The ecological legacy effects of redlining on urban landscapes and bird communities in Durham, North Carolina

Residential segregation's legacy effect persists today in many US cities that used to employ redlining policies by the Home Owner Loan Cooperation (HOLC) in the 1930s. Understanding how historical redlining affects modern-day environmental conditions and wildlife communities is of great importance for urban wildlife conservation and environmental justice. We examined how redlining affects modern-day tree canopy cover, impervious surfaces, and urban heat island effects at the HOLC zone level in Durham, NC, USA. We also randomly generated sampling points for avian point counts to examine the redlining effect on the bird communities in urban parks located in HOLC zones with three repeat visits to each point roughly a week apart during one breeding season and one non-breeding season.