What would happen if we turned our urban areas into urban jungles?

A recent and nagging shoulder injury has beckoned me to alter how I intentionally exercise. Weights and demanding upper body lifts are doable, but risky for the time being. Paddling the canoe is a breeze, but hauling four of them back and forth down the bank for my guests is suddenly a little trickier. So in lieu of trying to stay fit while the shoulder hopefully heals up, I have been biking around lately — a lot — and it got me thinking.

When I set off from my shed with the bike, I pick a ‘theme’ that I follow. I have silly names for these routes, including Niagara Parkway/Downtown NOTL Bike Blast, New Suburbs of St. Davids, Niagara Falls Tourist District, Back Alleys of Niagara Falls, or the Backroads of NOTL. Biking across and within these diverse landscapes has me envision how our towns and cities could look, feel, and function if we were to have a massive paradigm shift.

We tend to see our Niagara landscape under three categories of land use, broadly speaking. A parcel of land is either developed, agricultural, or natural. This mosaic of land use is also what makes Niagara unique, yet you could guess which of these three categories is in the most peril — the natural world. Yet I have a wild dream that would involve a colossal shift in government and public priorities at once.

During my urban biking escapades, I see so many areas of land, both private and public, that fall into an awkward in-between label of doing something, yet nothing useful. The land is not housing people, it's not growing food, and it's habitat quality is barely a discussion. Abandoned industrial lots, yards with knee-high grasses, unkempt urban parks and unused farm fields, known as brown lots, abound. These are landscape textures that are not heavily used by people, and although these areas are disjointed from one another, they are numerous and close by at all times. If you mathematically add it all up up, there's a lot of land without purpose.

Let's fill them in with native trees. Instead of pretending to maintain these areas in a half-baked effort, let nature take over again. Let's turn useless space into useful space by transforming Niagara's populated areas into an urban jungle where people can still live, work and play as they do.

So, hypothetically speaking, how and why should we accomplish this?

Let's begin with the how factor. Option one is to let these areas get taken over by nature again. A successive species is one which kickstarts the natural and inevitable sequence of ecosystem succession, or in other words, stages that natural systems follow as they heal and rebound. Grasses would grow tall, soil would become more stabilized by their roots, small trees would blow in by means of a seed or animal defecation, and the system would start to grow if left to do so.

Or, a more proactive approach would involve clearing out any invasive species and planting native tree saplings and pollinator plants in their place. But who would pay for that?

Some of us could pay out of pocket to kickstart this community re-greening initiative, but that is not the financial case for everyone in Niagara. As I once wrote in a more dystopian tone during COVID times, what if the government snapped its fingers and decided that one would get a ‘social credit score’ for planting more native species on their private property, which would allow you access to perks in society? The government, under the ambition of saving biodiversity and combating climate change, would supply native trees and plants for free. The more you choose to plant, the more benefits and kickbacks you get in day-to-day society. Again, a little far-fetched, but an interesting theme to fathom. I bet those in government could do that if they wanted to.

This idea was not only inspired from my bike ride thoughts, but also excellent real-life examples I have seen in my travels. I have seen urban or built-up areas where you can still see and feel the nature around you at all times. People's daily lives are uninterrupted by the added greenery. On the contrary, it gives them scientifically proven physical and mental health benefits, creates recreation opportunities, and creates wholesome opportunities for people and local wildlife to coexist side by side.

Imagine if heavy rains pummel an urban area that was turned green in all the aforementioned spaces in between. Water run-off would be slowed because of the vegetation coverage, and the water itself would be filtered by the roots and soil before potentially dragging harmful pollutants into local waterways. Inner-city kids would hear the peaceful chorus of insects and birds at dawn and dusk, with the plants muffling out the travelling tin sounds of vehicles and sirens.

Let me wrap up this beautiful concept of green urban areas with a few real life examples. Wait — is it beautiful? Let me just say that comparing downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake to the town of Dundas 40 minutes away from here is astounding.

Dundas, like our downtown, is viewed as highly affluent and beautiful. Yet, what do I see when walking through Dundas and the millionaire neighbourhood lots? There are entire side streets where just about every neighbour has dedicated their small front lawn to loud and proud native pollinator plants and native tree saplings. The streets smell wonderful, the colours are eye-popping, and the sound of birds and happy buzzing insects is evident. In Niagara-on-the-Lake, such yards have been vilified by a cultural phenomenon where some would consider it messy, ugly, and inappropriate. Yes, people in our town have reported other people's front lawns to our municipal staff strictly out of aesthetic disdain. Think about that for a second.

I remember being in Cairns, Australia while filming a nature documentary called Hidden Corners: Tropical North Queensland. What struck me about this city about the size of St. Catharines is that there was nature on every corner. Tangled thickets of greenery, large trees, and mini swamps chock-full of wildlife dotted the inner city landscape. Flying foxes, tree frogs, harmless pythons, and extraordinarily cool insects lived among the people without issue.

Lastly, if you get the opportunity to visit Rondeau Provincial Park along Lake Erie, which I am currently editing a documentary about as well, go see what I just described. In a rare historical Ontario exception, Rondeau is one of the only provincial parks where private cottages are permitted to exist. However, one will notice that in between every single cottage, even if only six feet wide, there is nature growing. No empty space is left unnaturalized, and it is a textbook example of how we could execute this broad concept in any built-up area.

That is, if we really wanted to.