Conservation subdivisions: A wildlife perspective

Conservation subdivision is a design concept used by landscape architects and other built environment professionals to conserve wildlife habitat within growing communities. The idea is by clustering homes together to maximize open space, one can conserve urban biodiversity. It is a popular concept used by many planners and landscape architects and is used in many municipalities as an alternative to conventional urban development. In this review paper, we systematically review Randall Arendt's book, Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks, which has championed the conservation design concept. Through this review and our experiences with how the conservation design concept has been applied, we provide suggestions that will (1) maximize the potential of conservation subdivisions to conserve wildlife and their habitats, and (2) promote positive wildlife experiences for residents of conservation subdivisions. We found several recommended design elements that could negatively impact wildlife but of significance, we found that most guidelines and effort in conservation subdivisions are placed on the design phase: construction and post-construction phases are neglected. We discuss the social and ecological elements that warrant consideration during the construction and post-construction phases and how they are necessary in order to conserve functional wildlife habitat within a conservation subdivision.