Philadelphia Parks Alliance

http://www.philaparks.org
The Philadelphia Parks Alliance is an origanization supporting the sustaining and developing parks and "green" areas in the Philadelphia area. This group believes that revitalizing parks will help to attract businesses and people to the region, therefore raising housing values and economic activity, as well as giving Philadelphians a safer and cleaner place to play, exercise and relax.

nnyn

http://www.nnyn.org/aboutus.html

NNYN stands for Nurture New York's Nature. They are a not-for-profit organization that wants to promote and show the importance of developing environmental solutions in New York city. This organization was a response to Christo and Jeanne Claude's installation, The Gates, and was aloud by the artists to be used in promotions and for products.

Green Spaces Alliance

Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas is a non-profit organization created to promoting "Green Spaces". Some of the main focuses are to preserve the air and drinking water that we utilize today. However, Green Spaces Alliance's top priorities is to maintain more physical and cultural landmarks of the communities involved.

http://greenspacesalliance.org/

Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center

Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center is an nonprofit orginazation located in southern Harris County in Houston , Texas. It was founded by the nonprofit Greater Park Place Community Development Corporation in 1997 to help revive this abused area. This center serves as a great place for amy natural outdoor activities and has been able to bring in many volunteers. Many programs have been created for this specific Urban Nature Center. The official website, contains a schedule and fee for the tour which contain gardens, ponds and many more native environmental aspects of the area, a description of the programs avaible, adoption categories, and even a blog area. There is also contact information and mention of their nature store.

Local Action For Biodiveristy (LAB)

http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=6238

Local Action for Biodiveristy is a gobal urban biodiversity initiative that works closely with local and regional authories in order to manage and conserve biodiversity. Estbalished in 2006, the goal of LAB is to improve biodiversity management at a local and government level by notifying the puclic of the importance of biodiversisty and the importance of governments to enfore the maintenance of such areas.

Urban Green Council

Urban Green Council

This council is the New York chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. They are a non-profit organization. They aim to have cities and the environment coexist together peacefully. They were established in 2002. Urban Green has a great website as well as a pamphlet that gets out to engineers and architects around the country. They hope to have more buildings established with green spaces, as they in in Battery Park. This is a great organization worth checking out.

Urban Ecology

http://www.urbanecology.org

Urban Ecology was founded in 1975 by visionary architects and activists who believed that cities should serve both people and nature. From the beginning, Urban Ecology has used urban planning, ecology, and public participation to help design and build healthier cities

The Urban Forest

link to website

The Urban Forest tries to find the meaning of what an urban forest actually is. To do so, research is taken place in both Germany and also in the United States. Results tend to be similar yet different at the same time. The urban forests in German cases and also in American cases serve many of the same purposes. This site tries to overcome the obstacle of the contradictory perceptions of urban forest and city, and tries to show how it may be possible for one to compliment the other.

EarthCorps

http://www.earthcorps.org

EarthCorps is a non-profit organization that provides programs for young adults to learn environmental conservation techniques. Founded in 1993, the group is dedicated to build a global community through local community-based environmental restoration. EarthCorps takes polluted environments and revives them into self-sustaining ecosystems. The organization is composed of environmental leaders from over 60 countries, which work on projects in the Puget Sound region and Cascade Mountains.

About America's First Zoo

The Philadelphia Zoo is an organization that has dedicated there website to educating and informing society about the rare and endangered species from all over the world. The organization Victorian garden houses more than 1,300 species, all with their own spacial exhibits that resembles each species original home. The Zoo is family friendly place to visit and explore the world around you, right here, in the backyard of Philadelphia's Urban nature. https://www.philadelphiazoo.org/about/AboutZoo.htm

conservation.org

Conservation.org officially known as Conservation International is a website dedicated to the preservation of earth's natural resources.Their vision is to obtain a "healthy prosperous world in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature for the long-term benefit of people and all life on Earth."They have a variety of resources for taking action as an individual or a group, newsletters, web links to related websites, programs and events and even career opportunities.

URBAN GREENSPACE INSTITUTE:)

http://www.urbangreenspaces.org

Urban Greenspace Institute is an organization that's mission is: To ensure that parks, regional trail systems, greenways and greenspaces are integrated with the built environment in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region; and to promote urban greenspace efforts nationally and internationally.

The website shows in great detail how much they are dedicated to their work and even have information for those who want to get involved. They are also connected and helped create other environment non-profit organizations.

The Natue Conservancy

http://www.nature.org/?src=t1

This organization deals with the preservation and preserving of our nature and life. They are the leading conservation organization around the world, to protect lands and waters for nature and people. This organization works in all 50 states and more than 30 countries. With the combination of great science and smart partnership, this organization has been quite successful throughout the past 58 years. With organizations like these ones, it makes it much more suitable to live in most parts of the world today.

Nature in the City- Urban Biodiversity

The article Nature in the City- Urban Biodiversity explains that not only is urban nature true and not an oxymoron, but that cities have more nature and biodiversity than the stereotypical rural areas. The article explains that because most of the population lives in cities, that urban nature connects all these people to the natural enviornment. The articles also goes on to explain that while the opposition believes that urbanization can and will destroy our natural resources, that if peoplde changed their relationship with the enviornment that it will cause a want for "ecological restoration." While many people do not have the time or resources to go out and see the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains, if we start to educate people about their local enviornment it will cause people to go out, explore and appreciate the enviornemnt around them. Urban nature is alive and thriving and is critical for ecological sustainability.

Urban Nature

Imagining an Urban Nature Agenda

This article comes from Center for Ecoliteracy is about urban nature support and the divide between nature and human activity. It shows urban nature encouragement through connection of place and urban nature agenda and shares views of urban environmentalists.

Friends of the Wissahickon

http://www.fow.org

This is the link to the Friends of the Wissahickon web page. FOW is an organization created to protect the ecosystem of Valley Green Park, a part of Fairmount park in Philadelphia. the organization was founded in 1924, it currently has 1,600 members who have donated or volunteered for the organization. volunteers can sign up to clear, build, and maintain trails. Donations are used to protect the environment in Valley Green by preventing the purchase and development of it's land. The Wissahickon Valley, aka Valley Green, aka West Fairmount Park, is a beautiful example of a natural escape from the urban environment of Philadelphia. In the park there is a wide valley of forest with the Wissahickon Creek traveling south-east down in the middle. there are paths to explore and ducks to feed. people walk, jog, bike, hike, and ride horses on the trails in the park and on forbidden drive, the main trail the runs along the creek.

PHILADELPHIA GREEN

Here's a link and description of Philadelphia Green:

A program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia Green® is the nation’s most comprehensive urban greening program. Since 1974, Philadelphia Green has supported the development and ongoing care of community gardens, neighborhood parks and high-profile public green spaces in Philadelphia.

Working in partnership with neighborhood residents, community organizations and city agencies, the program uses greening as a community building tool. It educates and empowers people to make the city a more attractive and livable place through horticulture.

WESTERN VIEWS OF NATURE

Here's a fine overview of Western views of nature from the Hebrew bible through John Muir and preservationism. (Here's the original link.)

Western Views of Nature

Hebrew Bible

1. Spiritual value beyond the natural world
• Creator God is separate from and transcends nature.
• Religious worship should be directed to the Creator.
• Humans are a special creation: they are the only part of creation that are created in God’s image.
• Humans are given “dominion” over nature.

2. The spiritual value of creation
• God made creation and called it good (before humans were created).
• Creation manifests God’s glory and is alive and responsive to God.
• Humans are a creature of God along with all other species.
• God cares for all of creation, which is God’s, not the possession of humans.
• Humans are given the duty of stewardship, protecting God’s creation.

Ancient Greek Philosophy
Plato (ca. 400 b.c.), Aristotle (ca. 350 b.c.e.), and Neo-Platonism (3rd century c.e.).
• Plato and Neo-Platonism clearly placed highest spiritual value on a transcendent world and devalued the natural world.
• Aristotle assumed that nature was essentially good and continuous with spiritual reality. However, he too espoused a form of “transcendental dualism.”

Transcendental Dualism
“Dualism”: binary split into two. “Transcendental”: one of the two is higher and is related to transcendental reality.
• There are two realms of reality: the natural world, and a transcendental world, which has highest spiritual reality.
• Human nature is dualistic: mind versus body, reason versus emotions, with mind and reason corresponding to the transcendental realm, the body and emotions part of the natural world.
• Social dualism: sex and race showed same dualism: men (associated with mind and reason) higher than women (associated with body and emotions).
• Nature-culture dualism: Culture is associated with mind, males, and the transcendent. Nature is associated with body, females, and is inferior to culture.
• Domestic and tame animals are superior to wild animals.
“It is clear that the rule of the soul over the body, and the mind and the rational element over the passionate, is natural and expedient; whereas equality of the two or the rule of the inferior is always hurtful. The same holds good of animals in relation to men; for tame animals have a better nature than wild, and all tame animals are better off when they are ruled by man; for then they are preserved. Again, the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; and the one rules, and the other is ruled; this principle, of necessity, extends to all mankind.”
--Aristotle, Politics

Medieval views of nature

“Organicism”
• Nature has an inherent vitality of its own: anima mundi.
• Different things in nature interacted like organs in a body.
• The natural and supernatural realms can interact (magic).
• Hierarchical view of cosmos and of society (feudalism).

Nature as book
Late Medieval period up to 18th century.
• Nature is God’s creation.
• Nature is orderly and intelligible.
• Thus creation tells us about God. To understand the mind of the Creator, we can “read” his “book.”
• Nature has value as God’s creation and as a medium to learn about God, but does not have truly inherent spiritual value in and of itself.

Nature as chaotic “wilderness”
Associated particularly with early Protestant John Calvin (1509-1564) and Puritanism.
• A fallen world of nature: when Adam fell from Grace, his world also fell–from a Garden of Eden to a contaminated place.
• Nature is chaotic, disorderly, ever-changing without pattern or predictability.
• Therefore nature is not intelligible and is dangerous.
• We need either to wall out the wilderness, or conquer and tame it and turn it into a Garden based on human spiritual design and control.

Enlightenment
Particularly the 18th century. Germany (Kant), France (Voltaire), England (Hume), the U.S. (Thomas Jefferson), but continuing today.
• A response against medieval faith, “superstition,” religious wars, and witch hunts.
• Associated with humanism, rationalism, & science.
• Optimistic concerning knowledge (reason & science), society (movement toward democracy & away from monarchy), material well being (allied with scientific and technological advances).
• Nature is orderly, acting according to natural “laws,” and works like a clock (“mechanism”).
• We can understand natural laws through science and reason, which are the surest sources of knowledge.
• The knowledge we gain is not limited to individuals, particular circumstances, or social groups: it is objective and universal.
• Our scientific knowledge enables us to have power over nature and manipulate it for our benefit.

Romanticism
Especially 1750-1870, but continuing today.
• In part a reaction against the rationalism and mechanism of the Enlightenment.
• Nature has high value. It is either a direct manifestation of spiritual reality, or has its own spiritual value.
• There is a close correspondence between the natural world and human nature.
• Reason is suspect. The goal is not abstract knowledge but communion. The world is more complex and fluid: intuition, emotions, & the contemplation of beauty have particular value.
• The arts are particularly valued as a medium for representing the spiritual dimension of reality and expressing sensitive experience of it.
• Social vision: simpler, pastoral lifestyles close to nature are superior to the nightmare of urban technology.
• The “Sublime” is prized: the awe-inspiring majesty of nature, which suggests its spiritual dimension and our place but our smallness within it.

“Conservation”
• Not the general term of conserving nature, but a specific philosophy of resource management.
• Began in Europe in the eighteenth century, a form of the Enlightenment’s rational search for order, progress, and material well-being.
• Championed around 1900 in the U.S. by Gifford Pinchot, the “father of American forestry.”
• For Pinchot three are main options:
• nature could be left unused and thus wasted;
• it could be ruthlessly exploited and used up, leaving nothing for future generations;
• or it could be managed for greater efficiency and long-term productivity.
• The third option is necessary for economic prosperity and as the only moral stance concerning future generation.
• “Anthropocentric”: nature’s value is only found in its use for us. By itself, it has no moral or spiritual value in itself. Nature is something to be controlled, managed, and consumed by humans. Nature unused by humans is a waste.
• This is the dominant view in American forestry.

“Preservationism”
• Championed by John Muir (1838-1914), Wisconsin-born California nature writer.
• Proposed as an alternative to the anthropocentric conservationism of Pinchot.
• “Biocentric”: nature has intrinsic value. The ideal is to preserve nature as it is for its own sake.
• The proper human “use” of nature is aesthetic and spiritual, which ideally leaves nature undisturbed.

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I would add to the above survey a number of other perspectives, including deep ecology and ecofeminism. There are many ways to define deep ecology, and here are two of its primary points according to Arne Naess:

* The well-being and flourishing of human and non-human life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent worth). These values are independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes.

* The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantially smaller human population. The flourishing of non-human life requires a smaller human population.

Note how the first point (re use-value of nature) is a radical departure from both conservationist and preservationist philosophies (see descriptions below). Greg Garrard draws out this distinction in Ecocriticism:

Whereas "shallow" approaches take an instrumental approach to nature, arguing for preservation of natural resources only for the sake of humans, deep ecology demands recognition of intrinsic value in nature. It identifies the dualistic separation of humans from nature promoted by Western philosophy and culture as the origin of environmental crisis, and demands a return to a monistic, primal identification of humans and the ecosphere. The shift from a human-centered [anthropocentric] to a nature-centered [ecocentric] system of values is the core of the radicalism attributed to deep ecology, bringing it into opposition with almost the entirety of Western philosophy and religion. (21)

The key phrase above is "instrinsic value of nature" versus the extrinsic value of nature perceived as commodity, which is a perspective deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian ideologies and found among both conservationists and preservationists.

WHAT IS A WEED?

The below is a wonderful little piece on weeds: what is a weed? what's the difference between a "weed" and a "plant"? what values and beliefs shape our attitudes about weeds? Although the article focuses on rural and suburban notions of weeds (e.g., agriculture, lawn aesthetics), you may also find these value systems among people living in urban settings like Philadelphia.

*

The concept of a weed has been around for a long time, but it is poorly defined. An example of an older book about weeds is A Manual of Weeds (1914) by Ada Georgia, while a more recent book on the same topic is Weeds of the Northern U.S. and Canada (1999) by France Boyer and Richard Dickinson.

There appear to be three dominant perspectives on weeds: agricultural-ranching, suburban, and ecological. The agricultural perspective considers any plant a weed if it competes with crops for the available nutrients and moisture in a field. Such plants can lower crop yield or cause crop failure. Closely related to this is the ranching perspective, which replaces the agricultural perspective in those areas where rearing of livestock is dominant. The ranching perspective considers any plant a weed if it presents a threat to livestock or reduces the quality of forage that is otherwise available. As a result, livestock gain weight less readily, or they may become ill or injured, sometimes fatally by the uneconomic properties of weedy plants. I combine the agricultural and ranching perspectives together because they are driven primarily by the same economic motives in rural areas.

The suburban perspective considers any plant a weed if it invades the lawns and gardens of suburban homeowners and other managed landscapes of mainstream society, which includes the lawns and gardens of banks, schools, churches, malls, government buildings, industrial parks, etc. In the context of this perspective, plants are valueless weeds unless they have been made available through the mass market and have price tags attached. The ideal plant of the managed landscape in suburbia has the following characteristics:

1) It is an introduced species that is poorly adapted to the surrounding environment.
2) It is a sterile hybrid or patented cultivar.
3) It is difficult to maintain and often short-lived.
4) It doesn't spread readily to places where it doesn't belong.
5) It has obvious aesthetic or culinary properties.
6) It has to be purchased at a store or through a catalog.

The weediness of a plant is defined by the absence of the preceding characteristics. Thus, suburbia considers any plant a weed that is well-adapted to its environment, prone to reproduce itself and spread, requires little or no effort to maintain, has no obvious aesthetic or culinary properties, and doesn't require money to acquire.

The ecological perspective considers any plant a weed if it is a pioneer species that thrives in a degraded habitat with a history of disturbance through human agency. Such weeds may be native or introduced. There are also superweeds that have the capacity to invade high quality natural areas. Superweeds are usually introduced plants with few natural enemies in the area of invasion. By forming dense colonies, they displace native plants and reduce biodiversity. The more ordinary kinds of weeds are not considered a significant threat to the natural environment because they tend to disappear after artificial disturbances have been removed, while superweeds are dreaded by nearly all ecologists.

In the United States, the agricultural-ranching perspective dominated people's opinions about weeds prior to World War II, and it is still very influential. Both of the books that are cited above have been strongly influenced by this perspective. One reason for the dominance of this perspective was that most people lived on farms, ranches, or rural areas that were economically dependent on such commercial interests. After World War II, however, the suburban perspective on weeds became more dominant as most people became homeowners in suburban areas that were not dominated by agricultural-ranching interests. The ecological perspective on weeds became influential during the 1970's and thereafter as people and government leaders became more concerned with environmental issues. Today, all three of these perspectives coexist among members of modern society, even though they are not entirely compatible with each other.

As an example of this lack of compatibility, consider Medicago sativa (Alfalfa). Alfalfa is highly regarded as a forage crop and a source of hay for livestock, particularly in the Western states. As a member of the legume family, it helps to replenish worn-out agricultural soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. From the agricultural-ranching perspective, Alfalfa is more often regarded as a valuable crop plant than a weed. However, suburban homeowners and ecologists have a different assessment of this plant. Alfalfa is just another weed to be eliminated from the suburban perspective because it can invade lawns and gardens. It is not particularly attractive, nor is it highly regarded as a source of food for humans, however acceptable it may be to livestock. Similarly, Alfalfa is regarded as a weed from an ecological perspective because it is an introduced plant from abroad that displaces native plants. It also has a tendency to thrive in habitats where there has been a history of disturbance, which is typical of weedy plants.

Other examples could be given in which a given plant species is highly regarded from a suburban perspective, but regarded as a weed from the agricultural-ranching and ecological perspectives, and similarly for those species that are highly regarded from an ecological perspective. It is well known that ecologists often find themselves in pitched battles against real estate developers, farmers and ranchers, and other commercial interests over the preservation of habitat containing rare species of plants. However, there are also plant species that are regarded as weedy pests from all three perspectives, one of which is Conium maculatum (Poison Hemlock). However, this does not mean that Poison Hemlock is devoid of value, as I will attempt to explain below.

Personally, I'm more influenced by the ecological perspective than the others, although I include many species that are regarded as weeds in fields and pastures, as well as lawns and gardens. Examples of common field weeds include Thlaspi arvense (Field Pennycress) and Abutilon theophrasti (Velvetleaf), while examples of common lawn weeds include Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion) and Plantago rugelii (Broadleaf Plantain).

One characteristic of all three perspectives is that weedy plants are regarded as having little value, and thus homeowners, business establishments, ecologists, farmers, and ranchers expend considerable time, money, and effort in getting rid of them. There are some ecologists, however, who have a higher opinion of weedy plants (I happen to be one of them) because they assume important roles in the functioning of the ecological system and are interesting subjects of intellectual inquiry. Furthermore, some weedy plants have produced practical benefits that further the interests of modern society.

Why are weeds more valuable than many people realize? I suggest the following reasons:

1) Some weedy species are pioneers of degraded landscapes where the soil is worn-out or nearly destroyed. Such weedy species are necessary to the healing process of the landscape, as their decaying organic matter improves the quality of the soil and the sets the stage for the succession of non-weedy plants.

2) Some weedy species are pioneers of disturbed landscapes where the soil is high quality, but exposed to erosion by wind and water. Such weedy species quickly cover the exposed soil and prevent erosion from occurring until they are replaced by non-weedy plants.

3) Weedy plants are often important sources of food and cover to various kinds of wildlife, including mammals, birds, and insects. For example, the caterpillars of Danaus plexippes (Monarch butterfly) feed on Asclepias syriaca (Common Milkweed), while the the caterpillars of Papilio polyxenes asterias (Black Swallowtail butterfly) feed on Daucus carota (Wild Carrot) and Pastinaca sativa (Wild Parsnip).

4) Weedy plants are potentially important sources of food, medicines, herbicides, and other products to modern society. For example, Fragaria virginica (Wild Strawberry) is one of the parent species of the hybrid strawberries in supermarkets. A powerful herbicide has been derived from Centaurea biebersteinii (Spotted Knapweed), while the fiber of Cannabis sativa (Marijuana) can be used to make paper, rope, or clothing.

For these reasons, I think weedy plants are entitled to greater respect than they have received from the past. Even professional ecologists have a tendency to underestimate their value to the environment. I hope that this website will rectify some of these misperceptions, even though it is clear that some weedy plants present a major threat to commercial interests, while others are superweeds that can invade natural habitats.

THOREAU'S "WALKING"

The "Walking" we have in our ecocomposition anthology is an excerpt from Thoreau's essay. If you're interested in reading the entire essay, click here.