Great Lakes Region Climate Action Seminar - Day 2 (6/7/2024)

Design for Biodiversity: Landscape Architecture’s Role in Protecting and Regenerating Ecosystems Across the Great Lakes

June 6 & 7, 2024

Format: Two half-day virtual seminars with four one-hour sessions each day. 8.75 LACES or CM continuing education credits are availavle.

The NY Upstate, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), as well as the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), are collaborating on the 2024 Great Lakes Region Climate Action Seminar. This is the third event in a series aimed to explore and expand landscape architects' and allied professionals' role regarding climate change impacts occurring in urban and natural systems across the Great Lakes Region.

The theme in 2021 addressed the unique challenges of climate change and resiliency in the Great Lakes Region and how practitioners and academics are facing these issues from scientific and policy viewpoints. The 2023 seminar focused on the partnerships among landscape architects, academics, and communities that are critical for more resilient cities and coastal regions. This year's seminar reflects ASLA’s recent call for landscape architecture to take a leading role in acknowledging and addressing the biodiversity crisis connected to the climate crisis.

Description:

The Great Lakes Region is one of the most significant ecosystems on Earth containing 95% of freshwater in North America and home to over 50 Million people in the United States. Although the region’s climate is considered less volatile than other regions and coastlines of the US, the Great Lakes are not exempt from the impacts of climate change. Growing evidence of biophysical changes calls for increased effort to translate that knowledge into design and planning action. Climate change is already affecting Great Lakes communities through more intense and frequent flooding, increased severity of urban heat island effect with impacts to human health, threatening coastlines, and altering ecosystems and habitats, all in the face of aging infrastructure, shifting economic sectors, and exacerbated inequalities across communities. Additionally, there is a recognized connection between climate change and the loss of biodiversity. One million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction and many more are in decline.

This symposium will bring landscape architects, educators, and communities together to talk about the pressing challenges facing our region and will unpack how critical partnerships are taking shape to address new challenges and opportunities. For more information on ASLA's Biodiversity Call-to-Action, please visit https://www.biodiversityasla.net/

Program Overview & Schedule

(all times listed are Central time)

Day 2 - Friday, June 7th

8:45 am (Central time) Welcome

9-10 am Opening Session: Supporting Protection for the Great Lakes AND Landscape Architecture Solutions to Biodiversity Loss

10 am-2:15 pm Education Sessions (see descriptions below)

2:15-2:45 pm Closing discussion - Moderated discussion with the presenters and audience

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Supporting Protection for the Great Lakes Presenter: Joy Kuebler

This brief session will introduce the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and its role in providing continued and increased investment to protect and restore our Great Lakes, its upstream water ways and the biodiversity of the regions surrounding them. This valuable legislation has bi-partisan support and would extend funding through 2031. Case study projects that have used GLRI funding will be highlighted. The session will also provide an iAdvocate opportunity for members to encourage their representatives to sign on as a co-sponsor for GLRI, or thank them if they have already pledged their support.

Landscape Architecture Solutions to Biodiversity Loss Presenter: Dr. Sohyun Park, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut

As the ASLA Biodiversity Grant Awardee, Dr. Park will discuss research and recommendations recently published in the report “Landscape Architecture Solutions to Biodiversity Loss.” She will point designers to important new data and resources, and answer questions about biodiversity design research related to health, equity, and cities.

1.25 LACES HSW Credit | 1.25 CM Credit

Nurturing Nature: Tackling Deficits in Children's Vernacular Landscapes Presenters: Yiwei Huang/Purdue University, Wanting Zhang/MKSK

This session will present a recent study on tree canopy coverage in Indianapolis Public Schools, exploring the scarcity of biodiversity in children's everyday landscapes. The research findings offer guidance to landscape designers on using language that resonates with children to explain ecological concepts. By doing so, it aims to empower children to become active agents of change and initiators in shaping their daily environments.

Pollinate Now - Bioregional Strategy for Habitat Restoration in the Hudson River Estuary Watershed Presenter: Evan Abramson/Landscape Interactions

The largest pollinator corridor plan in the United States, spanning 51 Hudson Valley communities across four watersheds, Pollinate Now is a roadmap for biodiversity and ecological resilience in New York State built by community and based on science.

1.25 LACES HSW Credit | 1.25 CM Credit

Seeding Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities for Designers in the Native Plant Supply Chain, Lessons from Ontario Presenters: Karen May/University of Illinois, Liam Doyle/University of Guelph, Jonas Spring/Ecoman-Landscape Ontario

We will talk about the importance of tackling the question of biodiversity and genetic diversity more directly in the native plant supply as it relates to climate adaptation and resilience in our landscape planting designs. We will also discuss some of the lessons learned from the perspective of both the Toronto Seed Orchard research (ongoing work), and the preliminary study on Native plant procurement challenges in the landscape industry in Ontario (LACF Grant 2023, Report forthcoming).

1.0 LACES HSW Credit | 1.0 CM Credit

Rust Belts and Wild Lands: Biodiverse Spaces for the Future Great Lakes Presenters: Matthew Tucker/Urban Ecosystems, Michael Keenan/Urban Ecosystems

This presentation examines the overlooked, but important, role novel ecosystems have as spaces of biological diversity. We will review the key concepts of novel ecosystems and their multi-functional ecological and social benefits. We will then examine several international precedent projects where novel ecosystems have been protected. We will conclude with a summary of opportunities for how novel ecosystems can be a new conceptual and physical territory of 21st century ecological planning and landscape architectural design.

1.0 LACES HSW Credit | 1.0 CM Credit

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AICP members can earn Certification Maintenance (CM) credits for many activities at this event. When CM credits are available, they are noted at the end of an activity description. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found at www.planning.org/cm.

AICP members must be in attendance for the duration of the event in order to receive CM Credit.

REGISTRATION RATES

• ASLA or OALA Member: $35/day (includes LACES credits)
• Emerging Professional: $25/day (An emerging professional is an ASLA member who has graduated within the last 5 years)
• Student: Free
• Non Members: $50/day (includes LACES or CM credits)

THIS EVENT HAS A 2 PART REGISTRATION PROCESS:

Your registration confirmation email will include a link to the Zoom registration. After completing the Zoom registration, you will receive a link and password to access the event.