“When you think about it, ten thousand years ago, as hunters gatherers we lived a sustainable life because that was the only option. All these years later, its once again the only option. We need to rediscover how to be sustainable, to move from being apart from nature to becoming a part of nature once again.”
David Attenborough
All of us have to bring nature back into our designs. We must design with sustainable principles and really push the envelope, we have to find the latest solutions and incorporate them. We need to allow for all aspects of nature from the tiniest microbes to large vertebrates and the environments that support them. We have to start on the path to rewilding.
In the 1990s, we prepared the masterplan and design for Centrepointe Park in Ottawa. It took some convincing to get the city council of the time to agree to leaving parts of the park unmown (along the north edge of the park, around the pond, and in a couple of tree groups near the pond). Since that time this practice has become commonplace, and vastly increases biodiversity and small animal habitat in the city, as well as providing a wilder side to our tamed landscapes.