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Jack Ahern
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Landscape architects change landscapes. As a landscape
architect, I try to put landscape ecology into action
by making plans and designs for landscapes at varying
scales and in diverse contexts. We build things and
places - in the process altering landscape patterns,
sometimes profoundly. We work across scales, from gardens
to watersheds.
As a design profession closely associated with construction and development,
landscape architects operate under an "imperative to act". Our projects
have timeframes such that we can’t wait to get results from a long term
site-specific study, and if we had the time, we usually don’t have the
funding for long term studies. Fortunately, most landscape architects want
to "do the right thing" by acting with informed ecological responsibility.
Thus we come to landscape ecologists for answers, guidelines, rules of thumb,
and models for interdisciplinary collaboration to inform our everyday decisions.
We ask questions of landscape ecologists like: How large should a park be to
function as a viable habitat for a forest interior species? What are the influences
of humans on the biodiversity value of a community park? How much of a buffer
is needed adjacent to an urban river corridor to protect water quality and
habitat values? The response to our questions is often other questions poised
by landscape ecologists: What additional processes are likely to be influenced
by the project? What is the role of disturbance in the project’s locale?
How long is the project likely to exist?
Through the repetition of this didactic exercise, in diverse landscapes around
the world, we have learned that simple questions rarely produce simple direct
answers. I have learned to embrace this complexity as being inherent to the
nature of working in real landscapes with one’s eyes open to science.
If designers accept ecological responsibility for their actions there is no
alternative.
Fortunately, landscape architects have been genuinely welcomed and respected
as partners in the interdisciplinary field of landscape ecology. But there
is more work to be done. To advance the field of landscape ecology new models
of transdisciplinary collaboration are needed that can better integrate, academic
researchers, professionals and stakeholders to address the global challenge
for sustainability.
I look forward to continued participation of landscape architects with landscape
ecology through practice, research collaborations, and workshops addressing
specific challenges and opportunities.
About Jack Ahern
I am a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on woody plants for landscape
design, landscape ecology, and studios in landscape planning and sustainable
design. I joined US-IALE as a new professor nearly 20 years ago and regularly
attend US and International meetings of IALE. I am a past chair of the US-IALE.
I have worked extensively in the Netherlands and Portugal on landscape planning
and design research and projects, particularly on ecological networks and greenways.
My current research is on ecological infrastructure, seeking models and strategies
for integrating ecological functions within urban and suburban landscapes.
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