About
Sara A. Gagné is the author of Nature at Your Door: Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape (Stackpole Books, 2023) and associate professor of landscape ecology and chair in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Gagné’s research, teaching, and writing are dedicated to understanding and communicating how people and nature interact in cities. She lives in Charlotte, where she helps to make urban spaces more welcoming to wildlife. For more information, see her CV.
Nature at Your Door:
Connecting with the Wild and Green in the Urban and Suburban Landscape
We are an integral part of the ecosystem where we live. In Nature at Your Door we learn that what we do in our yards matters just as much as the way our local parks and nature preserves are managed. Author and professor of landscape ecology Sara A. Gagné focuses on the ecological importance of our day-to-day activities and spaces we are most familiar with and can most influence. With cutting-edge science, anecdotal experiences, and practical recommendations, Gagné brings the message of how people and nature are vitally connected in the urban and suburban landscape.
Each chapter is dedicated to a particular space—beginning with the yard, moving onto the street, the park, the greenway, the neighborhood, and the town/city. She tells stories of the latest ecological research, interwoven with her own experiences studying animals, to show readers how they affect nature and how nature in wilder, greener spaces affect us in both positive and negative ways. Sidebars feature practical steps readers can take to deepen their connections with nature.
Based on the author’s fifteen years of research and teaching in urban ecology, the wide variety of places and topics covered in this book adds a fresh perspective to urban nature writing and appeals to those who want to take action to make the places they live greener, healthier, and more biodiverse for themselves, the wildlife, and the earth.
Research
Teaching
ESCI 2210 Field Methods in the Earth and Environmental Sciences
GEOG 4215/5215
Urban Ecology
GEOG 6226/8226
Landscape Ecology