Sustainability Guidelines for NYC Parks

Panorama, Frozen Lullwater at Prospect Park at Sunset


The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks) recently released new sustainability guidelines for the design and maintenance of NYC's green spaces, High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC:

High Performance Landscape Guidelines is the first document of its kind in the nation: a comprehensive, municipal design primer for sustainable parks and open space. The product of a unique partnership between the Parks Department and the Design Trust, a nonprofit organization that helped create sustainable guidelines for NYC buildings, High Performance Landscape Guidelines covers every aspect of creating sustainable parks, from design to construction to maintenance, and feature many best practices for managing soil, water, and vegetation resources.
- Press Release, January 6, 2011

The Guidelines, running over 270 pages, cover site assessment; design, construction and maintenance; and soils, water and vegetation. the final section of the manual includes several case studies, including two of Brooklyn's Parks: Calvert Vaux and Canarsie Parks.

Climate change is identified as a major factor, if not the single most important consideration, for the guidelines:

Climate change threatens the stability and longevity of New York City’s infrastructure, buildings, and parks; it also compromises the health and safety of the city’s population. Unless the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is curbed and reversed, experts predict that climate change will result in significant sea level rise, increased storm intensity and frequency, and increased temperatures.

Two factors will exacerbate the impacts of climate change in New York City: the urban heat island effect and the city’s overburdened stormwater infrastructure.

- Climate Change and 21st Century Parks, Part 1, Guidelines

[goog.gl]

Related Content

Sustainable Gardening
Parks
Sustainability

Links

High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC, available as PDF (273 pages)
Parks Press Release: A New Year Launches A New Era In Great Park Design, 2011-01-06

Be Green Organic Yards NY

The New York Sate Department of Environmental Conservation announced a new initiative to encourage the use of sustainable gardening and yard care practices.



Be Green(sm) Organic Yards NY will provide training and licensing. Businesses complying with their practices will be able to display the Be Green logo. DEC is also enlisting course providers to deliver the training.

I hope their program includes eliminating leaf-blowers.

From the July 2010 issue of NYS DEC's online magazine, Environment DEC:

Cellophane Bees Return

Colletes thoracicus, Cellophane Bee, is a native species of solitary, ground-nesting bees. Solitary, because each nest is burrowed out by a single queen, who constructs several chambers in which to lay individual eggs. Solitary, yet communal: where they find the right conditions, the nests can be densely packed.Here's a short video showing the activity on Saturday morning.



This is the third year for what I've come to think of as "my little bees." I noticed the holes earlier last week, and saw all this activity last Saturday, as I was readying for the Plant Swap. This is the earliest in the year that I've noticed them.

Make Your Garden Bee-Friendly

These bees took up residence in a "neglected" spot of the garden, one of the benefits of being a lazy gardener/ecosystem engineer. Different species of bees have different requirements. Here are some things you can do to make your garden bee-friendly.

Put Down Roots: Million Trees NYC Tree Giveaway

Once again, MillionTreesNYC is offering free trees, first-come, first-served, at limited locations around the city. Trees must be planted in the ground, not a container or planter, within New York City.  They can be planted on private property, with permission of the property owner.

Here are some Brooklyn locations. Check their Tree Giveaway page for the latest updates and other locations and dates around NYC.

SOLD OUT - All 200 trees were claimed in 1/2 hour
Green Fort Green and Clinton Hill & FAB Alliance Giveaway
Saturday April 17th and Sunday April 18th 10 am – 3 pm
Putnam Triangle (Putnam Avenue & Fulton Street)
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Grand Street Campus Giveaway
Saturday, May 1st and Sunday May 2nd 10 am – 4 pm
850 Grand Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

April is MillionTreesNYC month. In addition to the tree giveaway, there are many other events and activities scheduled.

Bee Watchers Needed in NYC (and a rant)

The Great Pollinator Project, a joint effort of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, is recruiting volunteers for 2009 to record and report observations of native bee species in New York City. They are conducting orientations over the next week from 6-8pm at the following locations:

Brooklyn: Monday, June 8th at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Avenue
Staten Island: Tuesday, June 9th at Greenbelt Nature Center, 700 Rockland Avenue
Bronx: Tuesday, June 9th at Van Cortlandt House Museum, Van Cortlandt Park
Queens: Wednesday, June 10th at Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) 228-06 Northern Blvd.
Manhattan: Tuesday, June 16th at Central Park, North Meadow Recreation Center (Off of 97th St. Transverse Road)

You can RSVP online, by emailing beewatchers@gmail.com, or by calling 718-370-9044.

I'll take this opportunity to rant a bit. Honeybees, which we manage both for their products - honey and beeswax - and their service as pollinators, are a single, non-native, species of bee. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been widely reported for several years and is well-embedded in the public consciousness. Meanwhile, the circumstances of the thousands of bee species native to North America go unreported.

Much has been made of agriculture's dependence on honeybees for pollination. Dire outcomes from the loss of honeybees - widespread crop failures, famine, even human extinction - have been proffered. Perhaps these things would come to pass. However, the underlying cause would not be the loss of honeybees but our dependence on them through unsustainable agricultural practices.

Honeybees are livestock. They are animals which we manage for our uses. We provide them with housing, maintenance, even move them from field to field as we let cows into different pastures for grazing.

Native pollinators will do the job, but only if we leave them a place to live. We clear land for orchards and fields, removing the hedgerows and other "messy" places that had been their home. The monocultures of agriculture are magnified in the deserts of diversity they create. Of course we need to ship domesticated pollinators around (burning fossil fuels in the process); we've eliminated the native pollinators by destroying their habitats. In the process, we've also driven out native predators of plant pests, thereby initating the addictive cycle of pesticides, fertilizers, more and more inputs needed just to tread water on land until our systems collapse around us.

If that should come to pass, just don't blame the bees.

One-third of our food depends on the services of a pollinator—bee or other insect, bird, or mammal. Bees are the most important pollinators in the Northeastern U.S., and there are more than 200 species of bees that live right here in New York City. We need to protect these local pollinators that help keep our parks and green spaces healthy and beautiful, and our farmers’ markets stocked with fresh produce.

In 2007, the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and the Greenbelt Native Plant Center began the Great Pollinator Project (GPP) in collaboration with the Great Sunflower Project in San Francisco, CA. The goals of the GPP are:
1) identify which areas of New York City have good pollinator service (as determined by how quickly bees show up to pollinate flowers at various locations throughout the city);
2) increase understanding of bee distribution;
3) raise public awareness of native bees; and
4) improve park management and home gardening practices to benefit native bees.

If you are interested in our local pollinators, we need your help!

- The Great Pollinator Project

There are many ways to be a Bee Watcher:

• Observe bee visitation at selected plants that will be distributed at our spring orientations. Conduct your observations in your own garden and submit your data online.
  
• Become a Mobile Bee Watcher. Conduct your observations on flowers in your neighborhood or at selected bee gardens planted at various locations throughout New York City and submit your data online.
  

- Bee Watchers

Related Content

Bees, a Mockingbird, and Marriage Equality, 2009-05-22
Cellophane Bees Return, 2009-05-09
Colletes thoracicus (Colletidae), Cellophane Bees, 2008-05-26

Links

Great Pollinator Project
Greenbelt Native Plant Center
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center on AIA Top Ten "Green" List

The Queens Botanical Garden is on my "to visit" list. Last week, their Visitor & Administration Center was named one of the top ten "green" projects of 2008 by the Committee on the Environment (COTE) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA):

In looking to the future, the Garden has propelled itself into the front ranks of its field as the first botanical garden in the country devoted to sustainable environmental stewardship. The goal has been to integrate a beautiful contemporary building into the experience of its varied gardens and landscapes, heightening the visitor experience of the natural environment and conveying the key elements of successful sustainability. A water channel surrounds the building and weaves through the garden, fed by rainwater that cascades off of the sheltering roof canopy.
- Press Release, April 22, 2008, AIA/COTE

The 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

QBG's V&A Center, a LEED Platinum building, officially opened in September 2007 as part of a wide ranging plan to improve sustainability across the Garden:

The Garden’s Master Plan of 2001 launched the Sustainable Landscapes and Buildings Project. As the name implies, the project is much more than buildings. It includes new plants, many of which are native species; bioswales to collect storm water and reduce wear-and-tear on New York City’s combined sewer system; water recycling systems; the new Horticulture/Maintenance Building; the revolutionary Visitor & Administration Center; and the transformation of our existing parking lot into a 125-space parking garden beginning on or around June 2008.
- Sustainable Landscapes & Buildings Project, Queens Botanical Garden

Reusing graywater for flushing toilets reduces the project's potable water consumption by 55%. The building also features waterless urinals and composting toilets. Thanks to extensive bioswales and a green roof on the auditorium, the project manages all stormwater on site. A water channel, fed by rainwater that cascades off the roof canopy, weaves around the building and through the gardens.

The reception building's long, narrow shape is oriented along an east-west axis, allowing daylight to penetrate all interior spaces. An efficient lighting system, daylight dimming, and occupancy sensors reduce energy consumption. Glass doors and windows slide open in temperate weather, providing natural ventilation. The building uses photovoltaic panels and a ground-source heat-pump system to harvest energy on site.

More than 33% of the materials in the building, by cost, were harvested or manufactured within 500 miles of the project site. The project team also preferred materials with high durability, low maintenance requirements, recycled content, low chemical emissions, and Forest Stewardship Council certification.
-Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center, AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects

Links

Sustainable Landscapes & Buildings Project, Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center, AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects

The Values and Ethics of Plant Propagation

A neighbor of mine got his question published in Randy Cohen's weekly column, The Ethicist, in Sunday's New York Times:

"I’m told it is illegal to propagate and sell this tree because the National Geographic Society (NGS) has exclusive rights to it in the United States, but would I be unethical to do so?"
- Pine Away, The Ethicist, NY Times, April 20, 2008

The tree in question, Wollemia nobilis, the Wollemi™ Pine (and note the trademark), is critically endangered in the wild:

The pine was known solely from fossil records and presumed extinct until it was discovered in 1994 in the Wollemi National Park, just outside Sydney, Australia. Dubbed the botanical find of the century, the Wollemi pine is now the focus of extensive research to conserve this ancient species.

Fewer than 100 mature trees are known exist, growing in small groves on moist ledges in a deep rainforest gorge surrounded by rugged mountains and undisturbed forest.
- Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) at Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The trademarked name situation arises - ironically, to my mind - from efforts to protect and conserve the species:

Through National Geographic's licensing partnership with Floragem, a portion of the sales will go directly to Wollemi Pine International Pty. Ltd., whose mission is to conserve the Wollemi Pine for future generations and to raise awareness of conservation internationally. Through public participation, Wollemi Pine International will repopulate the Wollemi Pine and return royalties to fund conservation of these trees and other threatened and endangered species.
- Press Release, National Geographic Society, September 19, 2006

The Ethicist, Randy Cohen, responded:

Liz Nickless, a spokeswoman for the society, says that “there are no exclusive agreements for the distribution of the Wollemi pine.” There is a U.S. trademark, she adds, “so anyone wanting to use the name will need permission.” That is, you may become a Johnny Wollemi Seed, disseminating this fine fir under its scientific name, Wollemia nobilis, or for that matter as Sexy Slender Tree or Pinetacular, but not (without consent) as a Wollemi Pine.

While trademarks govern the use of the name, plant patents proscribe unlicensed propagation:

A plant patent is granted by the Government to an inventor (or the inventor's heirs or assigns) who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced a distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. The grant, which lasts for 20 years from the date of filing the application, protects the inventor's right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling, or using the plant so reproduced.
[emphasis added]- What is a plant patent?, Overview of Plant Patents, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

This example comes from the U.S. Patent Office; similar laws and regulations govern in other countries.

More and more of the varieties I see available for sale are labelled "PPAF" (Plant Patent Applied For) or "PP #XXXXXX", the plant patent number. So what happens when I need to divide my patented perennial?

Asexual reproduction is the propagation of a plant to multiply the plant without the use of genetic seeds to assure an exact genetic copy of the plant being reproduced. ... asexual reproduction would include but may not be limited to:

• Rooting Cuttings
  
• Grafting and Budding
  
• Apomictic Seeds
  
• Bulbs
  
• Division
  
• Slips
  
• Layering
  
• Rhizomes
  
• Runners
  
• Corms
  
• Tissue Culture
  
• Nucellar Embryos
  

- Asexual reproduction, Overview of Plant Patents

When I divide my patented perennial - or god forbid, share it with a neighbor - I'm breaking the law. I could choose to disregard it, or I could choose not to support this system and boycott patented plants altogether.

That F1 hybrid vegetable is a manufactured product and won't come true from seed; its selection and use maintains a dependency on its manufacture and distribution. An open-pollinated heirloom variety can be propagated indefinitely, and shared with others;, a model for sustainable gardening.

As gardeners, the choices we make affect our world, however indirectly. With some reflection, we can reduce the risk of unintended consequences in conflict with out intents. We can choose gardening practices to express our values through action.

Links

Press Release, National Geographic Society, September 19, 2006
The Wollemi Pine Conservation Club
Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Overview of Plant Patents, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Name that Plant - The Misuse of Trademarks in Horticulture, Tony Avent, Plant Delights Nursery, 2007.12.25 [Added 2008.05.31]

Sustainable Flatbush featured in "A Walk Around the Blog"

BRIC, the non-profit Brooklyn arts organization which produces Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT), has been doing a bi-monthly series called A Walk Around the Blog, interviews with Brooklyn bloggers talking about their neighborhoods. The latest edition features Anne Pope of Sustainable Flatbush talking about, what else, Flatbush and sustainability.

I make an appearance from 1:53 to 2:54 in the video.

If you can't see the embedded video above, or if you want to view it at a higher resolution, it's also hosted on blip.tv.

Related posts

Greening Flatbush a success!, February 24, 2008

Links

Sustainable Flatbush
A Walk Around the Blog (Blog)
A Walk Around the Blog (Blip)
BRIC

Sustainable Garden Design in Gowanus Development

Today on Brownstoner there's a post and extended commentary (as one expects at the 'Stoner) about the garden design for a multi-unit residential Project in Gowanus called Third & Bond (presumably located there):

Now that our building design is nearly complete, we’ve turned our attention to what surrounds the buildings: the outdoors. Third & Bond has 38 private outdoor spaces (enough for 85% of buyers to have their own) as well as 7 front yards and a courtyard. We want these spaces to look great, be easy to maintain, and meet our “green” goals. In short, we needed a green landscaping genius.

They choice local garden designer Timothy D. Osborne, who does business as The Organic Gardener. They promise to share "the actual designs in the coming weeks." In today's post they describe some design constraints dear to my heart: grass-less (meaning no lawn), native plants and local materials, and butterflies. Some of the points are a bit confused, but the intent is sound.

Grass is a LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] no-no. Lawn grasses like crab grass and Kentucky blue grass are not native to North America and require a tremendous amount of watering compared with native coastal grasses.

I just checked the LEED Version 2.2 Rating System and Credit Checklist for New Construction and didn't find any references to lawn or grass. Still, eliminating lawn is a brave choice for a developer; I'm surprised and pleased to hear they're going to try to make it work.

Since we bought our house some 30 months ago, I've been gradually reducing the garden space devoted to lawn. I have a small patch of lawn left in the front yard. We no longer use a lawn care service; they all use gas-powered mowers and leaf-blowers, which pound-for-pound are worse than SUVs for their carbon emissions, particulate pollutants, and noise pollution. I use a push-reel mower and rake. I rarely water, and it shows. I've seen some beautiful examples of lawn-less front-yard gardens in the area. I expect that within a few years what's left of our lawn will be replaced with more complex, interesting, and sustainable plantings.

The Organic Gardener’s plant suggestions were almost all native including lavender and dogwood.

Lavender is not native to North America, but it's a great choice for xeriscaping, low-water-use gardening.

Satisfying the local butterfly population is pretty much our #1 priority at Third & Bond. But seriously, another benefit to choosing local plants is that they are more attractive to birds and butterflies native to the area. We’re hoping our plant materials will be especially attractive to winged wildlife.

If they can follow through with these intentions, I have no doubt they will be.

Although I write about local issues, and go so far as to dive into zoning and land use, I avoid the hard-core, snipe and snark, body-slam arena of Brooklyn real-estate blogging. There's not much opportunity to return the link-love I get now and then from Brownstoner. It's nice to be able to return the favor while staying on-point for this blog.

Related Posts

Front garden
Native plants
Sustainability
Mowing the Lawn, June 6, 2006

Links

Third & Bond: Week 17, Brownstoner
The Organic Gardener, Timothy D. Osborne (Note: His Web site is poorly designed. All the information exists only as graphics. Even the menus are available only as image maps, with no labels. There's no text anywhere on the site.)
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), U. S. Green Building Council

Sustainable Flatbush General Meeting

Just a reminder that TOMORROW, Monday, December 3, is the next general meeting for Sustainable Flatbush.

The Gardening Committee will report on plans for a public community-wide educational event in late February.

Summary of the Kickoff Meeting of the Gardening Committee of Sustainable Flatbush

Updated 2007.11.30: Added the complete list of ideas which came out of the brainstorming session.

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Last night I hosted the kickoff meeting for the Gardening Committee of Sustainable Flatbush. Clockwise from lower left in the photo are Mela, Anne, Lashonda, and Bruni.


At the end of the evening, I asked if someone was willing to co-chair, and Bruni volunteered. She will report to the general meeting next Monday. What follows is my summary of how the evening went.

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We opened with some quick introductions, everyone helped themselves to tea and cookies, then we settled in for a quick brainstorming session. As you can see in the photo above, my little card table wasn't big enough to hold all the ideas we generated in just a few minutes. Next time I'll use a bigger table.

Next we reviewed everything each of us had written while grouping and clustering the cards. For example, we had clusters for ideas related to composting, schools and youth, gardening techniques, street trees, and community. This sparked more discussion, questions and answers, and more ideas.

The strongest theme to come out of the meeting was "community." Each of us feels strongly about the connections between community and gardening. I talked about my experiences with the Daffodil planting on Cortelyou Road. Bruni talked about her experiences with a community garden, and the community of gardeners, in the East Village. Others talked about their desires to organize people in their buildings, and on their blocks.

We decided to focus on a single near-term action: a public community meeting in late February. The idea is to get people excited about the possibility of doing something with their building, their block, their neighbors in 2008, and connect them with opportunities to learn more and organize. I've contacted BBG's Brooklyn Greenbridge to see if they can do a Flatbush-oriented version of their "Greening Up Your Street" program. Even if not, we'll be able to put some kind of program together.

We don't have a date yet for our next meeting. We're thinking it might be sometime in January. When we have a date, it'll be announced here and on the Sustainable Flatbush motherblog.

I'm inspired by this definition of community gardening:

What is a Community Garden?
Any piece of land gardened by a group of people.
- American Community Gardening Association

By this definition, we can create "Community Gardens" everywhere:

• Tree pits
  
• Median strips
  
• Planter boxes
  
• Grounds and foundation planting areas of apartment/coop/condo
  buildings
  

Imagine turning our streets into community gardens ...

I'll close with this photo. This shows the state of our table workspace after we had done the grouping and clustering. Visit the Flickr photo pages for this and the opening photo; they have notes with the text from some of the cards. This photo also shows that my home-made, from scratch, double Callebaut bittersweet chocolate chip cookies were well-received.


The crayons were popular. I also ended up with some nice drawings and doodles on the paper covering the card table. I'll have to get some photographs of those as well.

Ideas

Here's the complete list of ideas, in alphabetical order, which came out of our brainstorming session.

Adopt a tree
Apartment building gardens/landscaping
Aromatic gardening
Assisting renters in taking/using green space in or around buildings
BBG/Brooklyn Greenbridge
Benches around tree pits (wood benches)
Brooklyn College Garden
Buddy gardening
Build community
City repair (Portland model)
Community composting
Community garden
Compost
Demonstration gardens
Donate food grown to families with food challenges
Educate neighbors about types of trees in neighborhood
Engage youth/children
Find neighbors with farming experience
Food, not lawns
Gardens/farms in schools
Green roofs
Ground cover for older tree pits
Grow food
Guerilla gardening
Highlight/profile local gardeners
Kids education (PS 139, PS 217, and at other local schools)
Lawn care practices
Library Plaza Garden
Million Trees NYC
Planting in Newkirk Plaza
Public composting
Rain barrels
Rain gardens
Red Hood Community Farm
School compost
Sponsor a tree
Street arboretum
Tree signs
Vermi-composting
Window boxes
Xeri-scaping

Monday, 12/3: Sustainable Flatbush December Meeting

This month's Sustainable Flatbush general meeting will be next Monday, December 3, from 7 to 9pm.

At the meeting, Gardening Committee co-chair Bruni will report on last night's kickoff meeting and our plans for a public community event sometime in late February 2008.

Related Posts

Gardening Committee Kickoff Meeting

Gardening as if our lives depended on it

2014-10-13: I just discovered that none of the original links are good. Two web sites linked from this post - Climate Choices, and the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA) - now redirect to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

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I first started writing this post in the Fall of 2006. I drafted it in October 2006, but never published it. I think I was too overwhelmed by the impact of what I was writing to release it. The IPCC report has been issued since then. What I wrote over a year ago no longer sounds so alarmist to me. A post on Garden Rant spurred me to dust this off and get it out there, however imperfect I may think it is.

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There's a lot to this, and I've gone through some changes just to take it all in. Here's the short version:

• Climate change is inevitable. It's happening already. We can't undo the damage we've already caused. We can only ride it out.
  
• If we continue as we have, the impacts will be severe. It's going to get really, really bad.
• Actions we take now can reduce the impact. If we start doing things differently now, it won't get as bad as it could. We can affect the future.
  

There are those who cling, at times violently, to ignorance and dismissal of the facts of climate change induced by human activity. "De-nial ain't just a river in Egypt." It reminds me of the classical stages of grieving described 40 years ago by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, all of which are demonstrated in different responses expressed around this topic:

• Denial. The three-dog argument - denial, minimization, projection - applies here: There's no climate change (it's not a problem). The climate change is within historical ranges (it's not so bad). It's a natural process (it's not my problem).
  
• Anger. Protest, boycott, rage against the machine, fight the system, fight the man.
  
• Bargaining. Carbon "credits" is the most obvious example. Little different from buying indulgences from a corrupt church.
  
• Depression. There's nothing we can do about it.
  
• Acceptance. It's going to happen. It's happening. Now what do we do about it?
  

In July 2006, I wrote about the Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship:

The seventh generation would be my great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren's children. (If I had, or were going to have, any children to begin with.) If a generation occurs within the range of 20-30 years, we're talking 140-210 years. Call it 175 years from now.

It's the year 2181. It's hard for me to imagine anything I can do to stave off or reduce the multiple disasters which we will have caused.

That was the voice of depression. I feel some hope now. The changes I make now, the work I do now, can make a difference. But only if I accept what's going to happen if I do nothing.

Monday 11/26: Kickoff Meeting for the Gardening Committee of Sustainable Flatbush

At last week's Sustainable Flatbush Town Hall Meeting, six committees were established to focus on different areas:

• R3 (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
  
• Livable Streets
  
• Energy Efficiency
  
• Businesses
  
• Schools
  
• Gardening
  

Next Monday, November 26, at 7pm, the Gardening Committee will have a kickoff meeting.

There are three main items on the agenda:

• Brainstorm ideas about what the committee can do. Sustainable Flatbush's mission is to educate, advocate, and act on issues of sustainability in our area. What are our ideas for how gardening relates to that mission?
  
• Identify a couple of things we can do immediately, especially over the winter
  
• Identify co-chairs for the committee who will coordinate with the other committees and larger organization and recruit and support committee members.
  

If you want to attend next Monday's meeting please email me at [xrisfg at gmail dot com]. I've setup a Google group for committee planning. If you can't attend next Monday but want to help with gardening committee planning, let me know as well.

Resource: The Sustainable Sites Initiative

While doing some research for a post on NYC's street trees, I just discovered the Sustainable Sites Initiative:

The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the United States Botanic Garden and a diverse group of stakeholder organizations to develop guidelines and standards for landscape sustainability. The motivation behind this initiative stems from the desire to protect and enhance the ability of landscapes to provide services such as climate regulation, clean air and water, and improved quality of life. Sustainable Sites™ is a cooperative effort with the intention of supplementing existing green building and landscape guidelines as well as becoming a stand-alone tool for site sustainability.

On November 1, they released a Preliminary Report on the Standards and Guidelines for Sustainable Sites. The full report [PDF] is 107 pages and addresses several dimensions of landscape design, including hydrology (water), vegetation, soil, and materials (hardscape). They are now for which they are seeking "input on all aspects of the content." Their goal is to release an updated version in October of 2008, completing the final report by May 2009.

This report makes three overarching recommendations for sustainable land development and management: 1) assemble a group of knowledgeable and diverse professionals to form an integrated project team, 2) prior to making decisions, conduct a complete and thorough assessment of the site, and 3) integrate land practices that replicate the functions of healthy ecological systems.

Sustainable land practices can support the functions of healthy systems and harness natural processes to provide environmental benefits. The Sustainable Sites Initiative is aimed at providing the land development and maintenance industries with the tools to move toward a more sustainable future.

The Web site provides synopses of the benefits of sustainable sites and how to implement them. The Human Well-Being section provides insight into the particular importance of living, green spaces for urban populations:

A series of studies of inner-city neighborhoods [Kuo, F.E. 2003. The role of arboriculture in a healthy social ecology. Journal of Arboriculture 29, 3:148-155] finds that green spaces with trees contribute to healthier, more supportive patterns of interrelations among residents, including greater sharing of resources.

Links

The Sustainable Sites Initiative
American Society of Landscape Architects
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
United States Botanic Garden

Preserving Livable Streets: DCP's Yards Text Amendment

2008-04-30: Approved!
2007-11-15: Added link to DCP Zoning Glossary.

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Illustration of Front Yard Planting from DCP's proposed Yards Text Amendment online presentation
At tonight's CB14 Public Hearing, this is sure to be one of the items on the agenda. On September 17, NYC's Department of City Planning (DCP) released a proposal to amend zoning regulations to address, for the first time, the extent of paved and planted areas on private property:

November 12: Sustainable Flatbush Town Hall Meeting

This is listed in the sidebar Calendar, but I wanted to highlight this community meeting happening next Monday.

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Sustainable Flatbush is about to enter an exciting new phase of our activities in the neighborhood, and we’d love for YOU to be involved! Please join us:

WHAT: Sustainable Flatbush Town Hall Meeting
WHEN: Monday, November 12th at 7pm
WHERE: 462 Marlborough Road (between Ditmas and Dorchester)

Longtime Flatbush resident Mark Levy has come onboard, bringing his history of commitment to the neighborhood and experience as a community organizer and environmental educator. He has also kindly offered to host this meeting at his home. Thanks Mark!

We will form committees geared toward specific activities and service projects, establish leadership roles, and set some new goals for 2008. To give you an idea of what’s in store, here are some of the proposed committees:

• RECYCLING/WASTE REDUCTION
Focusing on recycling education and promotion, as well as other methods of reducing waste in our homes and businesses, from composting to blocking unwanted fliers.

• SUSTAINABLE GARDENING
Sharing knowledge and resources on sustainable approaches to all forms of urban gardening, from yard landscaping to street tree pits to organic farming. We will also be actively involved in the new neighborhood community garden.

• TRANSPORTATION/LIVABLE STREETS
Working with Transportation Alternatives and other Livable Streets advocates, we will bring a local perspective to the citywide discussion of such issues as traffic calming, congestion pricing, public transportation improvements, and infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.

• ENERGY EFFICIENCY/ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND FUELS
Let’s talk about how to save money by using less energy in our homes and businesses, and how to incorporate alternative energy sources such as biofuels and solar power into the landscape.

• LOCAL BUSINESS OUTREACH
Helping neighborhood businesses to adopt sustainability practices that improve their “Triple Bottom Line”: People, Planet, and Profit.

• LOCAL SCHOOLS OUTREACH
Implementing environmental education and practices in our local schools.

Hope to see you there!

Carolina Silverbell: One of a Million

Just the thought of Mike Bloomberg and Bette Midler together makes me giddy.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) Founder Bette Midler today launched the Million Trees NYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees throughout the five boroughs in the next decade. The Mayor and Ms. Midler planted a street tree in the Morrisania section of the Bronx – a neighborhood with too few trees and high rates of asthma – and declared the Carolina Silverbell to be the first of one million trees.
- Press release, Tuesday, October 9, 2007

And if not for the much-needed rain tonight, we could see that the Empire State Building is lit green to note today's kickoff.

Not once do they mention the botanical name of the tree, Halesia carolina. It's a lovely, graceful tree. I don't know how it fares as a street tree in NYC. It's native to the southeastern United States. It's in the Styracaceae, the Storax or Snowball family.

The nomenclature for this genus seems confused. Wikipedia lists H. carolina as a synonym for H. tetraptera, but the USDA Plants database identifies the latter as a different species, the mountain silverbell, with two subspecies. I'll defer to USDA Plants as the authority.

None of the four species of Halesia are native to New York state. According to the Atlas of the New York Flora Association, both H. carolina and H. tetraptera are known as escapes in the wild.

The Parks Department will receive nearly $400 million over the next ten years to plant 600,000 public trees by reforesting 2,000 acres of existing parkland and lining New York City streets with trees. The City’s partners, including non-profit and community organizations, businesses, developers and everyday New Yorkers will plant the remaining 400,000 trees.

There are many ways to get involved in Million Trees NYC:

• plant a tree in your yard;
• join a volunteer group planting trees in parks and on public land;
• request that the City plant street trees on your block;
• learn how to water, mulch, and prune trees;
• educate other New Yorkers on the importance of our urban forest; and
• become an advocate for planting trees.
  

Each request for a street tree will trigger an evaluation of the suggested site by a Parks department inspector. Considerations such as electrical wires, underground utilities, light posts and building entrances will be part of the inspection. If it is possible to plant a tree in the site requested, a tree planting contractor will be assigned to plant the tree in the next possible planting season, in either the spring or fall.

Links

Halesia carolina (USDA Plants Database)
Million Trees NYC Web site (also in the sidebar under Links > NYC)
New York Restoration Project (Bette Midler's joint, also in the sidebar)

Related Posts

April 22: 1M Trees in 10 Years

Sustainable Flatbush #3: Urban Permaculture

Left to right: Anne Pope, Wilton Duckworth, and Joan Ewing.


I attended last night's Sustainable Flatbush event at Vox Pop. The theme was Urban Permaculture.

I'll come back and write up my review later. I've got to get out and do some gardening today! Meanwhile, you can view my photos from the event.

Event, June 15, Sustainable Flatbush: Urban Permaculture

The subject of June's Sustainable Flatbush event is "Permaculture and its Applications in an Urban Environment”:

Featured speakers Joan Ewing and Wilton Duckworth are former Flatbush residents now living in upstate New York, where they host permaculture workshops, including a recent design intensive with Geoff Lawton of Permaculture Research Institute of Australia and Ethan Roland of Appleseed Permaculture.

After screening Lawton's film "Greening the Desert", which documents the transformation of a salty, arid expanse of sand into an abundant food forest, Wilton and Joan will discuss how permaculture concepts can be applied to NYC's unique challenges and possibilities.

Before and after the talk we will enjoy music from resident DJ Drummerman, visuals by Keka, Vox Pop’s lovely assortment of food and drinks, and scintillating conversation with smart, charming people.

Event Details

Sustainable Flatbush Event #3
Friday, June 15th, 8pm until midnight
at Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore
1022 Cortelyou Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn
Q train to Cortelyou Road, walk 5 blocks west to Stratford

Note: Vox Pop is also the location for the first Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow meetup on June 24.