For nearly two decades, Mark Weitecamper has lived in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood. For years, Weitekamper said, he has been able to enjoy the wildlife in the heart of the city.
“You can see turtles, you can see herons, you can sometimes get lucky and there are mink and river otters,” Weitekamper said. “We can of course see ducks and geese, and there comes a time when the frogs hatch and start jumping around.”
Weitekamper sees most of this wildlife in West Ridge Nature Park, an urban habitat within walking distance of his home. But that kind of space isn’t available to many people in Chicago.
A new study from the Lincoln Park Zoo found that low-income Chicago neighborhoods are home to about five fewer species of mammals than wealthier areas, according to Mason Fidino, senior quantitative ecologist at the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo .
Fidino published the study alongside other researchers around the country and looked specifically at how changing demographics in a neighborhood can affect wildlife.
Fidino said researchers used the census definition of gentrification to compare neighborhoods, using changes in racial composition, education levels and housing prices, to determine whether a neighborhood was gentrified. Fidino then compared the number of mammals in gentrified and non-gentrified neighborhoods.
“We know that systemic racism can impact the ecology of cities,” Fidino said. “We wanted to take a closer look at how gentrification may be linked to variation in wildlife diversity.”
Fidino and his team distributed camera traps throughout the city and measured how many and what types of mammals were seen in certain neighborhoods over three years. Researchers noticed a particular difference in Chicago. While most cities, including other large urban areas such as Seattle and Los Angeles, saw a difference of one to two species between neighborhoods, Chicago neighborhoods saw differences of three to five types of mammals.
“We see an increase in cash wealth in gentrifying neighborhoods across the board,” Fidino said. “It’s usually not a big bump. But in some cities we saw a much larger effect, and that was especially true in Chicago.
Fidino said the team observed raccoons, coyotes, deer, squirrels, foxes and other mammals in Chicago-area neighborhoods.
Still, many Chicagoans said they weren’t surprised by the disparities revealed in the study results.
Anthony Moser, for example, lived in the McKinley Park neighborhood for more than a decade starting in 2008. He now lives a few blocks from Brighton Park and said he hasn’t seen many wild animals in neither neighborhood.
Moser said he thinks this is likely due to a long history of pollution in the area. McKinley Park borders the Central Manufacturing District, the city’s first planned industrial district, established in 1905.
Related Articles
While the former manufacturing district’s six-story buildings remain largely empty and abandoned today, McKinley Park has remained the site of industrial development. After an asphalt plant was built near his home in 2018, Moser said pollution in the area got even worse.
“I could hear it every morning when I woke up, without even opening a window,” Moser said. “You could feel it at home. But this is not just one plant. This represents a larger story of putting industrial and highly polluting facilities in communities like ours.
Winifred Curran, a geography professor at DePaul University, specializes in environmental gentrification. She said Moser’s experience fits into a larger pattern: Industrial sites have historically been located in low-income neighborhoods, leading to noise, odors and pollution.
All of this could affect the amount of wildlife in those neighborhoods, she said. Many low-income communities also tend to have less green space and more asphalt, which perpetuates the problem, she added.
But, Curran said, solving this problem is difficult. When low-income communities try to add green space, they often attract real estate developers, who launch housing projects that deprive residents of the places they have lived for decades.
“The neighborhoods most likely to gentrify are those that have some sort of environmental amenity,” Curran said. “We’re seeing a lot more attention being paid to green spaces, trees, wildlife and habitat restoration. »
A 2022 investigation by the Chicago Tribune found that the city tended to plant trees and greenery in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods. Local organizations such as Openlands, a nature conservation organization, have since launched initiatives and grants to help address these disparities and bring tree cover to underserved neighborhoods.
In extreme heat, trees can help cool neighborhoods. But a Tribune investigation found that the city had planted more trees in wealthier, whiter areas.
Fidino said the study proves the need to develop urban green spaces and find solutions to environmental pollution that do not spur gentrification, especially in low-income neighborhoods. He added that he hopes his study will help lead to environmental policies that equitably prioritize access to nature in the years to come.
“Urban green spaces should be considered an essential part of city maintenance, rather than an economic development strategy,” Fidino said. “And it should never exclude people from neighborhoods.” The question is: how can we develop a process that leads to just outcomes, both environmentally and socially? »
yahoo
