Dear BES Community, The April Quarterly meeting was a dynamic, interactive day. We were happy to see new faces from graduate students to visiting scientists and hear their voices in the discussion. The activities of the day offered those of us that have been involved in the project the opportunity to consider it from a […]
I hope I will be forgiven for calling the MetaCity a Baltimore idea, at least in part. Architect and leader of the BES Urban Design Working Group, Brian McGrath is the senior parent of the idea of the MetaCity. The co-parent of the idea is architect and architectural historian Grahame Shane, famous for his ideas […]
The Ecological Society of America is the world’s largest organization of professional ecologists. Its members include not only research scientists at various career stages, from students, through postdoctoral associates, academic faculty, but it also includes those who work in government and the private sector. Educators, journalists, and various sorts of artists are also among the […]
I borrowed that statement from Tim Allen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin. Tim is a colleague of long standing, and I think he’s one of the best thinkers in ecology. His books on hierarchy and complexity repay detailed attention. So why does he say that data collection is so abstract, and what does […]
Each year, BES chooses a Book of the Year. This allows our community to share in exploring an important work on urban ecology and urban processes in general. For 2013, we have chosen Austin Troy’s book, The Very Hungry City: Urban Energy Efficiency and the Economic Fate of Cities. This is an important book examines […]
I was recently accused of bringing a wilderness or rural approach to urban landscapes. This surprised me since I have long had what I think of as an inclusive concept of landscape. Oddly, an inclusive, urban-friendly view of landscape can be considered to emerge from each of the two different ways that ecologists have used […]
Some of my young friends play an online game called “Angry Birds.” The logo features what I would call an irate cardinal. This seems incongruous to me, since my youthful memories include Cardinals being the signature bird of my home state, Kentucky. And on top of that, my maternal grandmother translated the call of this […]
Metacity: Beyond Mere Size Hong Kong. Copyright Brian McGrath. The term “metacity” was introduced by the United Nations as a way to capture the increasing size of the largest urban aggregations on the planet. Previously, the term “megacity” had been the largest category of city, referring to any urban area comprising more than 10 million […]
There are two answers to this question. First, a wise man, Prof. M. Gordon “Reds” Wolman, suggested at our first meeting that we needed some rules to guide how such meetings were conducted. Reds, who died last year, was a famous and creative scientist, an accomplished administrator, and a leader in the Nation’s scientific discourse. […]
BES as Place Why in Baltimore of course? But that’s not a complete answer. Our research, education, and community engagement are of course focused on the five-county conurbation that is centered on the city of Baltimore. There, we focus on built, modified, and native watersheds, which are perhaps better labeled catchments. We also focus on […]
The Baltimore Ecosystem Study has been a National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site since 1998. Visit other LTER sites.
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