Biotopes and Parks

I’ve been pondering the effect of parks on people for a bit. Parks are not only gathering places, but centres for recreation and a place to reconnect with nature. Perhaps, that’s why Vancouver’s initiative to have all residential areas “so-and-so” close to a park is so revolutionary. Such a policy truly understands how important parks are to people’s health and overall wellbeing.

While Danny Lyon, from the New York Times, may have mentioned it tongue in cheek, he’s got the right idea:

“#7. Ten percent of all city space shall be where you can “touch the dirt”. If there is not enough room, we can demolish the banks and turn them into fields of native grasses and flowers. One quarter of open space shall be for growing vegetables.”

We are already pioneers in saving agricultural lands, and if that policy survives, we won’t have to concern ourselves to heavily on it. However, Surrey, and other municipalities in Metro Vancouver, need to adopt Vancouver’s park policy. People need close access to parks. But let’s go beyond just patches of park surrounded by buildings. Let’s adopt a biotope policy.

Via wikipedia:

“…it is commonly emphasized that biotopes should not be isolated but be connected with each other because without connection to others, animals and plants there could not move out and biotopes would not effectively work as place for diverse organism to live. That is, one of the most effective strategies to regenerate biotope is to organize a stretch of biotope, not just a point so that animals and plants could come and go. (Such organic traffic course is called corridor.) In this method, the centre of the network would be large green tracts of land: a forest, a natural park, or a graveyard. By connecting them with smaller size those such as a green belt along the river, small parks in the town, apartment garden, or even roadside trees, the biotopes will work systematically. In other words, biotope is not closed but open system and practical strategy.”

You see why the biotope idea is so revolutionary as well? Animals, plants, people… they don’t just sit in an isolated park. They need to move around, and by providing these continuous connections to other parks, they can. That is why we need biotopes in the cities and across the region. The side effect of having biotopes is that we humans can have long, beautiful stretches of multi-use pathway through the biotopes, for recreation or transportation.

This is simply a policy of reserving lands and right-of-way. It’s a policy of working together with stakeholders to get the best situation for everyone, including nature. If Metro Vancouver is involved, perhaps municipalities can get financial aid for buying or retaining these green areas for biotope use. Germany has proven that it works – who will be the one to step up and bring it to Metro Vancouver? People need nature more than they think.