The Great American Squirrel Trail: an epic proposal for large-scale landscape restoration through vision, belief and shared action

To combat the most dire effects of ecosystem decline and climate change, leading academics and ecologists are calling for Transformative Change of existing social and economic practices. Research suggests that changes in land use, specifically large-scale reforestation, could help to achieve sustainability and protect existing biodiversity and ecosystem services. While global governmental organizations receive reforestation pledges, commitments are frequently not realized. This thesis proposes a Landscape-scale Engagement Platform methodology to engage multi-scalar participation of government agencies, citizen groups and private-property owners across an entire region in a singular vision of reforestation and ecosystem rehabilitation. As no single group or individual may alone achieve landscape-scale change, this effort is driven by a New Power approach that encourages broad participation and provides tools that allow corridors of visibility into landscapes across all scales. To illustrate this Landscape-scale Engagement Platform approach, this design thesis offers “The Great American Squirrel Trail” as an Atlantic Ocean to Mississippi River reforestation and wildlife corridor proposal that also seeks to revitalize economically challenged counties in the Ohio River Valley and Appalachian Mountains. The activation plan, informed by GIS analysis and cross-country ground-truthing, focuses on New Power inspired methods including establishing a Vision though Landscape Concept, garnering Belief through landscape design interventions, fostering Engagement through social media and digital portals that increase visibility into the regional and local landscape and encouraging Stewardship by recognizing partners and patrons of the program. This Landscape-scale Engagement Platform approach presents a promising method for involving a landscape's property-owners and stakeholders as active, always-on participants in the collective vision and health of their regional landscape. And in doing so, it also offers an opportunity for regional social and economic Transformative Change.M.L.A.Includes bibliographical reference