Each year’s program focuses on a timely topic, designed to bring together professionals involved in the different components of large-scale urban restoration and green infrastructure projects, including landscape architects, garden designers, landscape contractors, restoration companies and organizations, project managers and landscape maintenance staff from institutions and agencies.
The 2018 Urban Natural Areas Seminar is tentatively scheduled for January 23-24, 2018
More details to come in fall 2017.
2017 Urban Natural Areas Seminar
Nature in the Balance: An Interdisciplinary View of Urban Area Restoration
January 11 & 12, 2017, 8:30am-3pm
Center for Urban Horticulture
3501 NE 41st St., Seattle, WA 98105
Thank you to our planning committee, the speakers, and all who attended!
Seminar description: Building on the strong response to the first seminar of this type held last year, this two-day seminar brings together professionals involved in all phases of urban restoration projects to discuss some of the unique challenges and the strategies for planning, designing, constructing and maintaining restoration projects within high density urban areas. Restoring natural areas in urban locations is made uniquely challenging by the simple proximity of people to those restoration efforts.
This year we are focusing on the challenges of undertaking restoration given the pressures of urbanization, including both human health benefits and safety concerns, tensions between restoration and visitor usage, project sustainability and managing wildlife. Participants and presenters will work together to identify ways to bridge theory and practice as we work toward restoration projects that successfully meet our communities’ ecological, social, and economic goals.
Nature in the Balance Agenda
Professional credits approved: NALP/WALP, ISA, ASCA, ecoPRO, APLD; Pending: CPH
Resources for Attendees
Presentations & Links:
Jon Jainga, Urban Forestry Manager | Seattle Parks and Recreation
Barbara DeCaro, Horticulturist and Senior Environmental Analyst | Seattle Parks and Recreation
- Presentation: Impacts of Urbanization on Seattle’s Urban Forests (PDF)
- Seattle Public Utilities: Report Illegal Dumping
- Seattle Police Department: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
- Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board
- King County Noxious Weed Control Program
- Green Seattle Partnership
- Bee City USA
Dean W. Koonts, ASLA, Principal | HBB Landscape Architecture
- Presentation: Design Approaches to Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) in Natural Area Parks: A case study from Kinnear Park (PDF)
- Presentation Handout (PDF)
Christina Pfeiffer, Horticulture Educator | Consulting Associate, Urban Forestry Services, Inc.
- Presentation: Maintenance and Stewardship Approaches to CPTED in Natural Area Parks (PDF)
- Pruning Resources (PDF)
Micki McNaughton, Urban Forestry Special Project Coordinator | Washington Department of Natural Resources Urban & Community Forestry Program
Dr. Kathleen Wolf, Research Social Scientist | University of Washington College of the Environment and USDA Forest Service PNW Research Station
- Presentation: Crossing the Bridge: Natural Areas and Human Health (PDF)
- Green Cities: Good Health
- Wolf, K.L. 2017. Nature for Human Health and Wellness. Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin 78,4: 18-22.
- Wolf, K.L. 2016. Nature’s Riches: The Health and Financial Benefits of Nearby Nature. University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy
- House, E., C. O’Connor, K. Wolf, J. Israel, & T. Reynolds. 2016. Outside our Doors: the benefits of cities where people and nature thrive. Seattle, WA: The Nature Conservancy, Washington State Chapter, 26 pp.
Clayton Antieau, Senior Specialist, Environmental Review and Environmental Permitting | Seattle Public Utilities
- Presentation (including plant lists): Plant Selection and Associations that Consider Sustainability and Site Safety/Design Considerations (PDF)
Dr. Kern Ewing, Professor, Plant Ecology University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
- Presentation: Introduction to Yesler Swamp restoration project at UW Botanic Gardens – Center for Urban Horticulture (PDF)
Dr. Mark Jordan, Assistant Professor of Biology | Seattle University
- Presentation: Wildlife in Urban Natural Areas (PDF)
Past Seminars
2016: Reconstructing Natural Areas in the Built Environment