Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium

2005 Urban Ecosystem Symposium participants.

UERC encougages dialogue among researchers.

The Urban Greenspaces Institute is a founding member of the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium, which was established to advance the state of the science of urban ecosystems and improve our understanding of them, with a focus on the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan region, by fostering communication and collaboration among researchers, managers and citizens at academic institutions, public agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations, and other interested groups. Activities of the UERC include:

• Organizing annual Urban Ecology and Conservation symposia;
• Coordinating working group meetings;
• Maintaining a contact list for networking;
• Providing a web site to provide access to UERC-related information;
• Hosting an urban ecosystem focused listserve.

"Marked economy in municipal development may be effected by laying out parkways and parks to embrace streams that carry at times more water than can be taken care of by drain pipes of ordinary size. Thus brooks or little rivers which would otherwise become nuisances that would some day have to be put in large underground conduits at enormous expense, may be made the occasion for delightful local pleasure grounds or attractive parkways."

-- John Charles Olmsted, 1902 Report to Portland Park Board