Eugene weekly., February 02, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

such good partners here with us locally where we infuse
sustainability work into all we do. I’m not saying we are
perfect at all, but we are embracing this in a very full way.”
Piercy and Bohman cite examples of green city/UO
collaborations including the Courthouse Garden on city
land, the “greenest ever” Olympic Track & Field Trials,
the HUD Lane Livability grant in support of sustainable
communities, UO faculty involvement in both the Mayor’s
Sustainable Business Initiative and the Sustainability
Commission, and dozens of others.
The city is also working on a basket of its own
sustainability projects, such as the Climate and Energy
Action Plan, Zero Waste Project, Green Building program,
Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan and Envision Eugene.
“We feel it would be a better use of time and resources
to continue to focus our efforts on these initiatives that
already have a great deal of community support,” says
Bohman, “rather than starting a number of new projects in
one year as called for by the SCYP model.”
Jones says for a program to be successful, it needs to be
“supported and originated at the highest levels of the city
government. In Gresham, Salem and Springfi eld it came
from the city manager’s offi ce, and had the strong support
of the city councils. If you don’t have those things, the
program really can’t run.”
Salem’s experience
Salem chose projects that were “closely tied to City
Council goals so the students could move those projects
forward,” says Jones. “Now the staff are following up
on the student recommendations to take the next steps.”
Those projects included a north downtown waterfront
redevelopment, conceptual designs for a new police
station and civic center, downtown parks connectivity and
bike paths, natural area restoration and improved civic
engagement with the Latino community and other groups.
Close to 600 UO and PSU students from 10 academic
disciplines put in some 80,000 hours to make their
recommendations. The police station design project alone
involved 24 students and two architectural fi rms. UO
students majoring in product design worked on improved
street lighting in parks.
The Salem SCYP got the attention of The New York Times
in a story by Michael Burnham (Aug. 23, 2010). UO archi-
tecture professor Nico Larco is quoted saying, “Sustainabil-
ity is something we have to pay attention to. … We’re start-
ing to see ‘green’ translate not only into environmental and
human health but also into business and dollars.”
Salem’s Statesman Journal newspaper did a series of
about 15 stories about the Salem SCYP, and those stories
and others can be found at sci.org.edu/press
Irreplaceable Nature
Architect Timothy Beatley drew big crowds on the
UO campus in mid-January with a fi lm and lecture
about nature in our cities. Beatley is a UO graduate
and the Theresa Heinz professor of sustainable
communities at the University of Virginia. He is
known internationally through his books, the
latest published in 2011 by Island Press called Biophilic
Cities: Integrating Nature Into Urban Design and
Planning. Shelley Deadmond, a graduate student in
a new program called OLIS, Oregon Leadership in
Sustainability, reviews Beatley’s book for EW.
y earliest memories of interacting with
the natural world date back to when I was
about 4 years old when my older brother
and I would catch and collect frogs in a fi ve-gallon
bucket until dinnertime. My parents’ semi-rural
home in Northern California was abundant with the
inch-long hoppers after wet springs created prime
breeding grounds. When dinner was ready, we’d do
a fi nal count, then set them free and run inside to
wash up before eating.
These are the types of memories Timothy Beatley
suggests everyone should have, regardless of where
they live, in his newest book Biophilic Cities. Beatley
wants to expand the discussion beyond buildings
and sites to biophilia, or abundant nature, at the city
scale.
“Biophilic cities place the focus squarely on the
nature, on the presence and celebrations of the
actual green features, life-forms and processes with
which we as a species have so intimately coevolved,”
he writes.
M
E
Because of its local focus, a biophilic perspective
will mean diff erent things depending on location.
Natural histories and site-specifi c abundances vary
greatly by place but are of crucial importance to a
city that thrives with life of all kinds, not just humans.
Beatley argues that the extent to which nature is
regarded as ancillary in some modern urban cities
is nearly criminal. He cites Richard Louv’s notion
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10
FEBRUARY 2, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
of American children having what he terms “nature
defi cit disorder,” where the only remedy is to go
outside.
The basic argument is that close-proximity access
to natural and wild spaces is essential at all times.
Understanding that this will depend on a city’s
physical conditions, infrastructure, and governance
priorities, Beatley gives compelling examples of ways
in which cities have made some aspects of biophilia
the focus of a given initiative, neighborhood or
building.
The not so subtle assertion that nature is God
will likely be the books’ main criticism. Beatley does
everything but say it. Nature is his religion and he’s
preaching far and wide. He’s not alone. An ever-
growing choir recognizes the ecological horrors of
the past 150 or so years and is actively seeking a less
harmful means for living on the planet.
Garnering social capital, working within and
reforming current governmental policies and
the investment of money and time are the main
challenges a biophilic endeavor will face. Beatley
doesn’t give any solid methods for approaching
these challenges but rather encourages readers by
giving examples of why these will be changes worth
fi ghting for.
Beatley clearly demonstrates his understanding
of the creative power of thought; we manifest that to
which we give value, and so he asks for a re-valuing
of ourselves and thus the physical places were we
live. He pleads page by page for his reader to agree
that nature must be considered vital, primary,
irreplaceable. — Ted Taylor
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