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8. Types of Alternative Landscapes

There are a number of choices for implementing the alternative scenario suggested in Section 7.2. Plants from Mediterranean climates (South Africa, Chile, the Mediterranean, Australia, and Southern California) are all adapted to the local precipitation rates of Southern California and thus will need very little water. By considering all of these plants, we have a very large plant palette to choose from when designing a landscape. However, plants that are non-native to Southern California do not provide the same benefits of preserving the native biodiversity and providing habitat for native fauna that native plants do. Prof. Dan Guthrie from the Claremont Colleges Joint Science Program has spent several years comparing the plants and animals found on the Claremont campuses to those found across the street at the Bernard Field Station, a native environment of Coastal Sage Scrub. In general Prof. Guthrie found a larger variety of plants, birds, and insects in the native ecosystem than in the unnatural campus grounds (Guthrie, unpublished data). He attributes this to the mutual interactions between plants and animals in their native environment. These mutualistic benefits are lost on the campuses by using exotic flora that do not support the local fauna. Prof. Guthrie's findings suggest that we could indeed aid in the preservation of native biodiversity by using native plant species in the landscaping scheme. The non-native plants may also need fertilizer and pesticides to survive, as they are not adapted to the native soil and the pests in this area. Appendix N has a list of native and non-native plants that are appropriate for use in the Claremont climate.

We also have the opportunity to create more functional areas on campus; areas where students can go to read and rest. Providing benches, tables and shade can do this. Special attention should be paid to implementing more functional areas on campus, as many people expressed a desire for more of these in their survey responses (Section 6.4).

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