Pacific Herring stocks off the West Coast of the United States and Canada have collapsed.  This project uses the herring spawn and its revitalization as a model for researching and illustrating how landscape architects can engage with drastic reductions in ecosystem biodiversity.

 It does this through three strategies.  The first is by focusing on a systemic design approach whereby three points of engagement were considered to address the range of the species at its full extent.  These points are located in urban, rural, and remote sites.  The second is to utilize drawings as more than depictions of landscape changes, instead turning them into actionable illustrations for change, which range from drawings as legal documents in consultation processes to drawings as living cultural representations which facilitate community engagement.  The third is to assemble a series of specific tangible actions to express change to revitalize habitat decline.  These three strategies run their course through this body of research and serve as the basis by which a design strategy emerged.

CREDITS

Sam McFaul.