Practical Conservation

Now that’s practical conservation!  Rain gardens for everyone.

Another article about the Slow Food movement in Detroit and elsewhere.  Having lived in Michigan for a long time, I think this has exciting promise for revitalizing the state’s hurting urban areas.  As a wildlife biologist, I can’t help thinking about the potential for urban farming for conserving wildlife diversity.  Can it alleviate the pressure to convert natural habitats to farmland?  Can it help support biodiveristy in urban areas?  Pollinators?  Birds even?   My research (and lifestyle) are outside the urban farming realm, but I hope someone answers these questions.

Here is another link to Vertical Farming.  Below is a video from Urban Farming about this phenomenon.

Lands around airports represent valuable land that can be managed to support agriculture and/or conservation.  Two examples below:

The “Garden Boys” farm plots around a major airport – from CNN.

Butterflies protected and thriving at LAX – from the Epoch Times.

227 in New York City!!   Maybe there is hope for an agricultural urban Detroit.

Don’t own a farm?  You can still create riparian buffers along sensitive habitats adjacent to your yard.  Create a Backyard Buffer courtesy of the Wildlife Habitat Council.

Urban agriculture goes high tech. CNN.

EPA has resources for landscaping with native plants in the Great Lakes states.  Good resources for attracting bees and butterfiles to your yard.

It’s a novel concept. It’s an intriguing concept. It’s a bold concept. It’s called skyfarming. Check out the Vertical Farm Project. Popular article here.

And another variation on this them here and here (Valcent systems).