Designing agricultural landscapes that protect biodiversity has become a high priority for some landscape architects, scientists, and farmers. And designing the right collaborations can be just as important as designing for conservation itself.
For landscape architect Thomas Woltz, combining forces to create landscapes that are both ecological and productive has shown him that “science and design belong together at every scale.”
Before and after the ecological restoration projects on the farms, the team measures both ecological and agricultural production values. They then have a better understanding of the balance between the two goals. “We wanted to create a landscape that can be wild, productive, and expressive of this legacy of agricultural inheritance,” Wolf said.
The collaborators also treat these places with inherent respect and consider them cultural landscapes. These properties have cultural significance that requires re-interpretation “for the 20th century, but with a new set of values,” Woltz said.