9th Annual Ceramics Invitational at Radius Gallery, Missoula MT
2024
Redlining's Trophic Cascade
This piece examines the lasting effects of the racist lending practice of redlining from the early to mid 1900s. The practice has, of course, had a continuing impact on people of color (such as food deserts, proximity to air, noise, and water pollution, over policing, high levels of heart disease, lack of education access and health services), but we only recently have learned about the direct correlation it has had on bird populations and diversity.
Due to lack of green spaces, historically redlined neighborhoods have fewer birds and far less diversity of species. The birds that do live there are often invasive species (Eurasian collared doves, pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings) and species that have adapted to live alongside humans through scavenging (crows and pigeons again).
Birds in wealthier 'greenlined' neighborhoods are much more diverse, there are more of them, and they are primarily native species who flock to the foliage coverage that more affluent areas fund and provide space for.
"Race-based zoning policies, such as redlining in the United States, are associated with racial inequity, adverse socioeconomic levels in income and education, and disparate environmental characteristics including tree canopy cover across urban neighborhoods.”
-Diego Ellis-Soto, Historical redlining is associated with increasing geographical disparities in bird biodiversity sampling in the United States
“Often the interests of other species and marginalized humans align. It’s very much a colonial perspective to think about humans and wildlife as separate. We need to start thinking about humans and wildlife together in the landscape and mitigate things that will help both.”
-Dr. Madhusudan Katti, Why Warblers Flock to Wealthier Neighborhoods, New York Times
Materials: ceramic, vinyl
