Can urban areas have ecological integrity

The question of whether urban areas can offer asemblance of the natural world – a vestige (at least)of ecological integrity – is an important one to manypeople who live in these areas. As more and more ofthe world becomes urbanized, this question becomeshighly relevant to the broader mission of maintain-ing the Earth’s biological diversity.Most people, especially when young, are attractedto the natural world and living things, Ed Wilsoncalled this attraction “biophilia.” And entire bookshave been written about it – one, for example, bySteve Kellert, who also appears in this morning’sprogram. Personally, I share Wilson’s speculationthat biophilia has a genetic basis. Some people arebiophilic than others. This tendency is very likelyheritable, although it certainly is influenced by theenvironment, particularly by early experiences. Myown experience, which includes working manyyears as a camp counselor and environmentaleducator early in my career, and having 3 children ofmy own, suggests that most children are biophilic.They are fascinated by non-human life forms. Kidsthat have abundant exposure to nature tend to bemore biophilic. As they get older, however, mostkids seem to lose touch with nature. They aresocially conditioned to value television, computers,and video games above bugs and salamanders.Their teachers and parents reinforce whatever fearsthey have about the outdoors (e.g. about snakes,spiders, and poison oak) and their peers tell themthat nature isn’t “cool. Only nerds are interested inthat stuff.” With few or no natural areas near theirhomes to offer alternative experiences, many youngpeople let their biophilia dwindle away to nothing asthey grow older. It is no wonder we have a populacedistanced from nature and unwilling to supportmeaningful conservation programs.I have just outlined what I believe is the majorchallenge of urban wildlife conservation. What, then,do we do about it? Basically, what we do is maintainand, where possible, restore a lot more naturalhabitat and wildlife within and around urban areas,where most people live. But, if we embark on thisventure, how do we know if we are succeeding?There are both social and biological measures ofsuccess. The social measures include increasedawareness of and appreciation for native wildlifeand healthy ecosystems. The biological measures arethe subject of my talk this morning; I will focus onadaptation of the ecological integrity concept tourban and suburban areas and the role of connectiv-ity (i.e. wildlife corridors) in promoting ecologicalintegrity.