Urban Parks Can Support People and Biodiversity—if They Are Designed With Both in Mind

Research shows that parks are crucial for supporting city dwellers—people or the surprising abundance of animals that inhabit urban wildlands. 

However, designing parks with both in mind can be a tall task. Bright lights are good for human safety, but can be disruptive to insect populations. Tall grass provides habitat for pollinators and mammals, though it can be tough to navigate for urban residents who are just trying to get a rare breath of fresh air. A new study finds there doesn’t always have to be an “either/or”—certain attributes of urban green spaces benefit people and wildlife. 

But city, state and federally managed parks are facing increasing risks from development, which could hinder the benefits they provide for all visitors, animals and humans alike. 

Urban Havens: Cities can host surprisingly high levels of biodiversity—and I’m not just talking about rats and roaches. New York City is home to more than 7,000 species of plants and animals, including groundhogs, painted turtles and native bees. These animals carve out habitat in the patchwork of green space throughout urban areas, from children’s playgrounds to dog parks. (As I’ve written about in the past, even cemeteries can be biodiversity and climate havens.)  

People, too, search out parks as a refuge from the bustling city life. Urban green spaces can improve mental health, reduce pollution and mitigate the heat island effect, which is when developed areas experience higher temperatures than rural spots. 

But how do these biodiversity benefits overlap with “human utility”? A team of researchers recently investigated this question by analyzing more than 600 urban green spaces throughout Broward County, Florida, one of the most populous counties in the United States. They zeroed in on how people use eight different physical attributes of parks, including playgrounds, athletic facilities and picnic areas. Then the team combed through more than 100,000 wildlife and plant observations in Broward County on the platform iNaturalist, an online social network where people—from hobbyists to scientists—catalogue the biodiversity they spot in their daily lives. 

When the researchers combined this data, they found that “urban parks can effectively serve multiple values without necessarily sacrificing one for the other,” according to their study, published in March. The study revealed dual biodiversity and human benefits from playgrounds, bodies of water, nature preserves and dog parks. 

“One of the key results is that you can have biodiversity and people, but you need to think critically about it,” study co-author Corey Callaghan, an assistant professor of global ecology at the University of Florida, told me. He added that tiny tweaks, such as landscaping with native plants, can help make manicured parks more nature-friendly. The study found the single biggest trait that benefits people and wildlife is the size of the park. 

“The bigger the park, the more biodiversity, and the more humans that” can use it, Callaghan said. “I think that’s a really important finding—just highlighting the importance of preserving large urban green spaces to support the population.” 

Conservation Challenges: Preserving large green spaces in and around urban areas is difficult as a growing number of people move to cities around the world. A 2022 study projects that urban populations will grow by 2.5 billion over the next three decades. At the same time, development projects increasingly encroach on natural spaces to support human recreation. This can put parks at risk—but environmental advocates are pushing back. 

Last year, the Tampa Bay Times revealed a plan from the Florida state government to build pickleball courts, golf courses and hotels on state park lands. Employees from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection leaked these plans to journalists at the Times, and the news triggered a spate of bipartisan backlash. Thousands of concerned citizens gathered to protest at the parks after the investigation came out, and the projects were eventually canceled. 

On Wednesday, the Florida House unanimously passed a bill that would limit projects like this in the future. The bill would require any projects developed on state park lands and waters to be for “conservation-based recreational uses” like swimming and hiking. However, a Senate version of the bill would impose looser restrictions, The Associated Press reports. 

Similar controversies are happening at a federal level. Thousands of employees at the National Park Service and Forest Service were laid off in February, only for many of them to be rehired about a month later, as I recently reported. However, NPS staff may face more layoffs soon, which experts say will jeopardize the quality of the parks, The Washington Post reports. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions that promote development on public lands, despite polling showing that conserving these areas is widely popular across party lines.

All of this layers on top of a long history of inequitable access to urban green spaces for low-income and minority communities. And the growing demand for amenities like pickleball and tennis courts puts further pressures on green areas that may support animals and wildlife. But as Callaghan’s recent study shows, people can successfully balance human utility with conservation needs in urban environments. 

“Let’s think about both, you know?” he said. “One green space doesn’t have to be just biodiversity or just athletic fields—like, think about how we can utilize the finite space that we have.” 

More Top Climate News

President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order that opens up one of the world’s largest protected ocean reserves to industrial fishing. Around 750 miles off the coast of Hawaii, the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument covers nearly a half million square miles of ocean and provides habitat for a variety of marine life, including endangered sea turtles and whales. A separate executive order directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to conduct a review of all marine monuments and draft recommendations for where and how they can be opened to commercial fishing, Rebecca Dzombak and Lisa Friedman report for The New York Times.

“This is a gift to industrial fishing fleets and a slap in the face to science and the generations of Pacific Islanders who have long called for greater protection of these sacred waters,” Maxx Phillips, director for Hawaii and Pacific Islands at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Times.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently nixed a firefighter health program led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was studying ways to protect workers from chemical exposure during electric vehicle fires, Ariel Wittenberg reports for E&E News. More than 100 chemicals, such as heavy metals and hydrogen cyanide, can be released during an EV fire, which are more difficult to put out than most blazes. The program was studying ways to minimize risks from this toxicity, including proper methods to clean gear. 

Meanwhile, a new study shows that climate change is threatening the availability of safe blood for transfusions. The researchers found that climate-fueled extreme weather, health issues and the spread of infectious diseases will hinder blood donations at the same time as demand for blood will rise. Australia is currently experiencing a blood shortage in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which led to the cancellation of more than 3,500 donation appointments in New South Wales and Queensland.