The Test Plot initiative in Elysian Park, Los Angeles, emerged in 2019 to rejuvenate urban parks through native plant species. Led by Terremoto, the project confronts the ecological degradation caused by non-native plants that risk biodiversity and fire resilience. Instead of traditional brush clearance, which eradicates native species, the initiative focuses on volunteer-driven gardening to foster a sustainable ecosystem. The success in Elysian Park is inspiring similar endeavors across California, demonstrating how urban parks can effectively align with their natural environments through community involvement and thoughtful landscape architecture.
It clears for fire, but it also mows down every single native species in its path," Jones says. "We wanted to just challenge the regime of maintenance that we were seeing in the park.
We saw that it was in need of some help," says Jenny Jones, a landscape architect at Terremoto.
With the right plants and the right amount of effort, parks can be brought back into sync with the natural tendencies of their environments.
The project launched in 2019 and is now underway in parks across California, showing that urban parks can counter ecological degradation.
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