Climate & Biodiversity News (March 2026)

Manresa Wilds, Norfolk, Connecticut

By Jared Green

New York City Rebuilds a Waterfront Park to Hold Back Rising Seas, March 13, Bloomberg CityLab

The new design "changes your relationship to the river" as you walk, said Molly Bourne, a partner in Matthews Nielsen Landscape Architects, "which we studied quite a bit." In a review of the new $1.45-billion East River Park in Manhattan - one of the country's most ambitious works of climate resilient infrastructure - journalist James S. Russell looks into how the design evolved over the course of the decade-long project.

Indigenous Knowledge Confirms What Scientists Observe: Large Birds Are Disappearing, March 13, Mongabay

As part of the Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts project, researchers surveyed nearly 1,500 Indigenous people across three continents. Indigenous knowledge holders confirmed what scientists have documented: larger bird species are being replaced by smaller birds, because larger birds reproduce more slowly and are at greater risk from hunting. The research shows how Indigenous and Western knowledge can complement each other.

City of Cambridge Reports Better Bike Lanes Led to Surge In Bike Traffic, March 10, Streetsblog

According to an analysis by the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, protected, separated bike lanes have led to a 250 percent increase in bike traffic since 2004. Improved bike infrastructure has also led to fewer cyclists on sidewalks and crashes.

Coastal Adaptation Is at a Carbon-Intensive Crossroads, March 2, Common Edge

New research from Pamela Conrad, ASLA, and Charles Waldheim, Hon. ASLA, for Harvard University's Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability finds that coastal adaptation projects can be carbon intensive but they don't have to be. An analysis of 12 projects led by landscape architects shows that nature-based solutions can have up to 91 percent lower embodied carbon and cost 30 percent less than conventional approaches.

SCAPE and BIG Reveal Final Renderings of Manresa Wilds Masterplan, The Architect's Newspaper, February 27

In Norfolk, Connecticut, a shuttered 1960s-era coal power plant and brownfield will be transformed into a 125-acre park and educational hub that protects and enhances shorelines and wetlands and reuses defunct energy facilities. According to The Architect's Newspaper, the latest plan from SCAPE and BIG includes "30 percent more natural areas and habitat protection and "half the amount of hardscape and active features as originally planned."