Urban Wildlife
14 simple, doable ways municipalities can contribute to conservation — think of them as New Year’s resolutions for your hometown. You listening, City Hall?
2020 Visioning: 14 New Year’s conservation resolutions for your hometown. Are you listening, City Hall?
Since most Canadians, roughly 80 per cent of us, live in towns and cities, this is where each and all of us can make the biggest difference to the health of our environment. How? Well, here are practical, affordable ways Canadian cities and towns can improve the lot of their urban wildlife this year. Is your municipality doing enough?
PASSING THROUGH Many Canadian cities and towns are on the main flyways for countless migratory bird species. By offering (that is, “conserving”) natural stopovers that provide food and shelter, your municipality can play a crucial role in the global effort to foster biodiversity.
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME If you want growth with local biodiversity in mind, lobby your local politicians and local building and zoning authorities to include wildlife-friendly provisions in standard building policies and bylaws.
TURN OUT THE LIGHTS Brightly lit office towers kill billions of birds every year in Canadian cities. The simple act of turning lights off would save millions of them. Other, longer-term initiatives your city could undertake include mandating birdfriendly glass and responsible lighting design in all new buildings and retrofits.
KEEP CATS INDOORS! On the subject of saving birds’ lives, the single easiest thing a private citizen can do that will save countless winged lives is to keep your house cat indoors. Cats are avian assassins, slaughtering billions of small birds worldwide every year. Encourage your city to launch an education program for cat owners.
GRASS ABOVE Green roofs are a low-cost way to save energy, reduce the urban heat island effect, improve air quality and create new, much-needed biodiversity habitat. Cities should do what they can to green municipal roofs while incentivizing businesses and homeowners to do the same.
ALIEN INVASION Invasive species are on the increase, crowding out all-important biodiversity, damaging lakes, reducing soil productivity and degrading wildlife habitat. And in cases like zebra mussels, costing millions. By enlisting everyone in the pushback through education and engagement, the tide can be turned.
HABITAT FOR… EVERYONE Healthy habitat is essential to local wildlife, offering safety, shelter, food, water and breeding grounds. It’s good for humans too. Is your city’s parks & rec department planting native trees and shrubs, substituting park lawns with meadows (saving money and carbon emissions on mowing), removing non-native invasive species and reintroducing native vegetation? It should be.
CUT DOWN ON SALT What’s right for our bodies in this case is also what’s right for our cities. Road salt is toxic to wildlife, damaging to local water sources and destructive to urban infrastructure. Encourage your city administration, local businesses and neighbours to use safe alternatives and to salt only lightly if necessary.
RE-NATURALIZE One of the simplest ways for city governments to make a huge difference is to transform abandoned lots, dead zones and rights-of-way into pockets of biodiversity. Stop mowing and spraying, and give nature a little breathing room. It will save money in the long run too.
STOP USING PESTICIDES. The evidence is irrefutable: many pesticides have harmful effects well beyond their benefits. Each of us can make an important contribution to our environmental health by choosing safe alternatives. Make sure your community does too.
BE KIND TO BEES AND BUTTERFLIES. Pollinators are essential to our future environmental health. Ensure your municipality says no to all neonics, actively creates pollinator-friendly areas in public spaces — such as butterfly meadows in parks and beehives on buildings — and helps citizens do the same.
GO WITH THE FLOW Cities must work harder to ensure easy movement of wildlife. Green corridors create a system of biodiversity connections that support species movement and weave nature into the urban fabric.
WATER SAFETY It is way cheaper to maintain clean water than to process and purify later. Municipalities and regional governments need to protect watersheds, even when they are outside their boundaries. LOBBY Get involved with your local government. Make sure they know your concerns. Collective action by city- and town-dwellers can make all the difference in the WORLD.