College of Sciences and Health Professions
RESEARCH
TRASHED TO TREASURED CSU RESEARCH HELPS TURN VACANT LOTS INTO URBAN GARDENS DR. MICHAEL WALTON
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leveland harbors over 3,000 acres of vacant land, and Associate Professor of Biology Michael Walton is helping city planners decide what to do with it. “The use of vacant lots for urban agriculture is growing rapidly, and is a major piece of the city’s plan to reimagine Cleveland as a more sustainable city,” Dr. Walton says. “People employed in community gardening are healthier, eat more vegetables, and create more attractive neighborhoods.” Together with researchers from Cleveland Metroparks, The Ohio State University, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Cleveland Botanical Garden, CSU developed the Vacant Lands Rapid Assessment Procedure, a unique tool to help community members and planners make decisions about vacant land. The two-page guide takes one through a series of simple questions to score a parcel’s potential as a garden: location, size, shape, connection to other green space, soil qualities, vegetation and so on. The final score places the parcel into one of three categories: 1) high potential, 2) intermediate potential, but could be improved with some ecological
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restoration, or 3) low potential, meaning the parcel should be considered for commercial or industrial development. The team’s research found that vacant lots in Cleveland are often nutrient rich with a high biodiversity of organisms that are vital for productive gardening, e.g. nutrient recycling, pollination and bio-control of pests. However, conversion of these lots to gardens and farms can actually cause a decline of biodiversity and increased degradation of the ecosystem. “For example, conversion of vacant lots to gardens is associated with a reduced diversity in pollinating insects, loss of predatory insects and birds that feed upon pests, and increases in pest species,” Dr. Walton says. The key to conserving and managing the vacant land, the team found, is to convert it to gardens that are accompanied by natural, native vegetation that add a reservoir of beneficial biodiversity. The vacant land project is the first in a major, long-term research program led by Dr. Walton focused on improving sustainability in urban areas, funded by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Forest Service.
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The use of vacant lots for urban agriculture is growing rapidly, and is a major piece of the city’s plan to re-imagine Cleveland as a more sustainable city.
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