On a recent morning, I was in my backyard when I was buzzed by a pair of dinosaurs that whooshed by just a couple of yards over my head. Did I say dinosaurs?! Yes – the ones we call pileated woodpeckers.
Birds are considered living dinosaurs belonging to a subgroup (or clade) called therapods. (Therapods also included the famous drama queens of their time, T. rex and velociraptors.) A recent study provides strong evidence that a period of extreme climate change millions of years ago likely drove the evolution of some therapods to become warm-blooded (like modern birds). This made them able to survive in cooler climates and may be part of the reason why they survived while their cold-blooded cousins went extinct. And so here we are, humans co-existing with dinosaurs.**
Having dinosaurs swoop past you in your yard is something every Stillwater resident should have the chance to enjoy. Biophilic (“nature-loving”) urban planning tries to do just that. It accommodates, preserves, and indeed embraces local ecosystems in ways that allow us to co-exist. This involves understanding factors we're still coming to understand. One recent study, for example, found that total greenspace area had the greatest effect on species richness. On other hand, greenspace shape and connectivity had a much smaller effect, meaning it likely isn’t necessary for a city to be able to provide large areas of undeveloped land to support more bird diversity.
“When we talk about what makes an urban species, we [usually] focus on what traits help them do well in cities,” said lead author Daniel Herrera. “[But my colleagues and I] found it’s not the traits that make an urban bird, it’s the city that allows a bird to live there.” Urban planners “should work to account for birds and other wildlife in their plans as an essential element in creating our vibrant future cities,” says Tim Beatley, a biophilic design advocate and sustainability expert.
Birds aren’t just fun to watch; they also provide important ecosystem services. These include pest control, sanitation (removing roadkill, for example), seed dispersal, pollination, and even mental health services. That’s right – birds are good for us. The connection between nature and well-being is firmly established, but recent studies have focused specifically on the urban environment. For example, Cox and his colleagues found that “vegetation cover and afternoon bird abundances were positively associated with a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress.”
“Labeling these natural processes ‘services’ makes it easier for ecologists and conservationists to quantify the value of nature (sometimes literally in dollars) as well as what we lose through environmental damage,” according to Audubon. Quantifying the economic value of birds is similar to describing the benefits of sustainable business practices in economic terms: Even the least eco-minded person can appreciate the value of saving (or making) money. Maintaining healthy, biodiverse ecosystems that support birds add economic value. For example, home values are higher in leafy neighborhoods, and the same trees that create a habitable environment for lots of birds also provide shade that can cut energy costs. And there’s a business case to be made for making the Stillwater area an attractive destination for bird-watching, which can generate income, employment, and tax revenue. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology points out, “birding stands out as a powerhouse in the outdoors economy.”
Supporting our local dinosaurs - another great example of a winning people-planet-prosperity strategy.
**Perhaps you take issue with calling birds dinosaurs? Well, as Jack Ashby, manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology – University College London, explains it, “One of the central tenets of modern taxonomy is that every (clade [such as therapods]) has to include, by definition, all of the groups that evolve from it [that is, birds].” Of course, you can take this idea too far. For example, since humans are mammals that evolved from amphibians that evolved from fish, then humans are fish. “Taxonomy is useful and makes a lot of sense, until it doesn’t,” admits Ashby. But as evolutionary expert Roger Benson adds, “If birds aren’t dinosaurs, then we have no idea what they are.”
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