Conference: Baltimore Earth Stewardship Initiative Demonstration Project, Baltimore, MD; August 9 - 14, 2015

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Urban environments are designed by people for people. The ecological consequences of this design in terms of human health and well being are large. How can ecological knowledge best inform urban design? This demonstration project, which is part of the Earth Stewardship Initiative, will bring together city managers, landscape designers, community leaders, and ecologists to envision the future of Baltimore's people and neighborhoods. Promoting a new role for ecologists in shaping urban design will require negotiating new collaborations that will be demonstrated during the 2015 annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, which will be held in Baltimore. Graduate research fellows, landscape architects, Baltimore city officials, research ecologists, architecture studios, high school students, and community members will participate equally in the demonstration. Projects developed collaboratively during the August meeting will be further developed through a graduate course offered through Yale University?s joint program in Environmental Studies and Architecture. The initiative has garnered support across the Ecological Society of American from its sections on applied ecology, human ecology, environmental justice, education, natural history, agroecology, and Asian ecology.This year's Earth Stewardship Demonstration initiative will link community perspectives on neighborhoods, green space, and environmental stewardship with urban ecological researchers interested in studying and shaping urban environments and strengthening communities. Teams will extend 3 nascent Baltimore revitalization projects through a series of steps that bring together ecological research experiments with community planning and urban ecosystems functioning. Landscape Architecture Studios at the University of Virginia, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Maryland have investigated these sites through the design process and generated materials on each of them. Graduate research fellows will serve as core investigators and organizers with ecology and design advisors. Six project themes inform the projects that will be developed: Public Health, Access and Recreation; Degraded Soils and Land; Landscape Performance, Education and Maintenance; Watersheds and Aquatic Habitats; Biodiversity and Managed Populations; and Climate Change Adaptation. The demonstration projects will be implemented through diverse activities, including visits to revitalization sites in Baltimore, an urban bioblitz, special and organized presentation sessions, a community workshop, a landscape architecture foundation workshop, design charrettes, and an open town hall meeting. Graduate student leaders will develop a project for each of the three sites that will be further developed in a fall course.