Urban ecology research was the focus of a recent news feature in the journal Nature, which explored the wide range of work conducted under the National Science Foundation and the US Forest Service's  Urban Long Term Research Areas Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex) grant program. This program builds on the success of ongoing urban ecological research by hundreds of scientists connected with CAP and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES). CAP scientist Paige Warren is the PI of an ULTRA-Ex project in Boston that asseses how efforts to plant vegetation throughout Boston have affected air quality, people and wildlife. CAP scientists Chris Boone, Abby York, Dan Childers, and Josh Abbott are currently collaborating with scientists at the Sevilleta and Jornada LTER sites on an ULTRA-Ex project investigating open space in the Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces metropolitan areas.