Wildlife Crossing

Wild animals and birds are slowly starting to reappear in the territories that they have long abandoned thanks to reforestation and efforts to preserve green spaces and animal habitats in urban areas. Many practices that resulted in animal disappearance in the past are now being regulated: there are hunting laws, urban planning and transportation guidelines and social activism that attempt to weave wildlife into urban fabric and modern lifestyles. But there’s often conflict where our ideals collide with the reality of animals in our midst: deer-vehicle collisions, birds crashing into glass of skyscrapers, and a constant influx of complaints by the frustrated and frightened city folk as we encounter wildlife in our human habitat.

When we see wild animals in populated areas, we often think that it is because these animals are displaced by the effects of urbanization or climate change. That’s not the case, according to Dave Wattles, the black bear project lead at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. “Climate change has little to no effect on animals in the Northeast region,” he explains. “These species have wide temperature tolerances and are very adaptable.” He views the increased sightings of certain animal species in urban areas as a positive trend that signifies their recovering populations. “Since the times of European colonization animals were used as meat, we hunted them, they were seen as predators. We cut down forests at incredible rates during the era of industrialization,” he continues “As we grew more environmentally conscious in the past several decades and became aware of our unsustainable behavior on our habitat, we now have laws and regulations that protect our nature and wildlife. As a result, certain animal populations are growing back and are finally reaching Boston area.”

While it’s definitely good news for wildlife, it appears that we, humans, are not quite ready to welcome wildlife representatives in our cities. Blake Jackson, an architect and a sustainability leader at prominent design and engineering firm Stantec argues, “Biodiversity in cities is now perceived as a problem. We need to normalize our interactions with certain species that are clearly not a danger to anyone… There needs to be a common understanding that animals are normal.”

“Even though there are many opportunities in the cities that can be used to create wildlife habitats and shelters, it’s challenging to do because of how we consume built environment,” continues Jackson. “Our clients and developers are not particularly interested in investing their money to accommodate animals’ needs when they don’t see direct monetary benefits. It is very difficult to make people look past this even though we know there is value in it on a bigger scale.”

Jackson believes that a first step in resolving this issue is for the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) to work together with biologists to take a lead on creating very specific and targeted solutions for wildlife integration in cities or buildings and reconsider building codes to make it a requirement.

“When people have to do something by code, the conversation immediately shifts from cost to how to actually do it.” Blake suggest that introducing animal diversity requirements by city officials might be an effective way to start normalizing our interactions with city wildlife. “After [Hurricane] Sandy, resiliency codes changed and they are now part of the project — so why do we have to wait for environmental disaster to start incorporating biodiversity in the cities?”.

Another aspect of normalizing wildlife in our cities is educating people about it — specifically, how to react to it and what to watch out for as city dwellers bump into certain species.

As Jenna Fisher from Patch first reported, Mary Ellen McMahon, a lifelong resident of West Roxbury, was walking her dog in the Millenium Park when she had an unlikely encounter. “It was just staring at me the whole time I took photos of it,” says McMahon, describing a bobcat sighting she had earlier this year. “I didn’t feel that it was going to attack us, but I was a little nervous and didn’t want to provoke it by taking too many pictures,” she continues. Even though West Roxbury residents are quite accustomed to wildlife appearances, such as coyotes, given their leafy and green location, it was McMahon’s first time seeing a bobcat. “It was beautiful,” she adds, describing the wild cat. “I don’t think they [wild animals] wanna bother us, but people have to watch out for their pets” she concludes, “and educating people is very important."