Inspiration

We’re collecting articles, books, podcasts, and experimental projects that inspire our work with Test Plot. Themes that interest us include community landcare, intergenerational stewardship, how different cultures think about nature, Indigenous practices, maintenance and repair as creative processes, adaptive management, urban ecology, weeds, ruderal landscapes, ecological maximalism, nature based solutions, the rhizosphere, rituals, and human/non-human relationships. Enjoy!

URBAN NATURE

Los Angeles Landscape History
A collaborative project to build a comprehensive knowledge base about the historical ecology of the Los Angeles Basin and environs
Made possible by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation (2020)

Mapping Los Angeles Landscape History: The Indigenous Landscape
Longcore, T. and P. J. Ethington, eds. (2023)

NovelEco Societal Attitudes to Urban Novel Ecosystems
Dr. Marcus Collier (Research project 2021-2026)

The Promise and the Politics of Rewilding India
India, like much of the rest of the world, is in ecological tumult
Dorothy Wickenden / New Yorker (2022)

Mycorrhizal fungi + The Social Life of Forests
Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi.Ferris Jabr / New York Times (2020)

Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
It is time to look forward and create the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human management.
Emma Marris (Book 2011)

The Flora of the Future
The concept of ecological restoration rests on the mistaken assumption that we can somehow bring back past ecosystems by removing invasive species and replanting native species.
Peter del Tredici / Places Journal (April 2014)

Weeds are Us
Michael Pollan / New York Times Magazine (1989)

PRACTICAL GUIDES

WEED-CUT
Tool provides land managers with guidance on a range of methods for managing invasive plants in wildlands using both herbicides and non-chemical approaches.
CAL-IPC

The Bradley Method of Eliminating Exotic Plants from Natural Reserves
T. C. Fuller and G. Douglas Barbe

Prescriptions for the Control of Invasive Plant Species and Noxious Weeds
Comprehensive summary of different control methods for invasive plants common in the East Bay Regional Parks

Soil Solarization
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources

Controlling Invasives with Vinegar
Glen Scheider, Skyline Gardens

INTERESTING APPROACHES

Underground seed banks hold promise for ecological restoration
Indigenous science is using natural regeneration to restore western ecosystems.
Josephine Woolington / High Country News (2024)

Improvised Landscapes
A practice of “ecological maximalism,“ briefly defined as creating meadows with roots and rhizomes for free.
Nicholas Anderson / Arnoldia Harvard Arboretum (2023)

Experimental Landscapes
Embedding scientific experiments into the design process.
Q&A with Alexander Felson / Urban Omnibus (2023)

Landscapes of Retreat
Retreat is a catalyst because it unsettles, and thus begins a process of recovering broken relations—amending connections.
Rosetta Elkin (2023)

Maintenance + Care
A working guide to the repair of rust, dust, cracks, and corrupted code in our cities, our homes, and our social relations.
Shannon Mattern / Places Journal (2018)

Braiding Sweetgrass
Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer (2015)

Repairscapes
Repair ecology is a design approach that focuses on the act of mending existing sites to enhance local ecologies / Instagram Account

The Living Infrastructure Field Kit
a free, collaborative web tool that nurtures community connections to place, fostering a deeper understanding of local environments.

HISTORY

Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration

Laura J. Martin (2022)

Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources

M. Kat Anderson (2013)

KINDRED PROJECTS

Skyline Gardens Alliance (Berkeley)

Wild Yards Project (Los Angeles)

Ecoreparation (Massachusetts)

LA Micro Forests (Los Angeles)

Atelier Le Balto (Berlin)

Garden of the XXI (Zurich)

LNDLAB (Oregon)

Prairie Plots (Houston)

CHALLENGES

GSD experts on a major barrier to climate crisis mitigation

“The majority of Americans have little experience with the land and its rhythms.”

Matthew Allen / Harvard Design Magazine (2021)

‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ is really a thing

Meg St-Esprit McKivigan / New York Times (2020)

Why 'Plant Blindness' Matters and What You Can Do About It

Christine Ro / BBC (2019)

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

Join or Die
A movie about why you should join a club…and why America depends on it. A follow up to the influential book Bowling Alone.
Robert Putnam (2023)