All of these NPR stories are about gardens or nature in places where they are not usually thought to be. Hawks living on the side of buildings, gardens in big cities, "illegal" gardents in public properties, and gardens through wars. I like how each one of these stories brigns nature to people who woldn't normally get to experience it. There is the theme of hope among all of these stories as well. The hawk story shows that even though there may be rich people who attempt to get rid of the natural things that can get in their way, there are people around to stand up for the environment and the things in it that can't do that for themselves. The guerrila gardeners in London also spread the idea of hope throughout the city. They plant flowers and other things in the various public lands to keep the natural areas looking lively. The absense of these "vandals" would leave the city with many poorly kept up patches of earth that woudl not inspire most people, and in some cases depress them. The wartime gardens have some of the same effect, but on a much larger scale. As oppsed to bringing an extra joy to people in their every day lives, they keep the hopeless going through life. They provide something to do, a source of food for those in need, and a little bit of life and color in places that are severly lacking. The community gardens were created with the intent of doing the same thing, but wihtout the war setting. In this case, the goal was not acheieved as well as in the other examples. The community gardens started out a good way for city dwelers to get in touch with nature, but have degraded into another way for people to be greedy. By one person walling off his garden, the disease spread and as it went degraded the spirit that the garden at one point had. One person's paranoia lead others to believe that there was a need for enclosure and the trust went away. The sense of community that the garden switched to a place to grow things and make sure that nobody else could benifit from it.

Assignment 1 - Defending Urban Green Space

Hawks in the City: On the one hand I believe that if the hawks are making people happy then they should stay, but I am also not sure what I feel this situation means for hawks and nature in general. It is not natural for hawks to be living in a city environment - I wish that I knew more about how hawks live, and could know whether they might be adversely affected, but the food they must be eating (trash?) and the pollution, among innumerable other unnatural factors, is definately far from a wild environment. Even if the hawks are perfectly fine, I feel that their existance in an unnatural environment denigrates them in a way - it makes them a bit like pets who can be watched, etc. But on another level I support their precense if only because it serves to connect humans with nature. We have cooexisted with nature for millenia and a huge factor in determining whether people will care to conserve wild spaces depends on whether they have had any contact with the wild, and identify with it. A child who grows up watching tv indoors will not care about preserving a nearby marshland in her adulthood.

Machetes and Marigolds: I think community gardens are a beautiful thing. I love how they connect neighbors who otherwise might not talk, in an informal, fun atmostphere. They are relaxing and bonding. The community garden in the story does not fit my idea of a garden where everyone gardens TOGETHER - people have taken the idea of possession to a disturbing level by padlocking their vegetables and so have destroyed a beautiful idea.

Guerilla Gardeners: I don't know how severe the law against gardening on public property is, but I don't see anything wrong with taking ugly dead space and trying to improve it through plants. These people sound punky and rebellious and cool, working for what they believe in, and I support them. I want to make seed bombs too.

Defiant Gardens: This story is an excellant overview of the intense relationship that humans have had with growing things, gardens, for millenia. Gardens are relaxing, promote creativity, and provide food, and in the most stressful situations, particularly so, they cannot be abandoned.

reflections on assignment 1

I'm not totally sure if the format for this blog is what was assigned, but the following are my reflections about the different articles:

Red Tail Hawk Blog

I was impressed with the organization of people who were upset about Pale Male’s nest being moved. Generally, when I think that with things of that nature, I’d assume that people would simply grumble about the inconsiderate nature of the administration’s decisions and go on with their own daily lives. I was shocked that an architect was hired to construct a nest for the hawks and I wondered if these birds would accept something humans designed for them. I would be interested to know if the birds have returned to the nest

Community Garden

This garden idea seems like a really good use of the land, but I would not like to be a part of such a violently protected gardening community. Tessa angers me as much as she angers her fellow gardeners. Something that comes up here is what role does the state administration play? Where are the lines that divide each individual’s private plot and the oversight of the government? Have the police come to the garden before Tessa arrived?

Gorilla Gardeners

If no one disrupts the gorilla gardeners, why do they not work during the day? I like the seed bombing idea.

Defiant gardens

Tending a garden seems like the most natural response when put in a situation beyond your own control, especially if your food is rationed to you. Gardening in the ghettos and internment camps made the most sense to me because these people were able to find joy by creating something beautiful and having control over your own interaction with the natural environment. Being able to provide for your family is something that must have been very important during these times of internment. Growing gardens while in combat seems slightly less natural of a decision. Though, as our wars are evolving so that soldiers are stationed for longer and longer, it begins to make sense that a soldier would want to invest himself/herself in the land he/she must see everyday.

Assignement- Defending Urban Green Space

City dwellers sometimes exhibit intense protective behaviors and mount fierce defenses of their hard-to-come-by urban green spaces and natural environments, including those living things within them. For the first meeting of Urban Environments, we explore a few recent examples of urbanites struggling to resist forces of development and other pressures to ensure the presence of nature in the city. We might ask questions about what the underlying issues are in these cases, what forces are in tension with one another, and what role “community” played in the resolution of these cases.

Instructions
For the four cases, go to the links and listen to the NPR stories. Feel free to explore related stories. Be prepared to discuss in class. POST YOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE COURSE BLOG BEFORE NEXT CLASS.
http://cornellnr-ue-07.blogspot.com/

Case 1. Hawks in the City
First: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4213496
Second: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4229953
Third: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4244320

Case 2. Machetes and Marigolds
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1393857

Case 3. Guerrilla Gardeners and London
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5404229

Case 4. Defiant Gardens
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5435131

Welcome!

If you made it here, you have made it through perhaps the hardest part of the class. Welcome!