Toward Sustainable Landscape Design Special Request from the fish of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Toward Sustainable Landscape Design

Special Request from the fish of the Doan Brook & Lake Erie: Oxygen please!

Doan Brook Watershed Partnership works promote:

– Wise Water Use and Water Efficiency – Green waste reduction – Fertilizer management – Native Plantings – Pollution Prevention – Soil Health – Pollinators, Birds, Wildlife – Food Gardens – Composting – Integrative Pest Management – Alternative Groundcover – Permaculture

• Doan Brook is 11.3 miles long
• The watershed area is about 11.9 square

miles

• Ecological Address to over 64,000 people

Sustainable Landscaping or Getting your Lawn off Drugs

Sustainable landscaping is guided by the basic principle of ecology: interconnectedness. Tending to our local landscapes can either work in harmony with our environment or against it, usually the later. Consider the following Impacts of our common model for domestic and commercial landscapes:

Air Pollution & Fossil Fuel Consumption:

A lawn-mower per hour = pollution of ??? Cars per hour?

• Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800

million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants.

• Landscapes consume petroleum, indirectly, through transportation,

fertilizer and pesticide production, and unnecessary yard “waste” disposal.

11 or one car driven 100 miles

Harm To Biodiversity - Pesticides

• 7 million = approximate bird deaths per year
• For one pest eliminated by pesticides, 1000 beneficial species are killed in

the process

• at $40 billion per year = value of pollination to U.S. agriculture
• Declining Honey bees are believed to be responsible for 80% of all pollination in

the US

• Beetles pollinate about 88 percent of all flowering plants in the world.

Harm To Biodiversity - Habitat Loss

• Traditional development results in habitat loss, fragmentation – lawn habitat

is now found in every geographic region of the country

• 1/4 of all species in the world are facing extinction in 50 years
• Habitat fragmentation and broken "nectar corridors", used by migrating

pollinators such as bats, butterflies and hummingbirds, contain less food and often heavy pesticide applications

Forest / Agriculture / Residential /Other

Percent

• f Basin

Great Lakes Basin Land Use 1985

5 6 3 1 5 1 9 2 10 7 3 4 4 2 7 6 7 3 9 9 1 4 1 6 8 2 1 4 9

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

• L. Superior
• L. M ichigan
• L. Huron
• L. Erie
• L. Ontario

Harm to Biodiversity - Invasive Plants

• Exotic plants escape, invade,

and out-compete native biodiversity (or biodiversity period) to create low- functioning landscapes Garlic Mustard Yellow Flag Iris

Impacts to health: You, me, our kids & pets

 Childhood leukemia is 6 times greater in families using lawn pesticides (US National Cancer Institute)  Homeowners use about 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Expensive to Maintain

• $40billion/year spent on lawn

care

• 1 acre of American lawn costs

$400-700/year to maintain

• Average homeowner spends

40 hours/year mowing – That’s one week of vacation!

Water - Consumption of Natural Resources

• Lawns use 30% of

municipal fresh water supply in East; 60% in West

• A little perspective: In one

day, 200,000 gallons of water can irrigate one golf course or meet the daily water needs of 2200 Americans

Water – Fertilizer & Pesticide Pollution

• 40-60% of nitrogen applied to our yards ends up in rivers, lakes

and groundwater

• In the US each year, we use about 67 million lbs of pesticides =

FOUR TIMES more than the amount used by the agricultural industry

Green Lake in Shaker: eutrophic conditions lead to odor and zero oxygen

Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus in Lake Erie

Maumee

0.0 0.4 0.8 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Sandusky

• 0.2

0.2 0.6 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Cuyahoga

• 0.1

0.4 0.9 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Grand

• 0.3

0.0 0.3 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Source: P. Richards, Heidelberg College

Water – Hydrocarbon Pollution

• 17 million gallons of gasoline are spilled by Americans

every summer while refueling yard equipment, that’s about 50% more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Water – Flooding & Erosion

• Turf has shallow a root system and is not able to stabilize streambanks
• If lawns exist on compacted soil , they generate up to 90% as much runoff

as pavement

• Greatest pollutant source to Lake Erie is sediment, greater than the other

4 lakes combined.

Aesthetics – Less to alight our 5 senses

• Celebrate what’s unique about

each geographic zone in the country

• Green Spaces Increase:

– community & economic stability – reduce stress, – restore attention, – elevate mood and make people feel better about life in general, – In fact, at new a new generation of psychologists and therapists focus on the relationship between time spent in nature and mental health

A New Landscape Ethic…

Regulating services

• carbon sequestration and climate

regulation

• waste decomposition and

detoxification

• nutrient dispersal and cycling

Supporting services

• purification of water and air
• crop pollination and seed

dispersal

• pest and disease control

Preserving services

• genetic and species diversity for

future use

• accounting for uncertainty
• protection of options

Provisioning services

• foods (including seafood and game) and

spices

• precursors to pharmaceutical and

industrial products

• energy (hydropower, biomass fuels)

Cultural services

• cultural, intellectual and spiritual

inspiration

• recreational experiences (including

ecotourism)

• scientific discovery

Our Community of Impressive Backyard Stewards

The McGraws were winners of ourLaudable Lawn and Home Habitat Challenge. The three top stewards alone accounted for the following changes, based on 5 months and 71,340 square feet of backyards:

• 6876 gallons of water saved
• 142, 680 fewer pounds of nitrogen entering

the watershed

• 262 fewer bags of yard waste going to the

landfill

Kathy Smachlo - Shaker Heights “My goal was to transform this yard into a native plant menagerie,

trying to put back into the environment plants that provide food and shelter for the insects, butterflies, birds, and yes, even the deer and rodents (food for hawks, you know). I also wanted to grow food for my family, friends, and if lucky even the food bank.

Judy Semroc - “With 3.5 years, the

garden filled in with masses of color and exceptional pollinator plants that have increased species count 4 fold”

Susan Kent - Cleveland Heights “On the tree lawn, I actually

have to experiment with some "garden bullies" since it's strictly survival of the fittest, given dog traffic, winter salt, and summer drought! I call it "Darwin's Garden"

Mari Keating - Cleveland Heights

“We currently have a 440 gallon collection system behind our garages which we use exclusively on the (ever growing) organic vegetable gardens, strawberries, raspberry bushes and fruit trees”

“I'm tempted to groan "what a lot of work!",except that it did happen gradually,

• ver time
• inch by inch,

row by row. Think Spring!”

Jim Miller - Cleveland Heights “In the end, it's hard to put in numbers, but we appreciate having built a small connection with the natural forces of wind, rain, and sun. There is more to life than flipping a switch or turning a knob”

Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells - Shaker Heights “We’re hoping to the first LEED Gold home in Ohio”

“Designed to keep all stormwater on the site, with all rainwater hitting the roof diverted into a cistern, ponds, and rain gardens”

We named it the "Dandelion House," because we hope the ideas it embodies will spread like seeds on the wind.

Jeff McIntosh - “Having moved 16 times, living on several acreage properties as well as very small garden spaces, I have learned that small gardens can be just as productive, much easier to maintain and are less time-intensive if we approach them the right way.”

Steve Cagan - “139 native

varieties at last count. People always ask me, fearfully, if they plant native flowers, will the garden be beautiful???!!!”

Veronica Walton - Cleveland

“One of the most surprising comments from a youth was... which end of the plant goes into the ground?”

“After showing a volunteer all of the weed types in a raised bed she picked every single chive as well. When asked, Did you notice the aromatic smell of the Chives when you picked them? She said yes, and the smell was so therapeutic I was motivated to do a good job. I lost my breath and a great crop of Garlic Chives”

Fran DiDinato – “A City of Cleveland

• rdinance allows residents to keep chickens,

ducks, rabbits and beehives but not roosters, geese or turkeys.

Jessie Jones - “These

frames contain atomic red carrots, purple early sprouting broccoli, redbor kale, de meaux endive, radicchio de traviso, minutina, tatsoi, batavian endive, danvers carrots, winterbor kale, tresfine endive, salad burnet, bloomsdale spinach, rapa, & cilantro”

“This was our New Year’s Eve Salad!”

Beau Daane - “I never knew how much I’d appreciate a wood-chip pile. I hound the poor tree trimming guys to get their wood chips... it is a great mulch and it is free! I love my

• rchard of apple trees,

raspberries, blue berries, asparagus, various mints, and

• ther seasonal veggies”

• save energy
• improve air quality
• provide habitat
• provide food
• improve soil
• Improve water quality
• increase property values
• reduce noise
• elevate human mental

health

A few services that trees provide:

USDA Forest Service Urban Watershed Forestry Manual, Part 1

Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?!

Tree Planting along Doan Brook 2012

That value comes from the 98 gallons of stormwater runoff it captures, the $9 it raised your property value, the 8 kilowatt hours

• f electricity it saved you, and 35 lbs of carbon pollution reduced.

2.5 inch sapling = $18 dollars of benefit in its first year

Thank you to all who restore

• ur land, air and water!

Thank you! & PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS – mills@doanbrookpartnership.org

Or visit www.doanbrookpartnership.org & facebook