Wild Urban Woodlands: New Perspectives For Urban Forestry

Ingo Kowarik Stefan Körner Wild Urban Woodlands New Perspectives for Urban Forestry Ingo Kowarik Stefan Körner (Editors) Wild Urban Woodlands New Perspectives for Urban Forestry With 107 Figures 123 Professor Dr. Ingo Kowarik Technical University Berlin, Institute of Ecology Rothenburgstraße 12, 12165 Berlin Germany e-mail: [email protected] Dr. Stefan Körner Technical University Berlin, Institute of Ecology Rothenburgstraße 12, 12165 Berlin Germany e-mail: [email protected] Library of Congress Control Number: 2004115127 ISBN 3-540-23912-X Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitations, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Erich Kirchner Production: Luisa Tonarelli Layout: Camera-ready by Dr. Uwe Starfinger, Berlin Printing: Mercedes Druck, Berlin Binding: Stein + Lehmann, Berlin Printed on acid-free paper 30/2132/LT – 5 4 3 2 1 0 Preface The outstanding social and ecological roles of urban forests in the growth of cities has become widely known. In many parts of the world, despite or even because of continuing suburbanization, initiatives are being put forth to preserve urban forests, to develop them further and to make them accessible to the public. This volume focuses on a particular component of the urban forest matrix – urban wild woodlands. We understand these to be stands of woody plants, within the impact area of cities, whose form is characterized by trees and in which a large leeway for natural processes makes possible a convergence toward wilderness. The wilderness character of these urban woodlands can vary greatly. We differentiate between two kinds of wilderness. The “old wilderness” is the traditional one; it may return slowly to woodland areas when forestry use has been abandoned. The enhancement of wilderness is a task already demanded of urban and peri-urban forestry in many places. This book would like to direct the attention of the reader to a second kind of wilderness, which we call “new wilderness.” This arises on heavily altered urban-industrial areas where abandonment of use makes such change possible. The wild nature of urban abandoned areas was discovered in the 1970s through urban-ecological resear