The poetry of landscape ecology: an historical perspective

In recent years it has been argued that an awareness of the human perspective and an understanding of aesthetics is crucial to the popular acceptance of landscape design principles derived from landscape ecology. With that in mind, it is important to seek a common ground between art and science. A study of history can help as the common ground is sought for the present day. The American Transcendentalists—Ralph Waldo Emerson in particular—directly derived a set of aesthetic principles from a poetic and philosophical understanding of nature. Those principles were applied by the nineteenth-century landscape architect Horace Cleveland who designed landscapes with staying power. That approach, which melded art and function through design, might provide insight for today.