestation) of rabbits

in Grant Park has cost the Park District tens

of thousands of dollars replacing and pro-

tecting vegetation. Soon after the opening

of Millennium Park, rabbits caused more

than $100,000 worth of damage to the

park’s vegetation.

extreme MeasuresIn major parks, bunnies are trapped and

released into nearby woods, and trees

are shielded. Cold winters knock out

about 70 percent of the population each

year, though the rabbit’s oft-referenced

reproductive rate tends to balance this

out. Diseases such as tularemia and a

population of 2,000 coyotes assist in rabbit

management, as well.

Mumbai, indiaLeopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

estimated Pop. 21-35

Chicago, uSaeastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)

estimated Pop. unknown

Problems CausedMumbai’s exploding human population

has pushed the city’s western suburbs into

one of the largest protected urban forests

in the world. The 250,000 Mumbaikars

who live within the boundaries of the

Sanjay Gandhi National Park (and the

more than one million people who live

around its borders) understand that

they share the territory with its original

residents—251 species of birds, 50,000

species of insects, and 40 species of

mammals. Leopards are routinely found

in slums, residential complexes, and

schools, and although these big cats can

usually co-exist with human residents, there

are increasing reports of attacks, with six

fatalities reported since 2011. A 2015 study

showed that pet dogs make up nearly 25

percent of leopards’ diets in the area.

extreme MeasuresMost measures are about learning to live

with these big cats, avoiding contact, and

remembering that mere sightings don’t

equal danger. Other recommendations

include: playing loud music from mobile

phones when walking at night, avoiding after-

dark outdoor bathroom visits, accompanying

children, especially at night, keeping garbage

under control, and kenneling barking dogs

(who attract leopards from up to 400m)

far away from homes.


.32

hong Kong, ChinaRhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) and

Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)


Tokyo, JapanJungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)


Canberra, australiaeastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)


Problems CausedJapan’s increasing waste production

combined with a 2012 law requiring clear

garbage bags has led to a huge growth in

Tokyo’s population of crows. These large

(they can be up to almost 60cm long and

have a wing span of more than 1 metre)

and intelligent birds routinely attack people,

cause electricity blackouts by nesting in

utility poles, and disrupt broadband service

by stealing fibre optic cable to build nests.

extreme MeasuresTrapping in 3- by 6-metre structures in

city parks and then gassing to death; using

yellow plastic garbage bags, which crows

cannot see through; placing wire mesh

over curbside garbage bags to keep beaks

out; deterring with falcons; and working

with crows’ eating habits by collecting res-

taurant garbage at night rather than in the

morning, when crows typically venture out

to feast. The experimental Ginza Honeybee

Project repels crows using 300,000 honey-

bees who are known to aggressively attack

shiny black objects.

Problems CausedAfter years of being fed a diet of junk

food by humans (whom they now pursue

aggressively to get food), Hong Kong’s

macaques have become obese, lazy,

and aggressive. Even renowned prima-

tologist Jane Goodall was reportedly

ambushed by these little monkeys while

picnicking in a local park.

extreme MeasuresA feeding ban has been in place since

1997, which carries with it a maximum

10,000 HKD ($1,685 CND) fine for anyone

caught feeding macaques. After failure to

properly enforce the ban, the government

has turned to birth control—trapping female

monkeys to perform sterilization surgeries.

Problems CausedKangaroos are national icons of Australia.

Though, as Sam Vincent of The Monthly

writes, “We like the kangaroo on our coat

of arms, but aren’t so pleased with it on

our roads.” With more than 5,000 annual

traffic accidents involving kangaroos, 17

percent of Canberra’s drivers report having

collided with a kangaroo at some point.

The (over) abundant population of grey

kangaroos is also blamed for threatening

small grass and woodland species, and

for degrading the kangaroo’s own grass-

land habitats.

extreme MeasuresThe main method for dealing with

the kangaroo population is highly contro-

versial “conservation culling.” In 2015, cull

contractors were licensed to kill more than

2,400 kangaroos in the Australian Capital

Territory. Though some of these contractors

report receiving death threats from local

animal rights activists, a government

survey shows that 86 percent of residents

agreed that culling was appropriate under

certain circumstances.

Bio/ eMiLy wauGh iS The fouNdeR of SuRvey STudio aNd iS a LeCTuReR iN LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCTuRe aT The haRvaRd uNiveRSiTy GRaduaTe SChooL of deSiGN.

12PublicCreatures

.32

Fafard’s work is heavily influenced by the

rural environment of his youth; the cows

harken back to his childhood in the prairies

of Saskatchewan, and farm animals are a

central focus of his artwork. For The Pasture,

Fafard dotted a blank lawn with seven life-

sized bronze cows, each cleverly positioned

to conceal that all seven sculptures are, in fact,

identical castings. Seated in restful positions,

the cows bring a sense of bucolic calm to the

bustling urban plaza, and situate Toronto’s

financial district in the context both of the

region’s agricultural history and the country’s

present day rural/urban relationship.

At the time of its unveiling, The Pasture was

a resounding success. Art and architecture

critics praised the piece as a humorous,

human-scale intervention in the beauti-

fully proportioned, yet somewhat severe,

landscape of the TD tower complex. Viewers

marvelled at the ability of the cows to so

quickly connect with their audience, inviting

office workers out of their cubicles to enjoy

lunch on the lawn in all seasons.

Thirty years later, the cows still elicit

similarly positive responses from designers

and the public.

“I like them; I like public art that allows you to

interact with it,” says Jake Tobin Garrett of the

Toronto non-profit organization Park People.

“The cows are really interesting because if

you go and watch them for a while at lunch,

people flood into that space from the tower

and sit on the grass. It’s kind of neat to have

public art that allows people to go up and

touch and interact with it.”

As the Manager of Policy at Park People

and the writer behind the City Within a Park

Project, in which he has committed to visit

one park in each of the city’s wards over the

course of one year, Garrett has seen his fair

share of Toronto’s parks. But he still finds

something special about the TD Centre Plaza

and The Pasture.

A sculpture at Toronto’s TD Centre Plaza

titled The Pasture but affectionately referred

to, simply, as “the cows,” is familiar to many

Torontonians: seven life-sized cows, cast in

bronze, lounge on an open grassy lawn at

the heart of Mies van der Rohe’s towering

TD Centre. The Pasture demonstrates how

the presence of “creatures,” whether live or

artistically interpreted, can have profound

effects on our experience and understanding

of the city around us.

Commissioned in 1985 and created by

Canadian sculptor Joe Fafard, The Pasture

was originally installed in front of what is now

the TD Waterhouse Tower at 79 Wellington

Street before moving to its current location.

For Fafard, The Pasture represented a major

turning point in his career: a shift from ceramic

to bronze as his primary medium and an

unprecedented increase in his public profile

and commercial success.

TexT By CLaiRe NeLiSCheR

Calm cows in the downtown core

01

13PublicCreatures

.32

“It’s a super urban park—one of the most

urban parks in Toronto, by virtue of it being

surrounded by the TD Centre towers,” says

Garrett. “The public art that is there is of a

scale that you don’t find in other parts of the

city...the whole space is a piece of public art,

which is kind of unusual.”

According to Ran Chen, an urban designer

with the City of Toronto’s Planning Division,

the plaza and The Pasture still represent

important contributions to Toronto’s privately

owned, publicly accessible park and public

art networks.

“On Wellington Street, there are not many

other spaces that are so open. This one is very

peculiar because it’s sort of an open plan kind

of space…it is a big area covered in grass,

which you don’t usually see in the downtown,

and it is also elevated and isolated from the

street,” says Chan.

In addition to the unique openness of the

space, the art adds character to the plaza

and contributes to a sense of place, which

Chan believes is a critical component of any

successful urban park.

“When you add character to a public space by

adding public art, a specific paving treat-

ment, or a built form that is consistent in the

space, it all adds to an experience that will

become a memory—hopefully a good

memory—so you will go back,” says Chan.

02

“The art becomes a social connector because

people connect over experiences they have

in common and the particularities of the

space that they like. These places stimulate

social interaction; these are the spaces where

people can slow down and get to know each

other, identify with each other, and start to

create a community.”

The cows seem to have an innate ability to

create this collective experience and memory

for visitors. Viewers are able to form an instant

connection with the cows, with the plaza, and,

ultimately, with each other.

“It’s this relaxing pasture in the middle of a

cement jungle. And it’s always nice to hang

out there and to have that be a place to spend

an hour,” says Lia Boritz, an articling student at

a law firm located in the TD Centre.

Like many of those who work in the area,

Boritz and her colleagues enjoy lunch with the

cows almost every day during the summer.

“The general feeling is that people really like

[the plaza] and we like working right next to it,”

says Boritz. “One of my co-workers is from out-

side of Toronto, and she said the cows remind

her of being home, and being in the country,

outside of Toronto, and she really likes that.”

The presence of flora and fauna in the urban

environment reminds us that the city and

nature are not so clearly delineated. While

the cows depicted in The Pasture would not

naturally graze in the middle of the downtown

core, surrounded by sky-high towers, stark

granite plazas, and shuffling pedestrian and

auto traffic, the creatures somehow seem

perfectly at home in the TD Centre Plaza.

This sense of everydayness, of calm, and of

comfort exuded by the cows helps to make

urban dwellers feel at home in their natural

habitat, too.

Bio/ CLaiRe NeLiSCheR LiveS iN ToRoNTo, wheRe She CooRdiNaTeS PRoJeCTS aNd ouTReaCh foR The RyeRSoN CiTy BuiLdiNG iNSTiTuTe.

03

01-03/ ArtistJoeFafard’sThe Pasturegraces TDCentrePlazainToronto. iMaGeS/ MauriceNelischer

14RoundTable .32

01

02

15RoundTable .32

Our panel discusses the interactions between humans and wildlife in the urban environment, and explores the ways in which accidental habitats, in particular, can surprise and enrich our understanding of nature

03

01-02/ Dailyaccesstonatureisimportantfor childreninordertoformanemotional attachmentandconnectiontonature anddevelopasenseofempathyforthe naturalworld. iMaGeS/ MikeDerblich

03/ Greenbee iMaGe/ SheilaColla

Co-ModeRaTed By NeTaMi STuaRT, oaLa, ShaNNoN BaKeR, oaLa, aNd RuThaNNe heNRy, oaLa

16RoundTable .32

Ruthanne henry (Rh): How do we

integrate space for other faunal species

into the built or anthropogenic environment

around us, and how do we limit our impact

on wildlife habitat? Seventy percent or more

of Ontarians live in cities. In an increasingly

urban environment, how do we meet the

challenging task of integrating spaces for

other species and sustaining biodiversity?

What are the points of tension?

Netami Stuart (NS): The question—and this

Round Table discussion—is really about living

together with animals, including insects.

Rh: How do you design environments

in a way that facilitates interactions

between people and animals, so that

these interactions are not problematic?

Karen Mcdonald (KM): The Leslie Street

Spit was never intended to be what it is today.

We have species conflict that happens on

a regular, ongoing basis at this park.

For example, probably the biggest area

of contention involves the double-crested

cormorant colony, and that’s because they

kill the trees they nest in, which is a source

of conflict for people because we put a lot of

value on trees. Whenever we see something

that hurts a tree, we tend to think of that spe-

cies as an enemy. So whether it’s emerald

ash borer, which is an invasive pest, or a

native bird, such as the cormorant, they’re

viewed similarly. We’ve been managing this

conflict fairly well, since about 2008, and that’s

through a management strategy that involves

bringing together groups from across the

spectrum to understand the issue, to offer

their thoughts, advice, and experience with

the issue. Now we’re at the point where

we’ve got the largest double-crested colony

in the world, and we don’t get complaints

about it as much as we used to. People have

a better understanding, appreciation, and

awareness of this bird, and the Toronto and

Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is

taking an active role in managing them

but not eliminating them.

Other conflicts in the city: Canada geese,

and how they like to occupy the same type

of habitats as we occupy, and urban coyotes.

There’s still a perception that cities aren’t a

place for coyotes to live in, but, in fact, cities

are a great place. It’s just that people tend to

think of coyotes as wild animals and there’s

no room for wild animals in the city.

BioS/ ShaNNoN BaKeR, oaLa, iS The NaTioNaL MaNaGeR foR LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCTuRe aNd uRBaN deSiGN aT MMM. She iS aLSo oN The ediToRiaL BoaRd of Ground MaGaziNe. heidi CaMPBeLL iS The SeNioR deSiGNeR foR eveRGReeN LeaRNiNG GRouNdS. She haS a MaSTeR’S deGRee iN LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCTuRe fRoM The uNiveRSiTy of GueLPh aNd a BaCheLoR of eduCaTioN fRoM The uNiveRSiTy of ToRoNTo. She STaRTed wiTh eveRGReeN iN 2001 aS TheiR SChooL GRouNd deSiGN CoNSuLTaNT aT The ToRoNTo diSTRiCT SChooL BoaRd (TdSB), eveR-GReeN’S fiRST PaRTNeRShiP aGReeMeNT wiTh a BoaRd of eduCaTioN. a quaLified TeaCheR wiTh a foCuS oN PLaCe-BaSed LeaRNiNG, She haS woRKed iN a vaRieTy of ouTdooR CoNTexTS wiTh aRTiSTS, eduCaToRS, aNd voLuNTeeRS To eNviSioN aNd Co-CReaTe NaTuRaL PLay aNd LeaRNiNG eNviRoNMeNTS foR ChiLdReN aNd youTh iN CiTieS. She CuRReNTLy diReCTS aNd MaNaGeS The PLaNNiNG aNd deSiGN CoNSuLTaNCy aSPeCT of eveRGReeN’S ChiLdReN’S PRoGRaM.

viCToRia LiSTeR CaRLey, oaLa, ReCeived The CaRL BoRG-STRoM awaRd foR SeRviCe To The eNviRoNMeNT iN 2013 aNd iS a foRMeR MeMBeR of The ediToRiaL BoaRd of Ground. SPeCiaLiziNG iN CiTy GaRdeNS aNd CouNTRy PRoPeRTieS aLLowS heR aMPLe oPPoRTuNiTy foR MiCRo-iNTeRveNTioNS To SuPPoRT a diveRSiTy of SPeCieS. She haS aLSo doNe a GReaT deaL of voLuNTeeR CiTizeN SCieNCe, aNd haS BeeN oN The STeeRiNG CoMMiTTee of fRieNdS of The SPiT foR MaNy yeaRS. SheiLa CoLLa, Ph.d, iS aN aSSiSTaNT PRofeSSoR iN The faCuLTy of eNviRoNMeNTaL STudieS aT yoRK uNiveRSiTy aNd a LiBeR eRo feLLow. She iS a CoNSeRvaTioN BioLo-GiST who haS ReSeaRChed The eCoLoGy aNd ThReaTS To NaTive BeeS iN CaNada foR MoRe ThaN a deCade. ReCeNTLy, She Co-auThoRed The bumble bees oF north AmeriCA: An identiFiCAtion Guide (PRiNCeToN uNiveRSiTy PReSS, 2014). SheiLa iS a MeMBeR of The CoMMiTTee oN The STaTuS of SPeCieS aT RiSK iN oNTaRio (CoSSaRo). LoRi CooK iS a PLaNNiNG eCoLoGiST aT The ToRoNTo aNd ReGioN CoNSeRvaTioN auThoRiTy (TRCa).

eRiC davieS iS a Ph.d STudeNT aT The faCuLTy of foR-eSTRy aT The uNiveRSiTy of ToRoNTo, wheRe he STudieS uRBaN foReSTRy, iN PaRTiCuLaR LooKiNG aT how foReST STRuCTuRe affeCTS foReST fuNCTioN. JeNNy foSTeR, Ph.d, iS aN aSSoCiaTe PRofeSSoR iN The faCuLTy of eNviRoNMeNTaL STudieS aT yoRK uNiveRSiTy. She iS The CooRdiNaToR of yoRK’S PLaNNiNG PRoGRaM aNd The uRBaN eCoLoGieS PRoGRaM. JeNNy’S ReSeaRCh iNveSTiGaTeS The haBiTaT CReaTioN aNd CuLTuRaL PoLiTiCS of uRBaN eCoLoGiCaL SySTeMS, PaRTiCuLaRLy iN PoST-iNduSTRiaL SiTeS. ReCeNT PRoJeCTS iNCLude lAnd|slide: possible Futures, rubble to reFuGe, aNd The JaNe fiNCh eNviRoNMeNTaL JuSTiCe PRoJeCT. RuThaNNe heNRy, oaLa, iS a MeMBeR of The ediToRiaL BoaRd of Ground MaGaziNe, aNd iS a LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCT wiTh The CiTy of ToRoNTo woRKiNG oN New oR iMPRoved PaRK aMeNiTieS aNd TRaiLS, wiTh a foCuS oN uRBaN foReSTRy STRaTeGy aNd RaviNe PRoTeCTioN. ChaRLeS KiNSLey iS aN iNdePeNdeNT CoNTRaCToR PeRfoRMiNG eCoLoGiCaL aNd BoTaNiCaL CoNSuLT-iNG. he ReCeived hiS B.SC. iN aPPLied MaTheMaTiCS fRoM The uNiveRSiTy of weSTeRN oNTaRio. afTeR a few yeaRS of woRKiNG iN CoMPuTeRized quaLiTy CoNTRoL SySTeMS, he BeGaN SPeCiaLiziNG iN BoTaNiCaL iNveNToRy PRoJeCTS aNd SMaLL LaNdSCaPe ReSToRaTioN. iN 1994, he fouNded a NuRSeRy wiTh PaRTNeRS To PRovide hiGh-quaLiTy NaTive PLaNT MaTeRiaL foR ReSToRaTioN—oNTaRio NaTive PLaNTS (oNP)—aS weLL aS ReSToRaTioN SeRviCeS aNd LaNdSCaPe deSiGN, iNSTaLLaTioN, aNd MaiNTeNaNCe. iN 2007, he STaRTed woRKiNG STRiCTLy oN CoNSuLTiNG PRoJeCTS. afTeR a ThRee-yeaR STiNT wiTh The CiTy of ToRoNTo iN uRBaN foReSTRy PLaNNiNG, he Now haS ReTuRNed To iNdePeNdeNT CoNSuLTiNG iN a PRiMaRiLy ReGuLaToRy fieLd wiTh SoMe SuB-CoNTRaCT-iNG iN LaNdSCaPe deSiGN. KaReN MCdoNaLd MaNaGeS ToMMy ThoMPSoN PaRK (aLSo KNowN aS The LeSLie STReeT SPiT), ToRoNTo’S MaN-Made uRBaN wiLdeRNeSS. She iS The ToRoNTo aNd ReGioN CoNSeRvaTioN auThoRiTy’S STaff Lead oN CoLoNiaL waTeRBiRd MaNaGeMeNT, iNCLudiNG CoRMo-RaNTS. She iS aLSo iNvoLved wiTh oTheR huMaN/wiLd-Life CoNfLiCT iSSueS, aS weLL aS SPeCieS aT RiSK haBiTaT ReSToRaTioN PRoJeCTS. LiNda MCdouGaLL, MeS, oaLa, CSLa, RPP, MCiP, iS aN eCoLoGiST wiTh The CiTy of LoNdoN iN The eNviRoN-MeNTaL aNd PaRKS PLaNNiNG SeCTioN. iN heR fRee TiMe, LiNda voLuNTeeRS aS The BoaRd ChaiR aNd PReSideNT wiTh The ThaMeS TaLBoT LaNd TRuST To PRoTeCT NaTuRaL heRiTaGe iN SouThweSTeRN oNTaRio. fRaSeR SMiTh iS The foReSTeR foR The GaNaRaSKa ReGioN CoNSeRvaTioN auThoRiTy ReSPoNSiBLe foR MaNaGeMeNT of The 11,000-aCRe GaNaRaSKa foReST. fRaSeR iS aN avid SuSTaiNaBLe foReSTRy PRaCTiTioNeR, ouTdooRSMaN, aNd huNTeR who haS woRKed PReviouSLy wiTh The MiNiSTRy of NaTuRaL ReSouRCeS (MNR) aNd The oNTaRio fedeRaTioN of aNGLeRS aNd huNTeRS (ofah). NeTaMi STuaRT, oaLa, iS a LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCT aT The CiTy of ToRoNTo’S PaRKS aNd ReCReaTioN dePaRTMeNT, wheRe She faCiLiTaTeS The CReaTioN of PaRKS iN ToRoNTo.

Regarding Tommy Thompson Park, we’ve

been successful because we have a really

solid master plan, which dictates how the

park is developed and managed. In concert

with this, we’ve got a really great trails plan

that leaves the depth of the park as a wilder-

ness area for wildlife.

NS: What about rural interactions with

bigger species, such as coyotes, because

if they don’t belong in the city, then maybe

they belong in the country? I guess that living

together is a bigger deal when the animals

are bigger—the conflict is more perceptible

when we are in danger.

victoria Lister Carley (vLC): You have both

touched on something that’s key to this: we’re

speciesist. People don’t like cormorants

because they’re ugly and their colonies are

smelly. People don’t like coyotes because

they are carnivores. People don’t like snakes,

but there’s no good reason. People don’t like

spiders, again there’s no good reason. The

speciesist aspect goes back to folklore, to

children’s stories; it isn’t based on what our

real interaction with cormorants is. If you look

at cormorants, they’re pretty handsome, but

they’re seen as threatening because they

are dark and big. Whereas people are fond

of butterflies…

fraser Smith (fS): I think you hit the nail

on the head about speciesism. But it’s also

that we’ve lost some knowledge that we

previously had in terms of the natural world.

There’s a problem of perceiving conflict

where in fact there really isn’t any. For example,

in Canada there are, on average, 2.4 bites

or scratches to humans from coyotes per

year. Yet there are 460,000 incidents of bites

from dogs. Two hundred people per year in

Canada are hit by lightning.

A lot of the issues associated with conflicts

between humans and wildlife, especially

when it comes to coyotes, have come from

people forgetting the basic rules: not leav-

ing garbage out, cleaning up barbecues,

laying out trails away from critical habitat. In

order to minimize these conflicts or the per-

ception of them, we need to have a realistic

approach and also a realistic expectation

that if you’re going into a natural environment

then you’re going to experience a natural

environment and the species and conflicts

that come along with it.

17RoundTable .32

Karen Mcdonald (KM): People want to live

next to natural areas, but often they don’t

want to have the wildlife that’s living in those

natural areas. I had a call a couple of weeks

ago from a fellow who owns a ravine

property on the Humber River, in Toronto,

and he was complaining because a beaver

was accessing his backyard to eat his apples.

I was like, that’s wonderful, you get to see a

beaver eating your apples, that’s great! And

he was like, well no, that’s not great, the

beaver is going to cause damage, and

maybe hurt the river and dam it up. And

I said, well, you’re living on a ravine property,

on a river, of course you’re going to get

beaver there.

fS: And that’s our national animal!

NS: It’s an interesting question for landscape

architects, because we’re often working on

subdivisions. We’ll often be the people who

are designing the park beside the subdivision,

or collaborating with ecologists to design

waterways, etc. There are lots of regulatory

guidelines for these things. But if you had one

thing to say to somebody who was building a

new subdivision right beside a place where a

beaver might live, or a coyote or a bear, what

would you tell them about how to design

the park or design the interface in order to

reduce conflict?

Linda Mcdougall (LM): In the city of London,

we recently reviewed those very situations.

We looked at subdivisions built next to

environmentally significant areas and the

effectiveness of buffers, and the effective-

ness of fences, and how to reduce conflicts

with nature. We found that, in fact, fences

without gates limit encroachment. Where

we provided a buffer of ten metres, people

tended to encroach into that buffer and not

beyond it. We also provide folks with natural

areas brochures to make them more aware

of the sensitivity and the wonderful nature

they’re living next to, and how to enjoy it and

so forth. It tends to reduce the conflict some-

what when you have that education along

with that physical barrier between nature

and the backyard garden.

Sheila Colla (SC): A good example of a

successful educational effort relates to bees

in the city. Southern Ontario has some of the

most diverse areas for bees in Canada. What

people don’t know is that all bees are not

honeybees, right? (Honeybees live in hives,

with tens of thousands of individuals, they

sting, and they make honey.) The majority

of native bees are solitary bees, they don’t

sting, and they live in the ground, not in hives.

The city of Toronto frequently gets calls from

parents who see all these bees in the sand—

sand is one of the best habitats for a large

portion of our native bees—and people are

04/ Cormorantnests,TommyThompson Park,Toronto iMaGe/ TorontoandRegionConservationAuthority

05/ CoyotewarningsignatKillalyESAin London,Ontario iMaGe/ LindaMcDougall

06/ Nestingbirdssign,London,Ontario iMaGe/ CityofLondon

04

05

06

18RoundTable .32

worried. In the past, the city probably would

have just called in a pesticide applicator and

gotten rid of the bees so the kids could play.

But, now, people are more educated about

bees, and they know that there’s nothing to

fear, you just need to leave them alone and

they’re going to do their own thing.

Charles Kinsley (CK): Essentially, as soon as

humans started living in settled environments

we required landscapes to provide resources,

mainly food and other things. It seems to me

that all of these conflicts really stem from a

natural competition for available resources in

landscapes. Even though coyotes are

not nearly as responsible for damage to

humans as dogs are, coyotes are much

more responsible for damage to livestock

and other things. Those are historical

memories that people bring with them,

culturally, to an urban environment.

fS: One thing that’s often struck me when

looking at the design and development of

subdivisions is the design and development

of the farms that were there before. There’s

a very specific reason why the house and the

barn are generally not right up against the

woodlot. There’s a reason why the back forty

is the back forty. Separations of open spaces

are a clear and effective means of design to

minimize these hostile conflicts, but if you look

at the development of quite a few subdivision

areas, you have fingers of built environment

stretching out and trying to keep as much of

that woodlot around it as possible. So you’re

sending out little areas into that wild area in

which you have coyotes, deer, black bears,

etc., which is the exact opposite of what the

going wisdom was even a generation ago.

I think that a lot can be learned from looking

to the past in this context.

eric davies (ed): Which mammals would

we want in the city? We’d want them all, but

if you start going down the list—wolf, bear,

coyote, cougar, skunk, porcupine—it gets

really difficult to visualize or even conceptualize

how you could have peaceful interaction with

these animals without a lot of conflict.

Part of it is asking what species we do

want, instead of having a kind of reactive

management where you get cormorants

and no one does anything until they start

killing all the trees, and then people really

start demanding a reaction.

CK: Do you design an area to allow

space for unintended consequences?

Or do you strive as much as possible to

restrict those? Because they’re going to

happen anyway, probably.

Jenny foster (Jf): I feel that we do have to

leave space for what we don’t yet know,

because ecological relationships are always

evolving, especially in urban settings. For

example, nocturnal species are becoming

active in the daytime. We’re also seeing

07/ TheLeslieStreetSpit,Toronto,1975 iMaGe/ CityofTorontoArchives

08/ TheLeslieStreetSpit,Toronto,1982 iMaGe/ CityofTorontoArchives

07

08

19RoundTable .32

the co-mingling of species that otherwise

wouldn’t even find each other. In an urban

setting, diets change, reproductive cycles

change, in ways we don’t even understand

or know yet. So we have to allow for emer-

gent relationships and emerging ways of

interacting with the landscape.

NS: I am interested in the question of

expanding our toolkit for managing species

and managing habitat. For example, we

have a really limited number of things we

can do to control invasive species. Maybe we

need to broaden our understanding of what

ecosystems should and could be in the city

instead of replicating some unrealistic notion

of a pristine environment for Southern Ontario.

LM: In London, we’re battling buckthorn,

phragmites, dog-strangling vine, Japanese

knotweed, goutweed, and on and on in

our environmentally significant areas. It is

an uphill battle and we do what we can.

We spend a huge portion of our budget

every year to protect our environmentally

significant areas by having the Upper

Thames River Conservation Authority, who

are licensed pesticide applicators, battle

these species for us. If we’re going to have

resiliency to climate change, it’s crucial that

we have these invaders in check and under

control as much as possible.

One of the most threatening invasives at

the moment is probably phragmites, and the

vectors are ditches and roadways from which

they then invade our wetlands. Once they

get into a wetland it’s almost impossible

to eradicate because there is no chemical

licensed for use in water. Pesticides are

some of the only effective tools we have, at

a city-wide scale, to control these invaders

that are running rampant and degrading

our natural spaces and that make them less

enjoyable to be in. When you’re walking

through a buckthorn monoculture you’re not

enjoying nature, you’re looking at a wall of

buckthorn. There’s no life, there are no birds,

it’s not a beautiful experience.

fS: The primary driver of management

within the Ganaraska Forest, which is an

actively managed forest, has been to plan

for general health, resilience, and for a more

healthy environment, which includes critters

and wildlife, etc. In the face of climate change,

though, it goes back to some really core prin-

ciples of good forest management practices.

The threat to biodiversity is a homogeneous

landscape. When I say that I’m using a

pesticide as part of forest management,

the image that’s invoked is that I’m just

spraying and killing everything that’s alive.

So it’s important to bring people to an under-

standing of what we’re trying to work towards,

and what we need to do to get there.

KM: I don’t know that eradication is a real-

istic goal. I think we need to be managing

for ecological function. If a site that has an

invasive species is functioning well, we might

need to learn to love it. European buckthorn

is a good example of that. We’ve taken the

stand at TRCA that if we have buckthorn that

is impeding natural regeneration, we’ll man-

age it. But if buckthorn is just part of the matrix

of the plants that are around, we’re not going

to bother because we don’t have a realistic

expectation of managing it when we know

that it’s spread by birds, and we’re not going

to get rid of all berry-eating birds…

CK: Ecology is not a snapshot of a place at a

certain time, it’s something that changes over

time, maybe hundreds of thousands of years.

It’s not something that’s generally within the

lifespan of a human being. And so we’re

restricted, in a sense, in terms of what we

deem to be good ecological function.

ed: People are increasingly striving to have

healthy landscapes. And the definition of that,

ecologically, is landscapes that are producing

functions. And one thing would be resilience

to invasiveness. If you look at our ecosystems

now, as Aldo Leopold famously said, the first

law of good land management is to not lose

any of the parts you have. We’ve lost so many

parts, and ecosystems right now are in flux

and experiencing poor performance. And we

don’t even have the metrics to measure them.

vLC: The general public does not necessarily

understand how much of an impact we have

on ecosystems. A simple example is the

destruction of so much of High Park due to

people letting their dogs off-leash in on-leash

areas. Because dogs are small mammals,

some people see it as being perfectly okay to

let them destroy the woodland.

Lori Cook (LC): The city of Toronto is very

excited about increasing public use and

capacity of the Don Valley lands. We have

dog walkers and mountain bikers who

are degrading and creating multiple trails

through sensitive interior forest areas. So we

are concerned about messaging, and again

it just comes back to education. Signage

doesn’t work, fencing doesn’t work.

heidi Campbell (hC): I can say a little bit

about education. I’ve worked with school

boards for many years, and they are huge

land owners, so they represent a lot of land-

scape. We’ve been working with them on

their green standards so there’s a little bit

more thought put into how they develop their

outdoor environments. They’re now seeing

them as outdoor learning environments for

children, and there’s a lot more emphasis

on bringing children outdoors at a very early

age. We’re finding that boards are looking at

standards for helping trees not only survive

but thrive on school grounds (children love

trees, but sometimes they can love them to

death). There are various ways of protecting

trees—from a very rigid cage to artistic

interventions that are about weaving.

Also, we’re now seeing that nature study

areas are being developed. These are no-

mow areas that are left uncultivated. Signage

helps people understand that these areas

are managed. Because people are quick to

say: why aren’t you mowing, I see ragweed,

invasive species, all kinds of things growing in

the schoolyard, can you please mow that? So

there’s lots of outreach and education around

these nature study areas. If we can improve

the ecological literacy of children and help

them to have a daily connection with nature,

we’re going to see an increase in empathy

for critters that are maybe not so attractive,

such as spiders and snakes.

LC: At many of the conservation areas

managed by TRCA, our main goal is to focus

the fun. That is, focus the fun in this area, and

distract people from another area. We might

have a small boardwalk into a sensitive

area, so people can have a little peek, but

that’s the extent of the interaction we want

to encourage with a sensitive area. It all

depends on what the goal is and what the

overall management scheme is. But with our

pristine areas, basically it’s a no-go. In most

of our valley areas, we try to focus the fun,

the experience, on particular trails.

20RoundTable .32

CK: It seems to me that the main question

is: do we keep humans out of areas or

do we put them in areas? In an urban

environment, the more people you bring

in to educate them and to give them the

experience of the natural area, the more

damage you’re going to get. It’s almost

impossible to imagine otherwise.

fS: I think we should be focused on the

older idea, which is good stewardship. This

is more of an ethic of including individuals,

humans, as a fundamental component of

systems, and you are going to interact with

other species. But it’s important to interact

with those systems in a responsible and

stable manner. In the forest I manage, fifty

percent of it is a red pine plantation, with

trees in rows. We’re thinning it out slowly,

trying to bring back more hardwood. I want

people going into those areas. I want them

to interact with it, and I want them to learn

what we’re doing. I want to put up signs that

instead of trying to hide what we’re doing in

terms of management, I want to showcase

it. And integral to that is the concept of good

stewardship of the land.

Jf: To go back to our discussion of invasive

species: I’ve always been uncomfortable

with the idea of an invasive species. What’s

most pertinent in terms of ecological health

and resiliency is landscape invadability. It’s

not the species, it’s the base conditions of

the landscape that we should be most

concerned about. Not necessarily keeping

certain species in and out, but asking: what

are the conditions we’re creating in the first

place that allow certain landscapes to be

invaded? Whether it’s the disturbance of soil

structure and soil ecology, or the placement

of dumpsters with french fries that attract

gulls to certain areas, those are all elements

of landscape invadability that create the

conditions for invasion. We can’t just keep

micromanaging certain species. We need

to take a far more holistic approach, which

would necessitate a conceptual shift.

Otherwise, we’re just spinning our wheels.

Rh: This conceptual shift or more holistic

approach is discussed in the recent book

by Tao Orion, Beyond the War on Invasive

Species: A Permaculture Approach to

Ecosystem Restoration.

KM: I’d like to return to the idea of empathy.

If people could understand the intercon-

nectedness of everything, then they might

not demand that a meadow be mowed,

because they could then understand that

by removing the meadow, by mowing that

space, you are interrupting all the flora-

fauna associations that are there.

hC: When we design for children’s

environments, I’m always asking landscape

architects to get down to the level of a five-

year-old or a three-year-old, and walk the

site on hands and knees and just get that

perspective of a child. If you go into a dense

urban environment and do that, it’s frightening.

When you go into a children’s garden or an

area where there’s soft landscape and trees

and things, it’s a whole different experience.

The perspective of a worm is an interesting

way to look at things!

ed: I like this idea of empathy, and appre-

ciating nature not only for itself but for what

it does for us, because it really does a lot of

things. Good management and stewardship

are shifting from structure to function.

Jf: May I posit a suggestion that will be

difficult for landscape architects to imagine?

Maybe you could think about what species to

plant as number three on a priority list. Rather

than thinking about what seeds you’re going

to plant there, you think more about the two

or three other things that were there before

you even think about planting. It’s easy to

get volunteers to plant in the valley—they’re

digging in the plants, and then they leave

some mulch around it, and then they leave

and you cross your fingers and hope that in

ten years there’s some trees there. Whether

or not there’s a forest or a wetland there

in ten years has less to do with how many

trees were planted and what species were

planted, and more about what the soil was

like before you planted. Or, whether you tilled

it before you planted. Or whether anybody

came back and weeded right around those

plants at a certain point. So maybe the focus

has to be less on the planting.

Rh: It’s similar to the concept of not just

thinking about habitat or a specific area, but

the need for ecological function in all of our

landscapes, in our urban streetscapes, in our

parks, and all places.

vLC: Of course, we often have this vision

that the forest is what we want. Going back

to when the Friends of the Spit group started,

before the first meetings about the master

plan, we said, just let it be. We wanted to see

how it did by itself, and it’s done a remark-

able job by itself. Look at waste spaces. We

have lots of mockingbirds in Toronto. Not a

single one of them is going to hang out in a

forest. Where are they? They’re on the edges

of the railway lines. We are in fact providing

ample habitats. It’s just a matter of whether

or not they’re attracting the species we like.

Mockingbirds—they’re pretty, so that’s easy.

We may not be as keen on some other

species, but that’s our choice. We provided

them with habitat whether or not we meant

to, and that diversity of habitat is greater in

the city than it is in farmland.

LM: In terms of accidental habitat, in London

we have two former landfills. Both of them

are habitat for bobolinks and meadowlarks,

and it’s exciting, but it’s also a challenge. We

recently developed something called the

planning and design standards for trails and

ESAs, and this helped us with managing the

trails through those landfill sites. We closed

the trails through the centre of the landfill

that’s ground-nesting bird habitat, and we

permit trails around the perimeter. So we’re

managing these landfills that we really

weren’t expecting to have species at risk in,

and it turns out that that’s their favourite place.

hC: Evergreen Brick Works is an interesting

adaptive reuse example and an accidental

habitat. We weren’t able to dig down at this

site, so all the habitat that’s been added is

above ground. Everything is raised beds, etc.

And now we have a very vibrant ecology for

the red-tailed hawk.

SC: The reality is that our city is full of hun-

dreds and hundreds of species of animals,

and all we need to do is to get people out

there looking at them. And if that means we

have to sell them something about an eco-

system service and what this thing is giving

to us, then fine. But I think it would be nice

to have more of a natural history tradition

where people are just out there observing

what they see, counting the different types of

things they see, trying to identify what those

things are. Once they’re out there looking,

they start appreciating them more, and they

see more value not only in their own gar-

dens but also in what’s happening outside of

21RoundTable .32

their properties. Getting people to take pride

in biodiversity means first recognizing that

biodiversity is there. And you won’t do it by

counting mammals.

fS: Much of what we talk of as natural

habitat is indeed managed. It’s very

important to realize that, whether it’s direct

management of going in with shovels or

not, we’ve removed fire from the landscape,

we’ve controlled wildlife, we create nature in

the image of ourselves and what we want to

see. Really, the core question, both in terms

of creatures and natural environments, is not

so much whether it’s being done intentionally

or accidentally, but whether it’s being done

responsibly and sustainably. We need to ask

ourselves that question very frequently.

Jf: The places that are going to be interesting

habitat in twenty years are places that we

probably don’t even notice right now—the

sort of in-between places that we tend to see

in our everyday environment but not notice as

opportunities for the future. The verges and

plots of land that appear to be abandoned

or disused are actually the rich ecological

opportunities in terms of wildlife. That’s difficult

because it’s an aesthetic shift: we have to

accept that ecologically vibrant spaces may

be ugly and unappealing. As a general

rule of thumb, the more impermeable a

site is for humans, the more ecologically

vibrant it is. Or the uglier it is, the more

ecologically interesting it is.

We’ve seen a lot of changes in what’s con-

sidered beautiful and desirable in cities in the

last twenty years, so I’m very hopeful about

where we’re going.

CK: When my partners and I started our first

nursery, it was at the disused Downsview

airport space, and we were doing everything

in containers on top of the old tarmac. We

didn’t really expect anything, we didn’t think

about habitat, we just worked and sold

plants and that was it. Then we noticed after

a couple of years that the toads really liked

us. They liked burying themselves in things;

and there were a lot of insects coming to our

plants, so the toads had a lot to eat. Then we

had coyotes coming in; we had snakes, we

had birds coming down to get the snakes. It

was amazing how many things came to us.

And we were just on top of tarmac—nothing

fancy at all.

I think there are a lot of opportunities in an

urban environment, but the problem is that

we’ve already decided what picture we want

to see. And we can’t do that. We have to

actually study directly what the ecosystem

is like now.

ed: The idea of accidental habitats is hum-

bling: nature without any help can do pretty

well. But by combining expertise, hopefully

we can make non-accidental habitats even

better than the accidental ones by focusing

on ecological function.

Rh: In my career as a landscape architect,

I’ve seen big shifts in aesthetics over the

last couple of decades. People have very

different expectations now, and I think our

profession can help open up the lens to

looking at the landscape at different scales

so that we do see the habitat that’s in open

spaces. That would be a really exciting way

of changing the discussion about aesthetics

and moving it a little bit further along towards

an understanding of ecological function.

KM: We can’t forget that buildings, especially

in urban areas, have been really important

for species at risk. The peregrine falcon

is an excellent example of that, where no

one thought that by making tall buildings in

downtown Toronto we would be creating

habitat for an endangered species. There

is an opportunity to use buildings in the city

for additional habitat for other species at risk,

such as night hawks and barn swallows, that

are being affected by habitat loss.

LC: If we’re talking about human/animal/

nature conflicts, we should mention road

ecology. How can we reduce conflicts by

means of letting organisms carry on with

their journey? The TRCA has put out a really

interesting piece on road ecology, so look

for that on our website.

Ten years ago, TRCA was working with the

Coyote Collaring Project down at the Leslie

Street Spit, and one coyote collared at the Spit

was shot accidentally by a hunter in Honey

Harbour, Muskoka. That coyote might not

have had too many human conflicts because

he found his way up to Honey Harbour,

where he needed to be. Let’s try to pressure

the development community and cities to

think about sub-service road passages for

animals to be able to cross highways and

roads. They’re very expensive, but if there’s

public desire, maybe it’ll happen.

vLC: We should take advantage of every

opportunity for education. If I’m talking to

somebody who doesn’t necessarily think that

such and such an animal or accidental habi-

tat is a positive thing, I immediately describe

it as positive. If you happen to open your

barbecue and there’s a snake in there, some

people don’t take that as a positive! Okay, so

nobody likes raccoons digging up their lawn,

but it’s a positive in that they’re getting the

grubs. We can at least try to see that each of

our interactions with these animals can have

a positive aspect. And skunks are cute!

09/ CormorantcolonyattheLeslieStreet Spit,Toronto iMaGe/ TorontoandRegionConservationAuthority

09

22BarcodingLife .32

01

Ad

vanc

es in

e

DN

A

23BarcodingLife .32

TexT By iaN KiNG aNd STeveN hiLL

Professional consultants who conduct site

inventories and generate species lists for

environmental impact assessments, natural

heritage planning, and ecological restoration

traditionally use methods that rely on trapping,

visual sightings, and auditory identification.

However, recent advances in genomic and

genetic-based approaches for species identi-

fication are poised to create a renaissance in

ecological inventory.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule

that provides the instructions for life and is

shared by all living organisms. Similar to

morphological characteristics, DNA can be

used to identify species. Generally identifying

species using DNA relies on having refer-

ence DNA sequences that are unique to

each species; once the reference DNA is

available and has been vetted for accuracy,

a DNA sample that is taken from a known

or unknown source can be compared to

the reference library to determine the spe-

cies it belongs to. This approach, termed

DNA barcoding, has been recognized by

scientists for more than two decades as

a method for identifying species. Recent

advances in the technology used for DNA

barcoding have progressed to the point that

DNA that is present in the environment (i.e.,

that is shed by organisms in soil, water, and

air) can be sequenced and compared to

reference libraries for identification. Identi-

fying species using this approach has been

termed environmental DNA (eDNA), as it is

not sampled directly from an organism, but

is DNA that has been shed from an organ-

ism’s skin cells, bodily fluids, and/or feces.

eDNA has the potential to be used to

complement and improve on the results

from traditional inventory methods used

for detection and identification of species.

eDNA introduces a new source of biodiversity

information that has a range of applications,

including but not limited to identifying cryptic

species (species that, based on morphology,

are effectively indistinguishable), hyper-

diverse groups of species (for example,

invertebrates), and microorganisms (inver-

tebrates, fungi, bacteria, etc.); and detecting

species after they have been present. eDNA

also eliminates the need for sorting and

isolating whole organisms or their tissue

fragments from an environmental sample.

For example, eDNA analysis can provide a

list of benthic species present in a kick-net

sample taken from a stream reach or other

aquatic system. Similarly, eDNA analysis of

soil samples can be used to identify species

based on DNA that is present from plants,

invertebrates, bacteria, fungi, and other

soils organisms.

From a practical standpoint, the use of eDNA

has a number of advantages that makes it

very suitable as an inventory tool for biodi-

versity assessment and biomonitoring. Chief

among these is the fact that eDNA inventory

is a non-invasive method. As well, it can

be used to extend the sampling times and

improve the chance of detection for species

that typically have a short sampling window

when one is using traditions approaches

such as trapping or aural surveys.

Recognizing the potential of eDNA to help

make their work more efficient and cost-

02

03

04

01/ Althoughspottedsalamander (Ambystoma maculatum)isnotoften seen,itcanbecommoninhigh-quality forestedareasthatalsohavebreeding pondsinthespring. iMaGe/ KarlKonze

02/ Salamandereggsattachedtored-osier dogwood(Cornus sericea) iMaGe/ SteveHill

03/ Springpeepers(Pseudacris crucifer)are conspicuousinearlyspringwhentheir breedingcallscanbeheard,butlaterin theseasonarehardtofind.Water samplescollectedlaterintheseason allowecologisttodetermineifeggs andlarvaearepresentusing identificationofenvironmentalDNA. iMaGe/ ZackHarris

04/ Easternnewt(Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) iMaGe/ KarlKonze

24BarcodingLife .32

05/ Greenfrog(Rana clamitans)tadpoles emergingfromaneggmass iMaGe/ DylanWhite

06/ Anorthernleopardfrog(Lithobates pipiens)foundinlateseasonheading backtoitsoverwinteringhabitat iMaGe/ SteveHill

07/ Asinglecollectionofwaterfromthis forestpondconfirmedthepresenceof Jeffersonsalamander(Ambystoma jeffersonianum),anendangeredspecies inOntario. iMaGe/ SteveHill

effective, some Canadian environmental

consulting companies have started to

include eDNA methods in services they

offer to clients. For example, Dougan &

Associates, located in Guelph, has been

collaborating on an eDNA project with

researchers from the Biodiversity Institute of

Ontario (BIO) at the University of Guelph. This

project is exploring eDNA methods to monitor

Jefferson salamander, an endangered

species on Ontario’s Species at Risk list. “The

eDNA is generally in low concentrations in

the water, so it’s important to find the best

method for getting it out of the samples,”

says Rachel Smith, a former undergrad and

now lab technician at BIO who has been

experimenting with different techniques for

extracting DNA from water samples. Matrix

Solutions, a Calgary-based environmental

consultancy, has also been using eDNA

technologies developed through their

in-house lab testing to monitor northern

leopard frogs in Alberta. In addition, they

provide eDNA services to their clients for

monitoring fish, including Arctic grayling,

bull trout, and other species of concern in

Alberta waterways.

05

06

07

25BarcodingLife .32

08/ Salamandereggsattachedtored-osier dogwood(Cornus sericea) iMaGe/ SteveHill

09/ AtraditionalapproachtoDNA analysiswouldhaverequiredremoving asmallpieceoftailtipfromthese blue-spottedsalamanders(Ambystoma laterale),somethingthatcouldbe avoidedthroughaneDNAapproach. iMaGe/ DylanWhite

In addition to incorporating eDNA extraction

and sequencing as a tool for basic species

inventory, there are also many applications

for ecological restoration and monitoring.

From validating the accuracy of plant

species found in seed mixes to screening

plants and soils for pathogens, incorporating

an eDNA approach into the restoration

ecology toolbox will allow a much more

robust understanding of the biological

network of organisms that support individual

plants and plant communities; this is true for

both natural and designed landscapes.

Finally, ecological monitoring, the often

overlooked yet critical stage of the

design process, can benefit from an eDNA

approach on multiple fronts. It is a cost-

effective alternative to traditional inventory

approaches; with a little bit of training,

anyone can collect environmental samples.

Therefore, ecological monitoring will not

be restricted to professional or amateur

experts. As well, when environmental

samples are taken, they’re typically

standardized, which allows data across

many samples to be consolidated and ana-

lysed for important biological trends.

Recent advances in technology and

reductions in cost will make this approach

accessible to governments, professionals,

and the public. Start-ups such as Life

Scanner (www.lifescanner.net/) are

already providing services that allow any-

one to purchase a kit that can be used to

collect and identify species using DNA bar-

coding methods. Looking to the future, we

expect to see eDNA identification methods

being incorporated into the standard set of

inventory approaches used by ecologists,

landscape architects, ecological restoration

professionals, and other land managers.

We also anticipate that when regulatory

agencies adopt inventory standards that

include an eDNA approach, the results

will include, but not be limited to, improved

accountability, information-rich biodiversity

data sets, and new evidence-based methods

for ecological restoration.

BioS/ STeveN hiLL, Ph.d., iS a diReCToR aNd eCoLoGiST wiTh douGaN & aSSoCiaTeS. iaN KiNG iS a ReSeaRCheR aT The BiodiveRSiTy iNSTiTuTe of oNTaRio.

08

09

26SoddingRaccoons!

.32

TexT By eRiC GoRdoN, oaLa

It all started when we removed a massive

hedge of rose bushes in an effort to gain

space for a small lawn, a play area for our

one-year-old son. The space the bushes

left behind was just the excuse I was

looking for to renovate the backyard.

The plan involved built-in bench seating,

a sandbox, a raised planter for veggies, a

stepping-stone slab pathway, a shed, and

a bunch of new plantings. The final touch,

of course, would be a smooth green carpet

of grass—at 6 feet by 12 feet, not much, but

enough for our needs.

With visions of blissful outdoor play and the

desire to create some joyous family memo-

ries, I started the renovation. The sod went

down quickly, and marked the end of the

season’s efforts. It was mid-September.

The view out the kitchen window the

next morning was a treat. The lawn was

looking resplendent and I was thrilled. The

following morning, however, the view was

somewhat less resplendent. The smooth

green carpet was now a hummocky mess.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who

was excited by the new green patch. The

raccoons clearly had a great time turning

over almost every roll of sod in what I can

only assume was a group effort. Buggers!

I don’t know why I was so surprised.

Every residential client of mine who has

wanted new sod has had struggles with

these masked menaces, these nocturnal

nuisances. Why should my experience be

any different?

Filled with some misguided hope, I thought

I’d wait and see if after their first exploration,

the raccoons lost interest in exploiting the

lawn for whatever grubs or insects they

could find. No luck.

Every morning I would wake up and

survey the damage and then repair the

sod. After about a week, I decided to start

experimenting with some of the commonly

recommended raccoon deterrents.

I bought some bird netting and laid it

over top of the entire lawn, pegging it

into the soil in about 20 different places.

The raccoons may very well have been

annoyed by our netting, but that didn’t

stop them from pulling up the sod along

with the netting, spikes and all.

I had just finished working with a client

who had tried motion sprinklers, cayenne

pepper, coyote pee, and even high-pitched

noise emitters, all to no avail. Indeed,

the only success story I did hear from

my previous clients was the use of high-

powered halogen flood lamps to light

the area throughout the night.

The battle gets personal

01 02

27SoddingRaccoons!

.32

So, I set up two bright flood lamps and

pointed them into the yard. Suffice it to say,

the raccoons were just as happy to go

about their business in the bright lights.

During all of this, I kept the bird netting in

place with the hope that it might serve as

a deterrent in the long run, alongside one

of the other approaches. My final effort

was to set up a bit of an obstacle course

using precariously balanced timbers left

over from the renovation. I was hoping that

the raccoons would attempt to walk along

one of the balanced planks whereupon the

plank would fall, making a good noise and

spooking the raccoons away. Because it

was such a small patch of lawn, I was able

to almost entirely surround the perimeter

with an array of scrap wood.

This seemed to be somewhat effective.

There were regular collapses, accompa-

nied by fewer incidents of damage. I kept

this up until winter, when the snow fell, and

the sod was given a rest for a few months.

Come spring, I continued with the obstacle

course, but realized I was going to have

a problem with the netting. Because the

netting had prevented me from mowing

the sod at the end of the season, there

was a mat of tall grass that had grown up

through the mesh. I spent hours on my

hands and knees coaxing the netting out

of the grass. It was like pulling a fine comb

through dreadlocked hair. The result was

a lawn with areas of bare soil.

Beyond the aesthetic disappointment,

I was most upset with how all of the

raccoons’ digging and shifting had

resulted in an extremely bumpy lawn.

When I consider all the trouble that

went into it, I do feel a bit silly.

Recently, I was chatting with the founder of

a large pest control company who treated

me to his own raccoon story. When he

installed a new lawn at his house, he tried

all the usual deterrents (unsuccessfully),

and then he had his crew set up humane

traps. The traps worked, snatching two or

three raccoons every evening. In the morn-

ing, his crew would return and relocate the

raccoons to the Bridal Path neighbourhood,

where they would tear into the lawns of

$20-million homes. This went on night after

night, until he had caught all of the

raccoons in his neighbourhood. Total

relocation count: thirteen!

Of course, there are ethical questions

raised by trapping and relocations, such

as the orphaning of young raccoons. And

at any rate, relocation is considered a

short-term fix only. New raccoons, possums,

skunks, or what have you will happily take

up the territory the raccoon once held.

Suffice it to say, raccoons are just

too crafty and too plentiful. Inevitably,

there will be conflicts within our shared

urban landscapes.

If I have one piece of advice to share

from my experience, it is that the best way

to avoid issues with raccoons is to resist

removing that massive thorny hedge of

roses that might be keeping them away

in the first place!

Bio/ eRiC GoRdoN, oaLa, iS owNeR aNd deSiGNeR aT oPTiMiCiTy, aNd a MeMBeR of The Ground ediToRiaL BoaRd.

01/ Tell-taleraccoonprintsinthemud iMaGe/ EricGordon

02-03/ Raccoonsarethebaneof urbangardeners. iMaGeS/ EricGordon

04/ Theyardnow iMaGe/ EricGordon

05/ Theauthor’sHalloweenraccoon iMaGe/ EricGordon

03

04

05

28LetterFrom…Iran

.32

TexT By JiLL CheRRy

My recent trips to Iran have been voyages of

discovery in a misunderstood country. Iran

is an exciting place in which to travel, full of

mysteries and contradictions and some of

the world’s great art and architecture. Persian

gardens lie at the heart of Iranian culture

and, for the Western visitor, can frame access

to a rich heritage. One of the pleasures for

me in leading groups of North Americans to

Iran is watching the preconceived notions

melt away. As they walk in gardens created

centuries ago for the pleasure of kings and

court, visitors experience the kindness and

innate hospitality of present-day Iranians

eager to engage in conversation and shared

photo-ops. Given the vitriolic exchanges of

politicians on both sides, it is a wondrous

thing to find that our delight in being there

is reciprocated whole-heartedly by the

everyday folk we meet.

Any study of Persian gardens begins with the

idea of the mythological “paradise” which,

although ancient, gained symbolic potency

after the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD.

The “idea” of a garden as retreat from the

world, filled with fragrance and birdsong, is

woven into the poems of Hafez, Sa’di, and

Ferdawsi, medieval poets still widely read to-

day. But gardens are secular endeavours too,

evolved from the geometry and constraints

of agricultural production in a challenging

climate and terrain.

Iran is a desert country, hot and dry. Since

all rivers are seasonal, there are long-

developed strategies for managing water.

Gardens and orchards are walled so that

only the plants within are irrigated. In built-up

areas, street trees are located in jubes,

channels that direct water to their roots.

Since ancient times, a system of under-

ground canals, known as qanats, have

01

02

29LetterFrom…Iran

.32

transported water from its source at the base

of mountains to villages and towns, farms

and gardens. You see lines of what look like

giant molehills trailing across the landscape

that allow settlements to exist, and most of

the major historic gardens are fed by qanat

water. Given the critical need for water, on

a practical level it is inevitable that water

features are the central element of Persian

gardens, potent symbols of life; water may

be still or rippled, falling between terraces,

rising in fountains, or mirrors—reflecting light

and trees in the surfaces.

About a three-hour drive south of Tehran, in

the dusty town of Kashan, is the 16th-century

Fin Garden created by Shah Abbas I. It was

here that I realized with lightning clarity that

water in a Persian garden transcends its

practical applications, essential as they are.

Water defines this garden, flowing through

an axial network of channels and pools lined

with turquoise faience, shaded by Cypress al-

lées. Within the domed pavilions, pools reflect

frescoed ceilings and cool the air. You are

surrounded by the sound of water and high-

contrast chiaroscuro of light and shade. You

are also enveloped in a shared experience

of excitement because this is a popular

venue for Tehranis who flock to the area

for the annual rose harvest and rosewater

festival. The former royal watercourses

are a source of fascination for iPhone

photographers and paddling children and,

surrounded by families having a fun day out,

another Western misperception falls away.

Iranians, even in the present day Islamic

Republic with all its challenges, appreciate

gardens and flowers and demonstrate a

joie de vivre that is truly surprising.

Building and garden are conceived as one

entity in Persian gardens. The hierarchy

of built structures to garden reverses the

Western model, so that instead of the garden

complementing the more dominant building,

here pavilions and residences are garden

features. There is a fluidity of “inside” and

“outside,” boundaries are blurred, buildings

are open and perforated, and transitions are

seamless. Flower motifs decorate interior

walls and are woven into carpets. Every

01-04/ FinGarden,inthetownofKashan, wascreatedinthe16thcenturyby ShahAbbasI. iMaGeS/ JillCherry

03

04

30LetterFrom…Iran

.32

surface of the talar or columned open porch

of the Nerangestan townhouse in Shiraz, for

example, is mirrored in intricate patterns. The

garden of palms and orange trees, pools

and channels, is reflected into the building

so that garden and building are experienced

as the same space.

One of the most exciting gardens in Iran is

barely visible today. In the 6th century BC,

Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid

period and the first Persian Empire, founded

his capital at Pasargadae, near Shiraz. He

received his subjects sitting on a throne in

the centre of the talar of his palace after they

had approached along a central axis pass-

ing through extensive gardens. Archaeolo-

gist David Stronach has established that

the layout was a chahar bagh or four-part

garden. This cruciform shape, with quad-

rants framed by intersecting water channels

radiating from a central pool, would become

characteristic of Islamic gardens. This ancient

05-06/ TheentirecityofIsfahan,a“Garden City,”isbasedonachaharbaghlayout, withthepalacegardensinthequadrants. iMaGeS/ CourtesyofSunriseVisualInnovations

07-08/ Pasargadae,nearShiraz,includes remnantsoftheearliest“paradise” garden(6thcenturyBC)anywhere intheworld.iMaGeS/ CourtesyofSunriseVisualInnovations

09/ TheruinsofPasargadaepalaceiMaGe/ JillCherry

10/ Pasargadaewaterchannel iMaGe/ JillCherry

11-13/ ThegardenoftheNerangestan townhouseinShirazdemonstratesthe wayinwhichpavilionsandresidences aregardenfeaturesinPersiangardens, andthereisafluidityof“inside” and“outside.” iMaGeS/ JillCherry

05

06

08

07

31LetterFrom…Iran

.32

Persian garden profoundly influenced

Greece, Rome, and the development of

formal gardens in Europe and beyond. Two

thousand and seven hundred years later I

walked amongst the wildflowers and ruins

of Pasargadae, with its remnant water

channels and pools, evidence of the

earliest “paradise” garden anywhere.

Two cities epitomize the central place that

gardens occupy in Iran. Shiraz has long been

known as “City of Gardens,” attracting Karim

Khan Zand to establish it as his capital in the

mid-18th century. He encouraged tree

planting along the avenues and created

gardens and parks for himself and citizens.

A poetic aura emanates from this home of

the poets Hafez and Sa’di, and their tomb

gardens are pilgrimage sites. For a Western

tourist, the sight of Iranians visibly moved at

the tomb of a 14th-century poet doesn’t quite

fit with CNN news reports.

Isfahan, though, has to be the most

significant of all the sites on a garden tourist’s

itinerary because the plan of the entire city

is based on a chahar bagh layout. Literally

a “Garden City,” Isfahan was laid out by the

great 17th-century ruler, Shah Abbas I, with

the Chahar Bagh Avenue forming the central

axis and palace gardens in the quadrants. A

few remain including Chehel Sotun with 20

towering columns. These, when reflected in

the pool, create the Forty Column Palace.

For landscape architects, the gardens of Iran

present a conceptual wealth of ideas and a

window on a fascinating culture.

Bio/ JiLL CheRRy iS a uK-BaSed LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCT aNd foRMeR diReCToR of The GaRdeNS of The RoyaL hoRTiCuLTuRaL SoCieTy iN The uK. She aLSo diReCTed The CiTy of ToRoNTo PaRKS dePaRTMeNT aNd vaNduSeN BoTaNiCaL GaRdeN iN vaNCouveR. She Now LeadS GaRdeN TouRS of iRaN foR vaNCouveR fiRM BeSTway TouRS aNd SafaRiS (BeSTway.CoM).

09

10

11

12

13

publicspaceProject: Under Gardiner is a new initiative,

announced in November, 2015, that will

transform more than four hectares (10 acres)

of land beneath the elevated portion of

Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, just west of

Strachan Avenue to Spadina Avenue, into a

series of public spaces. With the philanthropic

support of Judy and Wil Matthews, the City of

Toronto has been able to engage Waterfront

Toronto to oversee the implementation of

the project, which includes a 1.75-kilometre

32Notes .32

Notes:A Miscellany of News and Events

treesThe ISA Ontario Educational Conference

and Tradeshow is being held in Ottawa

from February 17-19, 2016, at the Ottawa

Conference & Event Centre. The theme

is “Strength in Diversity: The Science of

Arboriculture.” For more information, visit

www.isaontario.com.

02

03

01

multi-use trail and 500-metre connection

to Exhibition GO Station. By reclaiming this

forgotten space, Project: Under Gardiner

will create a series of rooms formed by the

space between columns, reimagining the

area beneath the expressway as a place

for people. Project: Under Gardiner is based

on a transformative framework design by

urban designer Ken Greenberg, and Marc

Ryan and Adam Nicklin, OALA, of landscape

architecture firm PUBLIC WORK. The vision for

the project includes the continuous multi-use

trail, a bridge over Fort York Boulevard for

pedestrians and cyclists, a grand staircase

at Strachan that will double as seating for

an urban theatre, and a series of flexible,

year-round performance and programming

spaces that can be used by the community. A

first phase of construction is scheduled to be

complete in late 2017.

01/ RenderingofProject: Under Gardiner insummer iMaGe/ PUBLICWORK

02/ RenderingofProject: Under Gardiner inwinteriMaGe/ PUBLICWORK

03/ RenderingofProject: Under Gardiner atnightiMaGe/ PUBLICWORK

urbanagricultureAn international conference, “Growing

in Cities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

in Urban Gardening,” will be held in

Basel, Switzerland, from September 9-10,

2016. The conference aims to explore the

dynamics of existing and emerging forms

of urban gardening in Europe and beyond.

To submit an abstract or proposal

(deadline January 31, 2016), visit www.urbanallotments.eu/final-conference.html.

conservationThe Young Conservation Professionals

Leadership Program is accepting applications

(deadline February 5, 2016) for its program,

which is based in Ontario and accepts a maxi-

mum of 20 participants per year. For more

info, visit http://ycpleadership.ca/apply/.

coursesFruit tree care is the subject of an online

training course being offered by Orchard

People. Featuring eight hours of video

tutorials, topics covered include winter and

summer pruning, preventing pests and

disease, and soil and nutrition manage-

ment. After the completion of the course

and an online assessment, successful

graduates will receive an Orchard People

Certificate in Fruit Tree Care. For more

information, visit http://orchardpeople.com/workshops/.

33Notes .32

organicsThe Canadian Organic Growers is offering

the Organic Master Gardener course in

Toronto on Tuesday evenings from January

26 to April 26, 2016. Topics include botany,

soil ecosystems, soil testing, and perma-

culture design. For more information, visit

www.cog.ca.

05

04

06

booksA new publication by the American Society

of Civil Engineers (ASCE) addresses the

design, construction, and maintenance of

permeable pavements, including porous

asphalt, pervious concrete, permeable

interlocking concrete pavement, and grid

pavements. Permeable Pavements, the

first comprehensive handbook on this

subject, explores how permeable pavements

enable reduced stormwater runoff, increased

groundwater recharge, and improved water

quality. Synthesizing today’s knowledge of

the technology, drawing from academia,

industry, and the engineering and science

communities, the book presents an overview

of typical permeable pavement systems and

reviews the design considerations. For more

information, visit http://ascelibrary.org/doi/book/10.1061/9780784413784.

eventsThe Carolinian Canada Coalition is hosting

the second Go Wild Grow Wild Expo on

April 2, 2016, at the Western Fair District in

London. The event, celebrating Canada’s

deep south, will gather more than 100

green businesses, experts, and organi-

zations to share information about the

Carolinian region. For more information,

visit www.gowildgrowwild.ca.

04/ AnonlinecoursedevelopedbyOrchard Peoplecoversallaspectsoffruittreecare. iMaGe/ CourtesyofOrchardPeopleConsulting andEducation

05/ Pruningisessentialtofruittreecare.iMaGe/ JacklynAtlas,OrchardPeople.com

06/ Anewbookaddressesthedesign, construction,andmaintenanceof permeablepavements.iMaGe/ CourtesyofAmericanSocietyof CivilEngineers

034Section .30

beautiful & environmentally friendly permeable pavers

Imagine no more puddles, no more sloping pavements towards drains, no more drains and no more burden placed on existing over-taxed

stormwater systems. Oaks permeable pavers are uniquely designed to reduce the potential for flooding by allowing storm water to pass through

the pavement surface into a special open-graded aggregate base to recharge ground water. With many beautiful colour options, modern finishes

and unique textures available, Oaks permeable pavers offer landscape solutions that are flexible, beautiful and environmentally friendly.

1.800.709.OAKS (6257) | OAKSpavers.com

31902_Oaks_Permeable_OALA_Ground_Mag.indd 1 2015-11-05 9:56 AM

035Section .30

036Section .30

INTECTURAL | IRONSMITH | LOLL DESIGNS | OLD TOWN FIBERGLASS | OMEGA II FENCE SYSTEMS | PLYBOO | VICTOR STANLEY, INC.

Park Street brings together top tier manufacturers to offer the best in environmentally responsible, high quality, design-focused solutions for the

Canadian Landscape Architecture, Interior Design and Architecture communities.

[email protected] www.parkst.ca 1.888.788.7408

FEATURED BRANDS

PAVER-GRATE™

INNOVATIVE

FENCE SYSTEMSMODERN

OUTDOOR FURNITURERECYCLED

Park Street Ground32 Magazine Ad_FINAL.pdf 1 2015-11-06 12:56 PM

037Section .30Section 037.32

ads15SS3135 © 2015 Playworld Systems®, Inc.

42 Woodway Trail | Brantford, ON N3R 6G7(519) 750 3322 | [email protected]

Play + Sculpture = PlayForm 7PlayForm 7 merges great play with public art, resulting in a sculpted play form that inspires imaginative, open-ended play. Our newest play sculpture gets people thinking, talking, sharing ideas and engaging in outdoor spaces in new, meaningful ways.

www.PlayworldSystems.com/PlayForm7

Impact-resistant panels available in laminated bamboo (pictured), semi-transparent polycarbonate, or plastic.

Ultra-durable rope is available in red, green, and black.

Non-marking fl ex treads create dynamic movement.

Hammocks provide a cozy, shaded spot to take a break from the action.

Ergonomic hand-holds provide a safe climbing experience.

INTECTURAL | IRONSMITH | LOLL DESIGNS | OLD TOWN FIBERGLASS | OMEGA II FENCE SYSTEMS | PLYBOO | VICTOR STANLEY, INC.

Park Street brings together top tier manufacturers to offer the best in environmentally responsible, high quality, design-focused solutions for the

Canadian Landscape Architecture, Interior Design and Architecture communities.

[email protected] www.parkst.ca 1.888.788.7408

FEATURED BRANDS

PAVER-GRATE™

INNOVATIVE

FENCE SYSTEMSMODERN

OUTDOOR FURNITURERECYCLED

Park Street Ground32 Magazine Ad_FINAL.pdf 1 2015-11-06 12:56 PM


1.855.330.1133 (USA & Canada) www.canaansitefurnishings.com [email protected] UNSURPASSED QUALITY CRAFTMANSHIP

CANAAN 　　　SITE FURNISHINGS

April 1, 2016Landscape Architecture and TourismScotiabank Convention CentreNiagara Falls, Ontario

Visit www.oala.ca for full details


PLANT A BIG IDEA.WATCH IT CHANGE A CITY.

We don’t just want more urban trees –

We want them to last. The Silva Cell’s open, modular design protects

soil under paving, providing maximum rooting area for the tree and allowing

water to permeate the entire soil column. This means healthier, longer-lived trees and a

truly sustainable urban landscape.www.deeproot.com


Developing Common Ground ™

• Landscaping

• Streetscaping

• Environmental Restoration

• Earthworks

• Terraseeding

• Wholesale Nursery

ContaCt us for a Competitive estimate.

905.887.1599geoscapecontracting.com

Preserve natural water drainage through a permeable pavement system

Genuine Clay Permeable Pavers

Strong ▪ Durable ▪ Colorfast

www.claypaver.com 800-334-8689

ww

w.c

la

yp

av

er

.co

m

8

00

-33

4-8

68

9

Canada’s Foremost Supplierof Native Seed

OSC SeedsBox 7, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z6

Tel. (519) 886-0557FAX: (519) 886-0605

email: [email protected]


Serving Ontario and Surrounding Areas1-800-367-6995 • GreenhorizonsSod.com

SOD SOLUTIONS

For LEED Projects, Sports Fields, Schools, Erosion Control, and More.

ASK ABOUT OUR NEW HYBRID PRODUCT

DOG POOP WASTE DISPOSALÉLIMINATION DES EXCRÉMENTS DE CHIEN

Avoid this ProblemÉvitez ce problème

• Pick-up bags – Sacs de ramassage• Dispensers – Distributeurs• Waste bin combinations

– Ensemble conteneur à déchets et distributeur

Products available throughout Canada to keep public spaces clean and healthyLes produits sont offerts partout au Canada pour garder les espaces publics propres et sains.

Toll free: 1-866-819-5559

www.prac t i ca . ca

TM

Sans frais :

COIVIC SPECIMEN TREES

NURSERY STOCK 2016

T: 905 878 9101F: 905 878 9471

[email protected]

5465 EIGHTH LINEHORNBY, ONTARIO

LARGE FLOWERING SHRUBS SPECIMEN EVERGREENSLARGE CALIPER TREES

ALWAYS HAND-SELECTEDNATIVE & INTRODUCED

EXCEPTIONAL VARIETY

42Artifact .32

01

02

TexT By ShaNNoN BaKeR, oaLa At the centre of the redesign is a whimsical

fountain, its form a nod to the park’s more

formal past, and its playful sculptures of

dogs spouting water from their mouths

while gazing at the golden bone atop the

fountain an acknowledgement of modern-

day life. Although these sculptural dogs

are seemingly oblivious to the lone cat

amongst them, city dwellers are surely

aware of the canine creatures that share

our sidewalks and parks; it’s about time

we started having some fun with it.

Bio/ ShaNNoN BaKeR, oaLa, iS a MeMBeR of The Ground ediToRiaL BoaRd aNd a PRaCTiSiNG LaNdSCaPe aRChiTeCT iN ToRoNTo.

Although our relationship with man’s best

friend may have begun more than 30,000

years ago, as we have moved in ever

greater numbers to the city, things have

changed. Along with the intensification of

our citified habitat, a growing population

of urban dogs has been unleashed.

The effects of the rise of the urban dog can

be seen, heard, and sometimes smelled

in cities throughout North America. In

Toronto, Claude Cormier + Associés have

chosen to embrace the urban dog in their

redesign of Berczy Park, a small triangular

park in the heart of the city.

01/ Conceptualelevationoftherevitalized BerczyPark,withitscentralfountain andplaza,inToronto iMaGe/ ClaudeCormier+Associés

02/ Renderingoftheproposedfountain atBerczyPark,TorontoiMaGe/ ClaudeCormier+Associés

043Section .30

Soil Support CellsStormwater Management

Street Furnishings

Establishing the future urban landscape

Urban Tree Planting SystemsTree Guards & Grates

Root Management

We make gray spaces green...

greenblue.com

[email protected]

044Section .30

PROJECT: Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

DESIGN: The Planning Partnership

PRODUCT: Promenade™ Plank Paver with Umbriano® finish

Contact your Unilock Representative for samples, product information and to arrange a Lunch & Learn for your team.

ENVISION.Begin with your inspired vision.

COLLABORATE.Trusted, experienced and on the cutting edge of paving stone technology, the Unilock team has the expertise and customer service to fully develop your creative paving designs.

CREATE.Unilock will create a unique look for your next project. Optimizing size, color, finish and texture, our team will work closely with you from start to finish to make your designs a reality.

UNILOCK.COM 1-800-UNILOCK

YOUR ONE VISION.

OUR INFINITE CHOICES.

OALA Ground_32_UNILOCK 2015_FINAL.indd 1 02/11/2015 11:59:36 AM

Landscape Architect Quarterly 08/ Features The Cutest Nuisances ...

Documents

Transcript of Landscape Architect Quarterly 08/ Features The Cutest Nuisances ...