AgConnect

As promised our planning group will hold its first workshop on Thursday September 22nd, 2016.

As we speak, Geodesign Strategist Veronica Andersen (Rodriguez Consulting LLC) and Keith Russell of Audubon have most generously taken up the cause of creating a habitat map for our shared project.

Re-imagining high rise buildings as bird habitats, identifying “holes” in the green urban fabric, neighborhood by neighborhood, such that we can take up the cause of connecting all green dots, connecting our work to other projects such as the PHS Civic Landscapes and the Viaduct Green Project. We could identify green as well as blue corridors and set priorities of engagement.

Philadelphia lies along the Atlantic Flyway and is an essential urban sanctuary for migrating birds every spring and fall. Since there is a direct link between the health of bird populations and the quality of life for humans, we have chosen to begin our project with a focus on our feathery friends.

We would like to map bird movement in the city, as well as understand, which buildings or groups of buildings are the major cause of bird collisions and bird deaths. If patterns arise, we would like to find ways to address those from a bird habitat point of view.

It might also be interesting to assess the extent of the “birdsong coverage” in the city… what percentage of the city’s neighborhoods/land area are covered by healthy birdsong (recognizing what we increasingly know about the positive benefits of this important element of the natural soundscape).

RSVP: biophilicphilly@gmail.com

If there are others you think may be interested in joining this effort please forward this email and they can join the mailing list with the button below.

The bioPhilly Working Group
Elizabeth Calabrese
Alice Dommert
Cynthia Barber Gale
Fredda Lippes
Vera Neumann-Sachs
Helena van Vliet