At UBC’s Vancouver campus, a transformation is underway where manicured lawns are being reimagined as thriving ecosystems, blending biodiversity with cultural significance.
If you’ve taken a stroll down Main Mall recently, you’ve likely gotten a glimpse into this transformation near the Reconciliation Pole. What was once a traditional grass lawn now blooms as a pollinator meadow. Seeds planted in spring of 2024 flourished into vibrant farewell-to-spring flowers by summer, creating a haven for bees, butterflies, and visitors. As spring approaches the cycle will restart and the natural meadow will once again show its beauty.
Aligning landscapes more closely to the ecology of the campus is key to achieving the long-term goals envisioned for UBC’s Vancouver campus — from increased biodiversity, more connected pathways to get around, and strengthening Musqueam presence and welcome on campus.
Building Climate Resiliency
Many of the plants being introduced on campus are slow growing, requiring years to fully establish. This deliberate approach is vital for protecting biodiversity in the face of climate and extinction crises.
“This is a really cool aspect of forestry that I haven’t necessarily been exposed to before,” says Suhaila Ng, a third-year forestry student who has spent months researching and tending to the meadow near the Reconciliation Pole as part of a SEEDS Sustainability research project, supervised and supported by Professor Peter Arcese, Forest Renewal BC Chair of Applied Conservation Biology at the Faculty of Forestry. The SEEDS Sustainability Program helps advance UBC’s sustainability and wellbeing policies and practices by providing students with impactful learning and research experiences.
Suahaila's work includes introducing native plants from the endangered Garry Oak ecosystem and performing tasks like surveying, watering, and monitoring growth.
Garry Oak ecosystems are native to southeastern Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands, but they provide valuable lessons for UBC’s Vancouver campus. Rising temperatures caused by climate change are narrowing the ecological differences between the two regions, making these ecosystems a fitting model for adaptation.
While the soil is too shallow for Garry Oak trees, more dynamic landscape elements, like boulders, may be added eventually. “It takes about three to five years for a meadow like this to really get going,” says Ng.
Connecting to the Land
Deeper engagement with Musqueam and evolving knowledge of Indigenous practices and climate adaptive planting are enhancing the ecological, educational and social role landscapes play on the campus.
Helping people understand and deepen their connection to nature is key to Tara Moreau’s work. As Associate Director of Sustainability and Community Programs at the UBC Botanical Garden, Moreau supports the interpretation of natural spaces through signage, garden tours, and other educational opportunities.
“Naturalization is a powerful way to bridge people and nature,” says Moreau, whose works aims to balance Western scientific knowledge with Indigenous knowledge systems.
At Fairview Grove near the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, interpretive signage developed in collaboration with Indigenous community members and botanists provide insight into the cultural significance of each plant. “The lines of poetry on the signs offer less of a description and more of a glimpse into how landscapes and these plants were important in people’s lives,” Ng notes.
Campus as a Living Lab
Taking those learnings into consideration and figuring out how to apply them broadly across the campus, is at the heart of Renée Lussier’s work. As a Landscape Architect Planner with UBC Campus and Community Planning, the insights of researchers and community members along with Musqueam engagement on an increasing number of projects form the foundation of all the policies that guide her work. From there, her role is to take things from plan to action and create a sense of place that accurately reflects the UBC community.
“I feel like a part of my role is to really define that through the landscape,” she says. “There’s a bit of storytelling that we get to do.”
It’s a responsibility Lussier deeply appreciates. It means being authentic to the purpose and integration of plants significant to Musqueam and general community desire to be closer to nature, while advancing more technical goals like increasing climate resilience.
Weaving together so many perspectives and goals within these landscapes continues to be an exciting challenge. A new meadow along University Boulevard has been planted, with seedlings starting to sprout. Lussier is hopeful these “bite-sized” experiments will open further paths towards a more connected and climate-resilient campus.
“You make small changes in highly visible, high-impact spaces, and you start the conversation,” says Lussier.
Whether it’s a pollinator meadow, a community garden or a forested grove with interpretative signs, UBC’s new approach to landscapes are already bringing people closer to nature and each other, while creating the sustainable future envisioned for UBC.