Darryl Jones
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501710780
- eISBN:
- 9781501710797
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501710780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
Feeding wild birds in gardens and backyards is one of the most popular forms of interaction between humans and wild animals. Yet despite the enormous scale of this activity and the millions of people ...
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Feeding wild birds in gardens and backyards is one of the most popular forms of interaction between humans and wild animals. Yet despite the enormous scale of this activity and the millions of people involved throughout the world, remarkably little is known about the practice or the potential implications associated with the provisioning of vast amounts of food, all of which is additional to the bird’s natural diet. Many questions arise: Does bird feeding change wildlife communities? Does it aid the spread of disease? Is it essential for the conservation of many struggling species, especially in urban areas? And why are so many people passionately engaged, and willing to spend considerable sums on this practice? This is the first book to attempt to address these and many other questions associated with this global activity, exploring many complex issues through both science and the personal experience of bird feeders themselves.Less
Feeding wild birds in gardens and backyards is one of the most popular forms of interaction between humans and wild animals. Yet despite the enormous scale of this activity and the millions of people involved throughout the world, remarkably little is known about the practice or the potential implications associated with the provisioning of vast amounts of food, all of which is additional to the bird’s natural diet. Many questions arise: Does bird feeding change wildlife communities? Does it aid the spread of disease? Is it essential for the conservation of many struggling species, especially in urban areas? And why are so many people passionately engaged, and willing to spend considerable sums on this practice? This is the first book to attempt to address these and many other questions associated with this global activity, exploring many complex issues through both science and the personal experience of bird feeders themselves.
Darryl Jones
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501710780
- eISBN:
- 9781501710797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501710780.003.0004
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
The popularity of wild bird feeding has introduced enormous amounts of additional food into the ecosystem, especially in urban areas. Significantly, all of this food is supplementary to the natural ...
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The popularity of wild bird feeding has introduced enormous amounts of additional food into the ecosystem, especially in urban areas. Significantly, all of this food is supplementary to the natural diet of the birds consuming it. For this reason, bird feeding has been likened to a supplementary feeding experiment on a global scale yet with no clear expectations of possible outcomes. This chapter investigated the likely consequences of this situation.Less
The popularity of wild bird feeding has introduced enormous amounts of additional food into the ecosystem, especially in urban areas. Significantly, all of this food is supplementary to the natural diet of the birds consuming it. For this reason, bird feeding has been likened to a supplementary feeding experiment on a global scale yet with no clear expectations of possible outcomes. This chapter investigated the likely consequences of this situation.
Michael Bryson and Michael Howard
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226444666
- eISBN:
- 9780226444970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226444970.003.0018
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
This chapter tells the story of Eden Place Nature Center, a 3.4-acre oasis of restored land located in an African American community on Chicago’s South Side, that was reclaimed over the course of ...
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This chapter tells the story of Eden Place Nature Center, a 3.4-acre oasis of restored land located in an African American community on Chicago’s South Side, that was reclaimed over the course of several years after having been polluted and abused as an illegal dump site for decades. Michael and Amelia Howard, residents of the Fuller Park neighborhood in Chicago and the founders of Eden Place, galvanized local volunteers to clean up mountains of debris and created a safe and welcoming green space for their community’s citizens, who live in a deindustrialized environment marked by poverty, toxic pollution, and persistent violence. Eden Place has evolved into a space that welcomes both the tame and the wild, the human and nonhuman; provides a theater for their meaningful interaction; and stokes the innate wildness within its stewards and visitors. Through stories told by Michael Howard, this chapter reveals how Eden Place emerged as a multifaceted manifestation of the “urban wild.” Here people of all ages and races are rebuilding positive connections to nature, facilitating encounters with plants and animals, repairing a sense of community, and healing wounds of racial and environmental injustice inflicted over centuries.Less
This chapter tells the story of Eden Place Nature Center, a 3.4-acre oasis of restored land located in an African American community on Chicago’s South Side, that was reclaimed over the course of several years after having been polluted and abused as an illegal dump site for decades. Michael and Amelia Howard, residents of the Fuller Park neighborhood in Chicago and the founders of Eden Place, galvanized local volunteers to clean up mountains of debris and created a safe and welcoming green space for their community’s citizens, who live in a deindustrialized environment marked by poverty, toxic pollution, and persistent violence. Eden Place has evolved into a space that welcomes both the tame and the wild, the human and nonhuman; provides a theater for their meaningful interaction; and stokes the innate wildness within its stewards and visitors. Through stories told by Michael Howard, this chapter reveals how Eden Place emerged as a multifaceted manifestation of the “urban wild.” Here people of all ages and races are rebuilding positive connections to nature, facilitating encounters with plants and animals, repairing a sense of community, and healing wounds of racial and environmental injustice inflicted over centuries.
