5. Natural Vegetation as an Infrastructure – Solutions for Nature Loss in Cities
Jere Nieminen
Jere Nieminen is the chairperson of the nonprofit organization Wild Zone. He believes that nature conservation needs an exciting vision and new ways for caring for nature. His motto is: The nature of any area can be improved.
Natural vegetation in cities
Wild plants are generally organically growing, self-regulating elements. Until now human sentiment towards them has varied from indifferent attitudes to active conservation. To reverse nature loss, we must change our perceptions of urban vegetation and start seeing plants through a lens of active interaction.
The growth and densification of cities threaten vegetation amidst the urban fabric. Many of these plants are rare or endangered, and particularly in cities, there are several reasons to foster diverse vegetation. Intentionally created meadows and fields improve the cityscape and are attractive to citizens. Some rare urban plant species are so-called anthropochores, introduced through human cultural exchange and activities, and cultivating these is an act of caring for the cultural heritage. Preserving biodiversity in everyday urban environments also allows for accessible nature education. Implementing creative solutions for cherishing wild urban vegetation is a pioneering act in preserving biodiversity. The goal of this essay is to reflect on how cities should change to better accommodate natural vegetation.
This text looks at herbaceous plants and their presence in cities. The focus is on rare and endangered plant species; those, whose preservation can be seen as particularly meaningful in preventing biodiversity loss. Many other groups of species are threatened in cities and critical for maintaining biodiversity, but in the case of herbaceous plants, the solutions are somewhat more advanced and thus provide a good example through which to broach the topic.
Examples are taken from findings gained through the activities of the Finnish Villi vyöhyke (Wild Zone) association and experiences of creating meadows in cities. The association has established over 70 different meadows in the past 10 years and helps maintain dozens of other sites important for urban vegetation, some of which have sprouted organically, while others were created intentionally. The goal of the association is to care for, restore and improve natural values in areas where human activities have damaged them. These areas are common in cities. In Finland, city policies are starting to acknowledge the qualitative restoration of weakened natural areas in addition to conserving currently valuable areas.
I will utilize the concept of infrastructure as it is understood in science and technology studies (STS) to structure the argument. The term infrastructure is understood as defined by researchers Geoffrey Bowker (1), Susan Leigh Star and Karen Ruhleder (2), and Ashley Carsen (3). According to Carsen (4), infrastructures include hierarchical relationships. I introduce the definitions as I use them as a narrative structure in the text. In using the term, I do not refer to the “green infrastructure”, prevalent in the governmental discourse of recent years.
As wild vegetation is a living, growing element, I utilize the binary contradiction of “spontaneous-intentional” to specify the aspects of the infrastructure of urban vegetation that are naturally occurring and intentionally organized. Intentionally cultivated vegetation is often guided by human activity and often established to promote human enjoyment, and thus might not best serve the diversity of natural vegetation. Green space management in cities should leave space for the self-regulatory processes of plants. It can act as a complementary element, which shows us new possibilities for urban vegetation to thrive. There is not a strong enough commitment to the justification of natural vegetation in cities, which means it is often superseded by other urban functions. Care, attention, and new ways of thinking are needed to observe and learn from the spontaneously spreading of vegetation.
Places for natural vegetation in cities
The prefix “infra” denotes something happening under or within. “Structure” describes the relationships between different entities that form a system and give the whole a specific character or quality. Cities are made up of multiple built infrastructures, among which natural vegetation can occur spontaneously or can be intentionally introduced.
Intentional, endemic herbaceous vegetation in cities is almost exclusively present in the form of meadows. This means a somewhat spacious, continuous patch of land, maintained regularly. Meadows are often created through careful planning, and they are pleasant to the human eye.
Dry grasslands are similar, vast flowering areas of herbaceous plants. Many urban green roofs are similar to these types of open environments. On the large green roof of the Tampere University central campus, Wild Zone association sowed esker plants that have grown rare in the wild, and the roof was named an esker roof.
Spontaneously spreading herbaceous vegetation in urban areas is much more varied than the above examples. Plants occupy areas between different types of infrastructure and areas that are temporarily unused. The herbaceous flora of different types of wastelands is typically irregular, patchy, and mixed with trees and shrubbery, and it is not organized similarly as in parks and other built green areas. In areas of ruderal flora, meaning that of new growth in wastelands, manmade growing mediums like rubble are usually not intended for plant life. Though ruderal plant growth is often worthless in terms of human use, it can be a habitat for rare and even endangered plant species. These could indeed provide inspiration for how to cultivate natural vegetation in a more controlled way. As an example, the Wild Zone uses sand, gravel, and rubble as a growing medium for new meadows and sun-exposed dry habitats. Seeds gathered from the vicinity are sowed there - they are in a sense planned wastelands. For example, in Tampere, these experimental areas have shown to be habitable for several rare plant species.
Built and maintained areas also attract their own naturally occurring plants. Spontaneous vegetation can be found in many narrow areas between structures, like along walls. Even rare plant species can be found on the narrow embankments of road areas. Intentionally cultivated natural vegetation does not always require vast open areas to form vigorous growths. Learning from this, the members of the Wild Zone have experimented with narrow meadowlike areas, for which it is easier to find space in the urban environment.
Regardless of their size, the value of individual patches of vegetation is lesser than a network point of view. Networks are important for the wider dynamics of plant life, as such a structure allows plants and insects dependent on them to migrate between different green areas. Strong network connections boost resilience in the city, as species from other areas can take up patches that have declined. An example of this is a block in Nekala, Tampere, which provides a varied habitat for the extremely endangered moth species Anacampsis fuscella. In the area, both intentionally and unintentionally different, interconnected xerothermic (hot and dry) habitats were built in the yard of the school and daycare center, near parking areas and empty fields. Members of the Wild Zone have planted and sown zigzag clover (the only food plant used by the moth) as well as rare esker and wasteland species in these areas. Some of the spreading between different patches is thus aided through human intervention, which is a new way to perceive the dynamics of natural vegetation in cities.
Propagation of infrastructures
Infrastructures always have a spatial and temporal dimension (5). In science and technology studies also naturally growing nature is perceived as infrastructure, instead of using the term to describe only built, artificial environments such as buildings, roadways, and power lines (6). When understood like this, infrastructure is not only built, but it is also organically grown. Natural plant growth occurs at different spatial and temporal rhythms.
Due to their capability to disperse, plants do not always stay where we intend them to. In the best case, rare or endangered species start to spread in a new environment more vigorously than expected. This means that surrounding infrastructures are subjected to intentional or unintentional impacts. Hopefully, such an occurrence would also entail a willingness to change the way these areas are maintained. In cherishing natural vegetation, it is key to allow the self-organized dispersal of plants from intentionally founded green areas, which is something we are not used to in the maintenance of urban green areas. It is also possible that once a plant has dispersed to another site, the original site has developed so that maintaining the presence of the species there is no longer relevant. When controlled sensitively, spontaneous and intentional plant dispersal, and growth creates chain reactions that can surprise us much like the human inhabitants of cities do. Allowing the spontaneous dispersal of vegetation in cities shapes a new way to perceive nature, where the significance of any given area changes over time. The members of Wild Zone view it as a sign of success when the plants introduced to a Wild Zone meadow are found to have dispersed beyond the original area.
The connections between natural vegetation and urban functions
According to Carse (7) when speaking about nature, the term infrastructure can be used to describe the activities, benefits, or services it provides, not so much the types of individual characteristics of natural areas. According to Carse, components are linked together, so natural infrastructure can produce a function. Cherishing natural vegetation can thus provide new activities and meaning also for humans.
What kind of social structures could we have in cities where we embedded natural vegetation? The Wild Zone has explored this in collaboration with educational institutions. The newly developed school meadows have been introduced in schoolyards, and their foundation and maintenance have been worked into the educational aims in various subjects. The link to biology or plant species identification is obvious, but not the only one. In woodshop classes, students can make insect hotels that support the meadows, information signs can be developed in language classes, and maintaining the area can be made part of sports or history classes. School meadows are an example of controlled vegetation, where urbanites can become more familiar with nature and form a personal relationship with it.
Organization and production chains of natural vegetation
The science and technology studies approach highlights the process-oriented nature of infrastructures and particularly emphasizes how infrastructures are built rather than focusing solely on how they are used by society. Infrastructures are always social structures containing embedded meanings and representing human relations (8).
In urban green areas, we must pay attention to established modes of production and maintenance. Working in established networks, designers, contractors, and landscapers work according to routine steps which follow one another. Seeds and saplings are acquired from a producer, like a nursery. Maintenance workers, who are often landscape contractors, take care of the areas. When cities start to tackle biodiversity loss, traditional supply chains cannot meet the demands for cultivating rare and endangered plant species. Local or even domestic seeds and saplings are scarcely available from current vendors. Wild Zone has solved this issue by gathering and cultivating its own seeds and growing saplings. For infrastructures to be cultivated for counteracting biodiversity loss on a large scale, we need new production chains and actors – a new organizational model for the whole sector.
When the value of a meadow lies in the local flora, maintenance differs from common practices of upkeep in urban green areas. Annual cutting isn’t enough, but rather these meadows must be weeded, as rare species are often weak in the competition with other plants. This requires the ability to identify young sprouts of the intended species and undesired weeds but also the sensitivity to recognize spontaneously appearing species that are nonetheless valuable additions to the ecosystem. For example, in its meadows, Wild Zone has not removed spontaneously appearing red sorrel, heath cudweed, or sheep’s fescue, all of which can be considered rare or beneficial to insects. Such recognition requires the green area maintenance teams of cities to put in significant effort to acquire new knowledge.
Simultaneously, the planning processes are also in need of a revolution. Cities’ infrastructures are typically controlled very hierarchically through zoning and green area plans. Separate park plans can dedicate spaces for meadows or organically spreading natural vegetation. Many of the meadows founded by Wild Zone are located in places that are already designated for this purpose at a high level in the planning hierarchy.
Natural vegetation can, however, also be fostered without hierarchical urban planning, from the bottom up. An example of this are the dozens of guerilla meadows founded by Wild Zone in the Tampere area. At least two of these have since become officially recognized as meadows in the green area registry. Both guerilla meadows were created in areas where the land use was designated as a green area, which most likely made it easier for them to be accepted in the official system. The planning codes and guidelines for green areas are less binding than those regarding buildings, which benefits natural vegetation and meadows.
Infrastructures in the era of biodiversity loss
People are changing cities so rapidly that flora that has adjusted to the urban structure can no longer keep up with human rhythms. Building cities with natural vegetation will require more systematic synchronization. Otherwise, a large number of valuable plant species will be lost in cities, which weakens not only nature but also the quality of human everyday environments
Though the task ahead is vast, the starting point is fertile for sprouting diverse, creative solutions. Future will tell what types of infrastructures are formed in cities in the era of biodiversity loss. Paying attention to natural vegetation allows us to view cities as more than mere human living environments, but rather habitats for varied species. This widens our perception of the nature of cities and their dwellers.
references
1 Bowker, Geoffrey. 1994. Science on the Run: Information Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger, 1920-1940. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
2 Star, Susan Leigh & Ruhleder, Karen. 1996. Steps toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces. Information Systems Research 7:1, 111-134.
3 Carse, Ashley. 2012. Nature as infrastructure: Making and managing the Panama Canal watershed. Social Studies of Science 42:4, 539-563.
4 ibid: 542
5 Bowker, Geoffrey. 1994. Science on the Run: Information Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger, 1920-1940. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. ja Star, Susan Leigh & Ruhleder, Karen. 1996. Steps toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces. Information Systems Research 7:1, 111-134.
6 Carse, Ashley. 2012. Nature as infrastructure: Making and managing the Panama Canal watershed. Social Studies of Science 42:4, 539-563: 540
7 ibid: 542
8 Bowker, Geoffrey. 1994. Science on the Run: Information Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger, 1920-1940. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. ks. myös Nieminen, Jere & Jokinen, Ari. 2018. Hulevesi muuttaa kaupunkia. Infrastruktuuri suhteiden rakentamisena. Tiede & edistys 43: 2, 129-144.
