Lynne M. Westphal

The human dimensions of urban greenways: planning for recreation and related experiences

In this paper, we summarize findings from a series of interrelated studies that examine an urban greenway, the 150 mile Chicago River corridor in Chicago, USA, from multiple perspectives, stakeholder viewpoints, and methodological techniques. Six interdependent “human dimensions” of greenways are identified in the studies: cleanliness, naturalness, aesthetics, safety, access, and appropriateness of development. Together, these dimensions form a core set of concerns relating to how people perceive and use the greenway for recreation and related experiences. While these dimensions show good consistency across our studies and are supported by the literature in the field, the quantitative and qualitative methods used also uncovered a rich variation in how the dimensions are construed by different stakeholder groups and along different reaches of the corridor. Using local demonstration projects from along the corridor, we illustrate how principles inherent in each dimension can be applied to improve the success of greenways through design, management, or programming. We conclude by discussing the applicability of these dimensions and methods of study to understand other urban and non-urban greenways, and suggest how the findings from such studies can be used to inform greenways planning, policy, and management.

Assessing the Effect of Publicly Assisted Brownfield Redevelopment on Surrounding Property Values

This study measures and compares the impact of publicly assisted brownfield redevelopment on nearby residential property values in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. It also examines the influence of land use, neighborhood characteristics, and other redevelopment factors on this impact. The research approach incorporates a hedonic method to quantify nearby property value effects at more than 100 brownfield projects, and stakeholder interviews are used to assess perceived impacts to real estate conditions. The results reveal that the spillover effect in terms of raising surrounding property values is significant in both quantity and geographic scope, as redevelopment led to a net increase of 11.4% in nearby housing prices in Milwaukee and 2.7% in Minneapolis. It also reveals that project size, value, and the amount of public funding have minor impacts on this effect; factors such as proximity to major roads, distance from rail, and higher incomes have greater positive impacts.

Linking Resilience Theory and Diffusion of Innovations Theory to Understand the Potential for Perennials in the U.S. Corn Belt

In the last 200 yr, more than 80% of the land in the U.S. Corn Belt agro-ecosystem has been converted from natural perennial vegetation to intensive agricultural production of row crops. Despite research showing how re-integration of perennial vegetation, e.g., cover crops, pasture, riparian buffers, and restored wetlands, at strategic landscape positions can bolster declining regional ecosystem functions, the amount of land area devoted to row crop production in the Corn Belt continues to increase. As this region enters a time of fast-paced and uncertain reorganization driven by the emerging bioeconomy, changes in land use will continue to take place that will impact the resilience of the Corn Belts linked social and ecological systems for years to come. Both resilience theory and the diffusion of innovations theory investigate how change is brought about in systems through the adaptation and innovation of social actors. In this paper, we integrate these two frameworks in the analysis of 33 in-depth interviews to improve our understanding of how rural Corn Belt stakeholders make conservation decisions in the midst of an uncertain future. Interview data indicate that the adoption of conservation practices is based not only on immediate profitability but also on the interplay between contextual factors at three distinct levels of the system: compatibility with farm priorities, profitability, practices, and technologies; community-level reinforcement through local social networks, norms, and support structures; and consistent, straightforward, flexible, and well-targeted incentives and regulations issuing from regional institutions. Interviewees suggest that the multiscale drivers that currently support the continued expansion of row crop production could be realigned with conservation objectives in landscapes of the future. Adaptation of social actors through collaborative learning at the community level may be instrumental in brokering the sort of multiscale system change that would lead to more widespread adoption of perennial cover types in the Corn Belt.

Landscape, community, countryside: linking biophysical and social scales in US Corn Belt agricultural landscapes

Understanding the interplay between ecological and social factors across multiple scales is integral to landscape change initiatives in productive agricultural regions such as the rural US Corn Belt. We investigated the cultural context surrounding the use of perennial cover types—such as stream buffers, wetlands, cellulosic bioenergy stocks, and diverse cropping rotations—to restore water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem function within a Corn Belt agricultural mosaic in Iowa, USA. Through ethnographic techniques and 33 in-depth interviews, we examined what was most important to rural stakeholders about their countryside. We then used photo elicitation to probe how interviewees’ assessments of farm practices involving perennial cover types were related to their sense of place. Our interviewees perceived their rural “countryside” as a linked social and biophysical entity, identifying strongly with the farming lifestyle and with networks of people across the landscape. While most interviewees approved of perennial farm practices on marginal agricultural land, implementation of these practices was neither a priority nor strongly assimilated into rural experience and ethics. We identified three scale boundaries in our interviewees’ perception of place which present key challenges and opportunities for landscape change: landscape-community, individual-community, and community-institution. In all cases, community social norms and networks—exhibited at landscape spatial scales—may be instrumental in bridging these boundaries and enabling networks of perennial cover types that span privately owned and operated farms.

The Influence of Childhood: Operational Pathways to Adulthood Participation in Nature-Based Activities

A conceptual and operational model examined relationships among childhood participation in nature-based activities, motivations, constraints, mitigation of constraints, and adult visits to Minnesota State Parks. The results support a model in which (a) higher childhood participation in nature-based activities increased motivation and mitigation strategies, (b) constraints decreased state park visitation and also triggered the use of mitigation strategies that in turn increased state park visits, and (c) higher levels of motivation improved efforts to negotiate constraints and visit more. Consistent with the main hypothesis, the more nature-based activities people participate in during childhood, the more they desire such activities and are able to mitigate constraints to participation, and consequently, the higher the level of participation, as an adult. The results suggest a rather indirect association between childhood participation in nature-based activities and adulthood participation in such activities.

Tweak, Adapt, or Transform: Policy Scenarios in Response to Emerging Bioenergy Markets in the U.S. Corn Belt

Emerging bioenergy markets portend both boon and bane for regions of intensive agricultural production worldwide. To understand and guide the effects of bioenergy markets on agricultural landscapes, communities, and economies, we engaged leaders in the Corn Belt state of Iowa in a participatory workshop and follow-up interviews to develop future policy scenarios. Analysis of workshop and interview data, in conjunction with the results of regional social and ecological research, was used to develop a heuristic model outlining interactions between key drivers and outcomes of regional landscape change. Three policy scenarios were built on this framework and included the following approaches: tweak, adapt, and transform. Our results suggest that if macroscale markets, technologies, and federal farm policies are allowed to be the overriding drivers of farm owner and operator decision making, Iowas agricultural landscapes will likely become highly efficient at row crop production at the cost of other desired outcomes. However, the perspectives of Iowa leaders demonstrate how multifunctional agricultural landscapes can be achieved through a concerted portfolio of change coordinated across local, regional, and national scales.

Responses of Nestling Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax ) to Aquatic and Terrestrial Recreational Activities: a Manipulative Study

Abstract We assessed the effects of the presence and the frequency of canoe and pedestrian disturbance during two breeding seasons on multiple behavioral responses (scanning, freezing, grooming, sleeping, moving, wing-raising, and standing-up) of Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) nestlings in a breeding colony in southeast Chicago. Short-term responses (min) of Black-crowned Night Heron nestlings showed that they were sensitive to the presence of aquatic and pedestrian disturbance by increasing vigilant (scanning) and anti-predator (freezing) behaviors and decreasing maintenance (grooming, sleeping) behaviors. Nestlings were also sensitive to recreationist behavior, with less time allocated to sleeping and more time to freezing and scanning in the presence of inquisitive pedestrians than pedestrians who passed by the colony without stopping. However, medium-term responses (days) were insensitive to the frequency of disturbance, but spatial proximity to the source of disturbance influenced time scanning, sleeping, and freezing). Our results have wide implications for the protection of the Black-crowned Night Heron in States in which it is considered a species of conservation concern. We recommend that boating activities should be precluded during the initial part of the breeding season and buffer zones of 50 m should be established around the colony to minimize human disturbance. However, under these conditions, restrictions on the number of visitors during the breeding period may not be necessary.

Different social drivers, including perceptions of urban wildlife, explain the ecological resources in residential landscapes

ContextThe conservation value of residential landscapes is becoming increasingly apparent in our urbanizing world. The ecological characteristics of residential areas are largely determined by the decisions of many individual “managers.” In these complex socio-ecological systems, it is important to understand the factors that motivate human decision-making.ObjectivesOur first objective was to quantify wildlife resources and management activities in residential landscapes and compare vegetation in front and back yards. Our second objective was to test three hypotheses linked with variation in yards: socioeconomic characteristics, neighborhood design factors, and perceptions of neighborhood birds.MethodsWe conducted surveys of over 900 residents in 25 Chicago-area neighborhoods to examine the wildlife resources contained in front and back yards and the social factors associated with variation in yards. We used a multi-scalar approach to examine among-yard and among-neighborhood variation in residential landscapes.ResultsResults indicate that back yards contain more wildlife resources than front yards, including greater vegetation complexity, more plants with fruit/berries, and more plants intended to attract birds. Furthermore, different hypotheses explain variation in front and back yards. Perceptions of birds were most important in explaining variation in back yard vegetation and wildlife-friendly resources per parcel, while neighbors’ yards and socioeconomic characteristics best explained front yard vegetation.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the importance of back yards as an unexplored and underestimated resource for biodiversity. In addition, the results provide insight into the complex factors linked with yard decisions, notably that residents’ connections with neighborhood birds appear to translate to on-the-ground actions.

Mechanisms of Children’s Exposure to Nature: Predicting Adulthood Environmental Citizenship and Commitment to Nature-Based Activities:

Childhood-nature experiences have lifelong effects on environmental citizenship and commitment to nature-based activities. But, it is unclear whether, and to what extent, the different mechanisms through which children and youth experience nature are associated with these outcomes. To test these associations, an online questionnaire assessing mechanisms of childhood exposure to nature, adulthood environmental citizenship and commitment to nature-based activities, and demographic variables was sent to the email addresses of 509 employees of the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. The 236 completed surveys indicated four mechanisms of children’s exposure to nature. Children’s self-exposure to nature was the strongest predictor of a number of aspects of adulthood environmental citizenship and of behavioral and attitudinal commitments to nature-based activities. Exposure through school-related programs had less predictive value for these outcomes. Implications for pathways to enhance the benefits of childhood-nature experiences are discussed.

Local Assessment of Chicago: From Wild Chicago to Chicago Wilderness – Chicago’s Ecological Setting and Recent Efforts to Protect and Restore Nature in the Region

From the time of its charter in 1832 the population of the City of Chicago grew explosively and the landscapes of the region were largely transformed both by the expanding physical footprint of the city and by the extensive development of agriculture in the hinterlands. This transformation was at the expense of highly biodiverse ecosystems that had been inhabited by populations of indigenous peoples who had themselves been agents in the historical development of the region’s biota. As a consequence of both public and private community planning early in the history of the city, the region retained substantial open space in the city itself and its hinterlands. In this chapter we describe the factors that determined the structure of the biota of Chicago and review recent large-scale attempts to manage the biodiversity of the region. We discuss recent biodiversity conservation strategies mainly through the lens of Chicago Wilderness, a regional biodiversity conservation alliance that emerged over a decade ago and that now has more than 260 institutional members. These members represent federal, state, and local agencies, public land-management agencies, conservation organizations, and scientific and cultural institutions. Despite the progress we show that the footprint of the city continues to grow and that there is significant work to be done even on questions of the basic natural history of the Chicago area.