The Urban Habitat Project (UHP) located on the grounds of the Buffalo Central Terminal is less than a year old but has already exceeded designers' expectations. The UHP was created to demonstrate: biodiversity, native regional habitats, soil remediation, several plant communities, ecosytems that benefit birds, bees, various beneficial insects and an array of resident mammals that exist near the site.
The UHP is a working habitat. A large grove of pine trees, hawthorns, native shrubs, and vast meadows of grasses and wildflowers have been specifically designed and selected to meet specific site criteria.
The UHP site and other nearby parcels are or were previously occupied by heavy industrial uses or railroad operations. Project lead Dave Majewski explains how the vegetation assists with soil remediation:
•Helianthus annus - annual sunflower - was seeded throughout the UHP in the fall of 2011. This plant is one of nature's most significant conductors of phyto-remediation; in the world;
•Helianthus seed are also a favored food of the native American Goldfinch. The Goldfinch will drop some seed on the ground when foraging on the plant heads - one of the very few birds light enough to maneuver on the flower heads without bending them;
•The area resident turkey, doves, pheasant, and other typical ground feeding birds will then consume these fallen seeds;
•These birds will then spread their droppings throughout the parcels - and beyond, thus dispersing helianthus seeds even further;
•This process will perpetuate annually. After a number of years, the helianthus spread and grow in these affected industrial parcels. Phyto-remediation will expand with no further efforts or costs;
•Flowers will grow, habitat will increase, and soils will recover and become pure again. All because of handfuls of seeds and a couple dozen colorful, active and hungry native finches that started it all.
The 2.3-acre first phase was constructed for $59,700 and a number of public and private funders helped make the project a reality. Project organizers are currently raising funds to expand the project.
"Urban Habitat Project: Bringing nature back to vacant urban landscapes" will be one of the field sessions offered during the Preservation Plus conference. Dave Majewski and John Murphy, Executive Director of Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. will lead a tour of the site and discuss how environmental sustainability and historic preservation can help revitalize communities. The field session will take place on Wednesday, September 26 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Conference registration is required.
How spectacular.
Um, so "vast meadows" within city limits doesn't bother you at all?
And yay, "soils will recover and become pure again. All because of handfuls of seeds and a couple dozen colorful, active and hungry native finches that started it all."
Because nothing will happen at this site in the decades it'll take for actual soil to be cleaned up by nature?
A very nice project, for sure, but come on, this is a teensy bit dramatic, isn't it?
The City was built for a Million people, we have a 1/4 of that. Even if we somehow double in pop. in the next 50 years we still will have plenty of space, I'd rather it filled with this than burned out houses.
Ummmm I don't think so. The city was ever built for a million people considering our population at its peek was around 530k and the city was extremely packed at 530k. And even at 270k the city is still one of the most densly populated cities today.
Yes it peaked when they decided to lay down highways all over the place to spread it out. The City declined directly after that.
jm is correct. back in the 1920s, buffalo city planners expected that the city of buffalo to grow so large that it would annex or merge with niagara falls.
http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/1901-50/1924schwabnewyear/1924map.gif