Ecology

Climate Gardening: Cultivating Resilient Landscapes in Los Angeles
TreePeople’s 4th Annual Urban Soil Symposium explored how climate gardening, soil health, and collaborative land management strategies can enhance urban resilience in the face of climate change.

California Lawmakers Move to Protect Waterways
Anticipating that the Trump EPA will reinstate a 2017 policy that excluded seasonal wetlands and waterways from environmental protections.

Embracing Spring: Ways to Reconnect With Nature and Find Joy
This spring, reconnect with nature and enhance your well-being through simple activities like observing plants up close, practicing forest bathing, birdwatching, arranging flowers, and starting a container garden.

City Nature Challenge: Explore, Document, and Protect Urban Biodiversity
The City Nature Challenge is a global community science event where participants use the iNaturalist app to document urban biodiversity, contributing valuable data to support conservation and scientific research.

Preserving Altadena’s Trees: A Community Effort to Save a Fire-Damaged Landscape
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena Green is working to preserve fire-damaged but recoverable trees, advocating for better assessment processes, educating homeowners, and protecting the community’s urban canopy from unnecessary removal.

Purple Martins Call Nashville Home. Some Wish They Wouldn't
Each year, the city plays host to hundreds of thousands of birds on their way to and from South America.

Resilient Communities, Healthy Ecosystems: A Balanced Approach to Wildfires
Effective wildfire mitigation in California requires a holistic approach that goes beyond large-scale vegetation removal, emphasizing home hardening, defensible space, strategic planning, and reducing human-caused ignitions.

Fighting Forest Pests With AI: A Hemlock Success Story
Fairfax County utilized GeoAI and ArcGIS technology to efficiently map and protect its hemlock trees from the invasive woolly adelgid, ensuring targeted pest management and preservation of its evergreen canopy.

Nature and Nurture: Understanding the Diversity of Biophilia
Biophilia, originally thought to be an innate and universal love for nature, is now understood as a temperament trait with significant individual differences influenced by genetics and experience.

How AI Is Revolutionizing Urban Forestry and Climate Resilience
Tree-D Fusion, an AI-driven tool developed by MIT and Purdue researchers, generates 3D models of urban trees to help city planners visualize future green spaces, address climate challenges, and enhance urban livability and sustainability.

Oak Survival in the Great Lakes: Adapting to a Changing World
Climate change is endangering oaks in the Great Lakes region by increasing their vulnerability to pests, diseases, and extreme weather, threatening their vital ecological role.

Oakland Adopts Urban Forest Plan to Foster Equity and Environmental Justice
The Oakland City Council has adopted its first Urban Forest Plan, a 50-year roadmap focused on equitable tree care, canopy preservation, and environmental justice to benefit underserved communities.

Students Drive Solutions for Environmental Justice Through Video Challenge
The Environmental Justice Video Challenge empowers students and communities to collaboratively address environmental inequities through innovative data-driven strategies, resulting in impactful projects and fostering local leadership.

Detecting Invasive Species Early Through Citizen Science
Community science platforms like eBird and iNaturalist enhance early detection of invasive species, complementing professional surveillance and highlighting the need for stronger collaboration between the public and official authorities.

Snohomish River Gains Legal Rights
A new law in one Washington town enshrines the river’s legal right to “exist, regenerate, and flourish.”

Global Report Shows Urban Forests Failing to Meet Vital Standards
The study reveals significant gaps in urban forestry, emphasizing the urgent need for reforms, innovative planting solutions, and expanded tree canopy to combat climate change and improve urban health.

Explore Urban Biodiversity: Join the 2025 City Nature Challenge
The City Nature Challenge invites people worldwide to document urban biodiversity by photographing and sharing wild plants and animals through the iNaturalist app, helping scientists track and understand real-time changes in ecosystems.

Book Review: Combining Sustainability and Smart Growth
A review of The Sustainable Urban Design Handbook, by architects Nico Larco and Kaarin Knudson.

Report: European Rivers Are in Trouble
Some of the continent’s most important rivers are suffering from overuse and pollution.

California Secures $360 Million in Federal Funding for Parks, Habitat Restoration, and Clean Transportation
This funding will drive transformative projects across the state, improving access to green spaces, protecting natural ecosystems, and advancing sustainable transportation initiatives.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Florida Atlantic University
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland