Collective landscape, heal thyself!
by Garth Conrad
photo by Mike Nowak
A definitive six year study now shows that corridors linking isolated wildlife areas help preserve and even encourage plant diversity, especially native plant species within the linked wildlife areas. Many states and communities have set aside wildlife corridors in recent past, but evidence of their effectiveness in maintaining and encouraging diversity has been scant. No longer. The study was conducted at the very large Savannah River Site National Environmental Research Park on the South Carolina-Georgia state line and proves the rationale that using corridors helps plants and animals move between isolated areas. Natives seem to particularly benefit from the corridors, but exotic species did not.
If we take this finding and adapt it to urban areas, it seems that efforts to return to a native dominant landscape would help in preserving and diversifying the overall plant community found in a given area. Native plants would leap-frog between the existing patchwork of landscapes to larger areas of diversity. As native-based landscapes increase in numbers, corresponding diversity and ecosystem health would strengthen overall. Grow baby grow.
Link to the full text from the journal Science:
GREEN REPORT
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