Ecological principles and processes as drivers for landscape design

Abstract

Over the course of the last several centuries, anthropocentric expansion and influence has marched forth across the planet at both rates and intensities never before experienced. The results of these activities position humankind in a unique period historically, in the midst of the planet’s sixth great extinction. While such events have indeed happened before, scientific consensus points to the cause of this current mass extinction as being uniquely new; indeed it points to us, in that we are the cause. It is within this context that the book ‘Designing Wildlife Habitats’ edited by John Beardsley is incredibly timely and of paramount need. Compiled as a compendium of essays presented at the 2010 Dumbarton Oaks Symposium, the book aims to explore landscape design within the context of the current biodiversity crisis, presuming that landscape designers will be increasingly called upon to engage in restoration efforts of landscapes and habitats. The first section (chapters 1–6) presents a series of frameworks for operationalizing landscape design. With the exception of several chapters that are more empirically driven, the first section largely focuses on establishing an understanding of the cultural constructs and value systems that influence the way we think about wildlife within the context of design. The second section of the book (chapters 7–14) utilizes a series of case studies to discuss design explorations specific to various sites, scales, and systems. The most notable strength of the book is the trans-disciplinary expertise and perspectives from which it draws its content. This is evidenced by the wide spectrum of contributors including historians, anthropologists, ecologists, and conservation biologists as well as conservation and design practitioners. Chapter 1 provides an artful and approachable chronology of notable contributions to the landscape design discipline, and introduces two particularly compelling narratives. First, that one of the most notable evolutions of the design discipline in addressing species decline has been a shift from evaluating how landscapes look towards evaluating how they function. Second, that one of the discipline’s most notable challenges in evaluating function is balancing ‘‘nature’s methods’’ with ‘‘culture’s methods’’. The frameworks presented in the subsequent chapters are less about clarifying this cultural/natural schism and more about blurring it further in an incredibly thoughtprovoking way. Chapters 2 and 3 are particularly compelling in that they explore the fuzzy line between cultural landscapes and naturalness while reconstructing historical perceptions and the cultural meaning(s) of the wild. Given this, they evoke the question: does absolute wilderness exist? From a biocentric perspective, I contest that if landscapes are to be evaluated based on R. M. Perkl (&) School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA e-mail: rperkl@u.arizona.edu