Guerrilla gardening, resistance gardening, midnight gardening, bewildering, rewilding… the list goes on! As the movement grows, so do the synonyms. But what exactly is this hot green trend that has taken over eco-conscious warriors?

Guerrilla Gardening In A Nutshell

Guerrilla gardening happens when anyone cultivates land without having the legal right to do so. Common examples of such land include vacant lots, abandoned sites, urban sidewalks, and private property.

There are numerous motivations for the illegal cultivation of land. On one end, there are gardeners working quietly at night to spruce things up around their neighborhood. And on the other end, there are climate activists provoking change through direct action during daylight hours for publicity.

Regardless of the reason, guerrilla gardening has seen a steep increase in recent years, gaining traction through public buy-in to the green movement.

Wait, so how did it all begin?

The earliest guerrilla gardeners that are still celebrated today are Gerrard Winstanley (1649, Surrey, England) and John “Appleseed” Chapman (1801, Ohio, USA).

Winstanley was a founder and leader of the Diggers – a religious-political group that promoted agrarian socialism. He declared that “true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth.”  Following this sentiment, the Diggers invited everyone to join them in cultivating vegetables on common land as a means to overcome bad harvests and high food prices. In response, the local landowners took to the court with their complaints. The court issued a ruling against the Diggers, requesting them to leave at their own free will – or face forced eviction by law.

In contrast, Chapman was a pioneer nurseryman and missionary for The New Church. His apprenticeship as an apple orchardist inspired his infamous journey of planting apple trees across the midwestern United States. Contrary to popular belief, Chapman planted nurseries and not orchards – leaving them in the care of neighbors who sold trees using a share trading system.

Interestingly, the term “guerrilla gardening” was only coined much later by Liz Christy. This happened in 1973 when Christy’s group, Green Guerrilla, turned a derelict private lot into a garden.

But This Could Be A Good Thing, Right?

Well, yes and no.

Let’s look beyond the illicit nature of guerrilla gardening and understand it from the perspective of a conservationist.

Guerrilla gardening increases the spatial coverage of green spaces. It also transforms derelict land into ecologically productive spaces. The introduction of different plants attracts various animal life seeking to take advantage of these new areas. Examples of these include birds, small mammals, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. In dense urban environments, these micro-habitats can serve as natural corridors for the survival of wildlife.¹ In this way, guerrilla gardening can have a positive influence on biodiversity.

However, the type of plants cultivated and their combination can influence how diverse these spaces really are. For example, if non-native plants are cultivated, the new environment might not be well-suited to accommodate certain native animals. This is because some native animals depend on native plants for their survival.

Another pitfall is when the same combination of plants are constantly cultivated, favoring the same combination of animal diversity. You’ll notice that these micro-habitats tend to be dominated by cosmopolitan or “pest” species groups because they consistently outcompete others for the same resources. This can easily happen when we blindly follow plant lists from guerilla gardening blogs that are not targeted to meet local conservation needs. In this way, guerrilla gardening can have a negative influence on biodiversity in enriching already abundant wildlife.

What About Food Sovereignty?

The food sovereignty² movement is another global initiative that has become increasingly popular. With the real prospect of food shortages and actual crop failures in recent years,³ the general public is looking for ways to bring nature back into urban settings.

Guerrilla gardening with food plants is one such solution that ticks the social justice checkbox. Here, common herbs and vegetables are planted in neglected inner-city sites with the premise of making healthful food freely available.

As wonderful as this sounds, there are concerns that the location of food plants might make them susceptible to contamination. For example, plants cultivated in industrial areas, near roadsides or waste sites are likely unfit for human consumption.

Another issue is that many food plants that are cultivated do not actually increase the biodiversity, let alone the conservation status, of the area. They may also be treated with pesticides to ensure that they do not succumb to pests. In this way, they can do more harm than good in light of promoting conservation efforts.

So, Where Does This Leave Us?

Albeit illegal, guerrilla gardening certainly has its merits. If the right research is done, not only can it increase local biodiversity – but it can also improve the conservation of native wildlife. However, if we want to use this as a tool to actually promote conservation efforts, we need to understand our local ecosystems.

Whilst urban environments are far from natural, it is still useful to know the wildlife that occupies that region. Local ecologists and conservationists are valuable sources of information in this regard. When we make informed decisions on how to cultivate these spaces, we transform our efforts into positive contributions that actually support local conservation.

References

1. Content, A., Energy, F. W., Environmental, U., Festival, T. N. O. C., & Join, T. N. O. C. Do urban green corridors “work”? It depends on what we want them to do. What ecological and/or social functions can we realistically expect green corridors to perform in cities? What attributes define them, from a design and performance perspective?
2. Sampson, D., Cely-Santos, M., Gemmill-Herren, B., Babin, N., Bernhart, A., Bezner Kerr, R., … & Wittman, H. (2021). Food sovereignty and rights-based approaches strengthen food security and nutrition across the globe: A systematic review. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 288
3. Schillerberg, T. A., & Tian, D. (2020). Changes of crop failure risks in the United States associated with large-scale climate oscillations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Environmental Research Letters, 15(6), 064035

For some, becoming a scientist takes years of academic training, expensive equipment, and countless late nights hard at work. For others, becoming a scientist could be a walk in the park… literally! Across the globe, people everywhere are participating in citizen science. Citizen science refers to research projects that enlist large groups of non-experts to collect data on a wide range of subjects. These collaborations allow professional scientists to collect enormous amounts of data from all over the world, and give people of all ages opportunities to explore nature and the scientific process in new ways.

Whether you want to get muddy with friends looking for frogs near a local creek or identify birds from your kitchen window, the variety of citizen science opportunities makes it easy to find one that fits your style.

Here are five citizen science projects we think you and your family will love!

1. Study amphibian populations with Frog Watch USA
   This citizen science project trains volunteers to identify the calls of frogs and toads before sending them out to collect data during breeding season. Amphibians are important indicators of environmental health, and studying frog populations across the country can help scientists understand what is happening in our wetlands. Frog Watch is coordinated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and currently has more than 140 chapters. You can get involved through your local chapter, or by attending a volunteer training. 
2. Listen to marine mammal songs with the Cetalingua Project
   Are you interested in helping scientists decode dolphin language? Through the Cetalingua Project’s Whale, Dolphin, and Manatee Chat tools, you can help scientists classify marine mammal recordings. After completing a tutorial, your job is to listen to ten-second clips recorded under the ocean, and determine whether the clip contains a marine mammal, nothing, or a boat.
3. Identify spiders with Spider Spotter
   If you’re into spiders, this is the app for you. Spider Spotter helps you classify arachnids and their webs and allows you to upload pictures of your observations. With the map feature, you can explore the spider observations of those around you as well! Biologists are using this citizen-generated data to study how spider species are evolving for life in urban habitats.
4. Go on a virtual safari to Botswana with Leopard Ecology & Conservation
   Wildlife ecologists often utilize motion-activated camera traps to study the movement and behavior of animals, especially elusive species like large carnivores. This project gives you access to photos collected from the Khutse Game Reserve in Botswana. After completing a short training, you can help the ecologists by identifying animals and behaviors seen in the images.
5. Go birding!
   Birds are some of the most charismatic and ubiquitous animals in cities and towns. Grab some binoculars and go out exploring, or simply watch from a window. Apps like Audubon or Merlin Bird ID can help you identify species based on their appearance or call, and keep track of your sightings. You can use eBird or iNaturalist to log sightings as well. If you get really into birding, you can even join the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count, a citizen science project that has been happening for 121 years! Many scientists studying a variety of subjects access these data sets to inform their research, so your observations can provide valuable information as conservationists work to understand and protect the natural world.

Still looking for a citizen science project that is right for you? Check out citizen science projects offered by NASA, Smithsonian, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Zooniverse. Happy Sciencing!

If you haven’t already heard, scientists have hatched a plan to resurrect the extinct woolly mammoth within the decade. The US start-up, Colossal, has already raised $15 million USD to re-create a mammoth-like creature using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

The news is equally exciting and frightening, stirring heated debates around the ethics of de-extinction as a novel conservation tool.

The big questions on every conservationist’s mind are: Should we focus on preventing species extinctions – or reversing them? What impacts will this have on present-day ecosystems? And where, exactly, do we draw the line?

Let’s take a deeper look into what this means for the future of planet Earth and how conservation fits into all of this.

De-Extinction: Why Bring Them Back?

Mammoths roamed the Earth more than 10,000 years ago, becoming extinct due to a combination of warming temperatures, disease, and hunting. They lived across the polar regions of North America and Eurasia, inhabiting the great “Mammoth Steppes.” Since their extinction, these extensive Arctic grasslands became dotted with slow-growing mosses, ever-green shrubs, and larch trees. Over time, their habitat was transformed into the Arctic tundra we know today.

Fast-forward to the present where climate change has become the number one threat to the survival of all life on Earth. Our multitude of human activities means that we are degrading the environment at an accelerated rate. Warming temperatures have resulted in deglaciation, wildfires, formation of mires, and permafrost thaw in the Arctic. These play a major role in increasing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

For more than a decade, woolly mammoths have represented an interesting solution to this global problem.¹ Colossal speculates that the re-introduction of mammoth-like creatures into the Arctic tundra will ultimately assist in drastically reversing the effects of climate change. They believe that re-establishing grasslands will expose the ground to the freezing Arctic air, preventing permafrost thaw.

Following this logic, the transformation from tundra to grasslands has the potential to reverse rising temperatures because they also have a higher capacity to sequestrate carbon from the atmosphere. As an added bonus, these fertile grasslands have the potential to increase biodiversity.

As promising as this sounds, there is insufficient scientific proof to support these theories.

The Power Of Revival

Ancient DNA provides hope for the re-creation of extinct species. However, it has its own set of challenges such as fragmentation and degradation of genetic information. This means that scientists don’t have sufficient biological data to clone extinct species.

Cloning allows for a complete replica of a species to be created. In the case of the woolly mammoth, scientists are relying on revolutionary gene-editing methods to engineer a modern-day look-alike.

The Asian elephant is the closest living relative to the woolly mammoth, sharing 99.6% of its genetic make-up. Scientists at Colossal believe that they would need to make at least 50 changes to the genetic code to transform the Asian elephant into a creature that mimics a woolly mammoth.

If successful, this new elephant-mammoth hybrid will be genetically engineered to survive the extreme Arctic cold. Not only will it resemble a woolly mammoth, but it should theoretically behave and function like one too. Well, that’s if things go according to plan!

Counting The Cost Of Innovative Science

De-extinction is an exorbitantly expensive process. To engineer just one species requires a multi-million dollar funding program. For example, the $15 million USD invested in woolly mammoth revival does not include prior funding underpinning the technological advancements that will be used. Nor does it account for the scientific expertise required to execute these ambitious strategies.

The ultimate question is whether we should be funding traditional approaches to species conservation – or shifting to novel de-extinction methods.¹ How we, as a global population, answer this question will determine the direction conservation will take in years to come.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

When conservation efforts are re-directed toward de-extinction, it places greater value on extinct species than on those that are currently alive but critically endangered. The prospect of revival can undermine conservation strategies if extinction risks are no longer a big deal.

The promise of de-extinction can have knock-on effects for human impacts. It can be used to justify human activities and behavior that contribute to climate change, habitat degradation, and biodiversity loss.

We also need to ask ourselves whether it is practical to bring back one keystone species, whilst at the same time losing a dozen, or more, less significant ones in the process. Are we willing to exchange our current biodiversity for the promise of an ancient predecessor?

Another concern around re-introducing extinct species is that they might not bring about the anticipated environmental change. As these species are essentially engineered hybrids, they may not have the same ecosystem function or the same role in the food chain. This compromises their ability to restore damaged ecosystems – a major motivation underpinning their revival.

In Conclusion

We know woolly mammoths played a crucial role in maintaining Arctic grasslands and preventing permafrost thaw. But the destruction of Arctic forests and moss cover may also play a critical role in protecting permafrost.

So how will we effectively manage and monitor these engineered hybrids in a vast, uninhabitable region like the Arctic?

Additional research will have to be done to fully understand their impact on a given ecosystem and appropriate management approaches will need to be developed.

This continues to shift expertise, funding and resources away from species and ecosystems that currently demand our attention.

References

1. Jørgensen, D. (2013). Reintroduction and de-extinction. BioScience, 63(9), 719-720.

Links

• Colossal
• Mammoths
• In the Arctic
• Closest Living Relative

September 22nd marked the beginning of fall. For us humans, this might mean raking autumn leaves, wearing cozy sweaters, or drinking pumpkin spice lattes. For American black bears and brown bears, however, the beginning of fall is about one thing: consuming as much food as possible, in preparation for a long winter nap.

This phase during which bears put on weight to prepare for winter is called hyperphagia. During hyperphagia, bears are constantly foraging for food. Adult male brown bears can put on as many as 500 pounds of weight in the months before winter.¹ This seasonal weight gain has led Alaska’s Katmai National Park to establish Fat Bear Week in early October, during which fat bear fans from around the world vote for their favorite fat bear. This year, 25-year-old Otis AKA #480 claimed his fourth title, defying the odds by becoming winner of Fat Bear Week despite having lost multiple canine teeth. While celebrating overweight animals may not sound like it’s in the bear’s best interest, Fat Bear Week is really a celebration of Katmai’s healthy ecosystem.² Thanks to the plentiful salmon, Katmai’s brown bears have resources to build up fat reserves. For the bears that brave Alaska’s freezing winters, fat is survival.

While the period of dormancy seen in bears during winter is generally referred to as hibernation, some debate exists as to whether bears truly hibernate. During winter, bears enter dens and can go as long as 6 months without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating. They survive by breaking down the layers of fat they built up during hyperphagia. Their heart rate and metabolic rate drop and they breathe much more slowly. However, their body temperature only drops about 12 degrees, which is significantly less than true hibernating mammals like ground squirrels, whose temperatures drop below freezing during hibernation.³ The winter dormancy in bears is sometimes referred to as torpor, because of the comparatively small dip in internal body temperature. During torpor, bears are able to wake up if disturbed, further distinguishing them from true hibernators.

Brown and black bears are intelligent and adaptable animals who are able to survive in a wide variety of climates and habitats throughout North America. Bears torpor for differing amounts of time depending on the climate in which they live. While bears in extremely cold places can torpor for half the year, black bears in more mild climates may go into a period of dormancy for just a few weeks, if at all.⁴ Bears awake in the spring having shed up to 30% of their body weight, and ready to chow down once again on spring’s new growth.^5,6

Understanding the seasonal patterns of bears is important for humans who live or travel in bear country. People who share habitat with bears have a responsibility to ensure that wild bears don’t have access to human foods, especially during hyperphagia. When bears learn to search for food in human areas, it can put them in danger from car strikes, and if a bear repeatedly gets too close to human settlements, wildlife officials are forced to euthanize the bear.

Creating a world where people and wildlife coexist starts with understanding the needs and patterns of our non-human neighbors in order to accommodate them. This fall, let’s hope the bears are finding lots of natural food, and wish them a peaceful winter’s rest.

Learn more about how you can stay bear safe here.

References

1. Cooper, K. (2018, October 5). Why a US national park is holding a ‘Fat Bear Week’ contest. BBC.
2. Rosen, Y. (2021, September 29). Ahead of winter hibernation, Alaska celebrates Fat Bear Week. amNY.
3. National Park Service. (2020). Arctic Ground Squirrel.
4. Natonal Park Service. (2020). Black Bears in Big Bend.
5. National Park Service. (2017). When Bears Wake Up.
6. Fitz, M. (2013, November 13). Bear Hibernation. National Park Service.

Links

• Fat Bear Week
• Otis AKA #480
• Stay Bear Safe