![]() ![]() ![]() One died but was to be replaced.Ĭhicago's Shedd Aquarium and the nonprofit Urban Rivers are installing “floating wetlands” on part of the Chicago River to provide fish breeding areas, bird and pollinator habitat and root systems that cleanse polluted water. In the north London borough of Enfield, two beavers were released in March - 400 years after the species was hunted to extinction in Great Britain - in the hope their dams would prevent flash flooding. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, describing the United Kingdom as “one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world,” announced a plan last year to fund 45 urban rewilding projects to improve habitat for stag beetles, water voles and birds such as swifts and sparrows. As native wildflowers have sprung up, they've attracted birds, butterflies, bees, even hedgehogs. The German cities of Hannover, Frankfurt and Dessau-Rosslau designated vacant lots, parks, lawns and urban waterways where nature could take its course. Treating urban rivers like natural waters instead of drainage ditches can boost fish passage and let adjacent lands absorb floodwaters as global warming brings more extreme weather, the report says. More: Saga of a great horned owl: After he was hit by car and rescued, raptor eyes wild return In a September report, the society noted rewilding in metropolises such as Singapore, where a 1.7-mile stretch of the Kallang River has been converted from a concrete-lined channel into a twisting waterway lined with plants, rocks and other natural materials and flanked by green parkland. “There's no better place to engage people on these matters than in cities." “Climate change is coming, and we are facing an equally important biodiversity crisis,” said Nathalie Pettorelli, senior scientist with the Zoological Society of London. More than two-thirds of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050, the U.N. Forest Service estimates 6,000 acres of open space are lost daily as cities and suburbs expand. ![]()
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