When people ask Oberlin students where they go to school, the terminology they use falls into typical political categories: “The city of Oberlin in Lorain County in the state of Ohio.” David Beech and his colleagues at EcoCity Cleveland think a new vocabulary is in order. In his visit to Oberlin environmental studies classes this past Tuesday, he urged students to think about their place in the bioregion — literally, “life-space” — of the Black River Watershed within northeastern Ohio. “If you start putting Black River Watershed in your address when you write home, you might start caring differently about where you live, where your water goes and how your environment works,” he said.

The issue that concerns Beech most is urban sprawl — the phenomenon of wealthier citizens moving out of the degenerating urban core into large suburban developments and taking their tax dollars with them. The results are devastating. One need only look at Cleveland’s urban decay in contrast to the manicured lawns and McMansions of surburbs like North Ridgeville to understand that urban sprawl destroys natural landscapes and green spaces, ruins existing infrastructure in older cities and saddles future generations with more (and often worse) development than they can afford.

Thousands of acres of productive farmland have been converted into paved, planned communities; strip malls and industrial parks. This sprawl also makes walking, biking and most public transit difficult, encouraging people to drive more and farther and letting highways run through any wetland or forest that stands in their way.

What does this have to do with Oberlin College? Students live in the highest density housing possible, mostly in “lots” of a few square meters per person. For the most part, we walk or bike to our classes and meals. What can a student do to fight the urban sprawl of the northeastern Ohio bioregion? According to Beech, a great deal.

In particular, he urged student involvement and investment in the community, recommending attending and participating in city council meetings. He also advocated building an awareness of one’s bioregion through food. “Support local farmers, volunteer at the George Jones Farm, find food that’s being grown and processed locally,” he advised. “That’s good regionalism.”

He recommended staying local and finding walkable destinations for recreation but conceded, “If you really want to drive to Cleveland, carpool or use a ride-share program like City Wheels.”

Student involvement in this issue should be political as well as cultural. Since the candidates in this past week’s primary election have not been vocal about their views on urban planning and growth, it is up to the voter to demand this information. “In the debates and all the speeches and ads, I don’t see much about urban issues, and I lament that,” said Beech. “It would be nice if the candidates were asked once a day, ‘What are you doing to rebuild American cities?’ I encourage you to ask those questions.”

Students may think of themselves as people plunked down here in Oberlin for a few years before moving on to bigger and better things, but they should also develop an identity as one more species interacting with the wildlife, climate and geography of the northeastern Ohio bioregion.

Bioregion, or Ecoregion:

a large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities that

    (a) share a large majority of their species and ecological dynamics;
    (b) share similar environmental conditions, and;
    (c) interact ecologically in ways that are critical for their long-term persistence.

(Definition by the Wild Wildlife Foundation)