Wildlife and greenspace planning in medium-scale residential developments

The spatial arrangement of woody vegetation in residential developments from 40 to 1000 ha is analyzed in terms of the “species-area curve” and other principles of island biogeography. These principles, which predict the number of wildlife species which will occur in an area as a function of the size, shape and distribution of vegetation patches in the area, promise to be a powerful tool in greenspace planning. Using birds as an example, we examine some of the trade-offs among wildlife, visual and recreational amenities which are associated with three different approaches to the arrangement of a given amount of greenspace. These three approaches are examined both at the scale of small and large subdivisions and at a micro-regional scale of 10 km².