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Green Matters

Friday, February 27, 2009

What is Green Matters? | Who should attend?
Co-Hosts | Sponsors | Symposium Agenda
Speakers | Questions

What is Green Matters?

Green Matters, an annual symposium, concentrates attention on environmental issues with which we are currently faced and over which we have some control. Environmental stewardship is a core value of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Brookside Garden’s parent organization. As such, we strive to provide timely information and viable solutions to environmental challenges, because we feel strongly that green does matter.

Who should attend?

Homeowners — Gardeners — Community Leaders — Nursery and Landscape Professionals — Landscape Designers — Municipal, County, and State Parks Personnel — Property Managers — Environmental Educators — Extension Agents — Master Gardeners — Conservation Organizations — Naturalists — Restoration volunteers — Watershed Groups



The following information, from Green Matters 2008, is provided for your reference. Look for the 2009 Symposium agenda and registration information in November 2008.

Carbon footprint . . . global warming . . . going green at home . . . these are all buzz words and phrases we’re hearing a lot about in the news. But how do our gardens and landscapes fit in with efforts to preserve the environment? Just because they are part of nature doesn’t mean they’re “green.” In an exciting new program called “Sustainable Sites,” the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden have taken the lead in developing a new initiative to measure and recognize sustainability in landscape design, construction, and maintenance. Attend Green Matters to get cutting edge information on the first Sustainable Sites report and specific information on ways you can green your landscape’s footprint.

Green Matters Registration Form
Hotel Information

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Host:  Brookside Gardens

Co-Hosts

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas
American Society of Landscape Architects, Washington, DC
United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC

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Sponsors

Association of Professional Landscape Designers, DC-MD-VA Chapter
Azaela Society of America, Brookside Gardens Chapter
Annie May DeFrank
Friends of Brookside Gardens
Natural Resources Design, Inc.
Neighbors of the Northwest Branch
Sierra Club, Montgomery County Group
Silver Spring Garden Club
Lynn and David Vismara
Winding Orchard Citizens Association

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Symposium Agenda

February 22, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

  • 8:30: Registration and breakfast
  • 9:00: Welcome
    Stephanie Oberle     , Acting Director, Brookside Gardens
    Mary Bradford, Director of Parks, M-NCPPC
  • 9:15: The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Creating sustainable and regenerative landscapes
    Steve Windhager    , Director, Landscape Restoration Program, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas
    Green building design guidelines, such as LEED(r) from the U.S. Green Building Council, provide guidance and recognition for buildings attempting to build in a more sustainable way by reducing water and energy use, using materials without adverse toxicological or ecological effects and including design elements that improve human well being. In the 10 years since its inception, the U.S. Green building Council has had tremendous impact on the building industry, all by increasing demand for sustainable products rather than through government regulation. The Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden, is creating similar "green building"
    standards for landscapes. These guidelines, which will be incorporated into future versions of LEED(r), will identify ways to sustainably deal with soils, hydrology, vegetation, human well-being and materials selection in the landscape and identifies specific land development and management practices which adversely affect our ability to have economically, environmentally and socially sustainable landscapes.

    Increasingly the challenge will also be to move beyond landscapes which are merely sustainable, and to create "regenerative" landscapes. These landscapes will go beyond merely reducing water and nutrient inputs, but actually begin to result in a site that is healthier and provides a greater level of ecosystem services than before the design. It will be these sites which will make up the deficit in ecosystem services often caused by other sites by consciously designing them to sequester carbon, clean water and air, moderate the climate, recharge groundwater systems, provide habitat to increase diversity and serve as refugia for rare species, mitigate stormwater, and protect areas against natural disasters. The landscape represents an opportunity for us to not only conserve and use resources efficiently, but to actually undo some of the damage we have caused to the Earth's ability to provide ecosystem services.
  • 10:15: Break
  • 10:30: Zero-Waste Sites – Closing the Loop
    Jean Schwab    , EPA GreenScapes Program Manager, Washington, DC
    Think about the millions of tons of waste materials that are hauled away, buried, or burned each day from landscaping and grounds keeping operations—trees, shrubs, brush, lumber, asphalt, and concrete, just to name a few. Also, consider the millions of gallons of water, pesticides, fuels, and oils in use each and every day. The costs of these materials—both economic and environmental—can be easily reduced or eliminated with updated landscaping methods. We wwill discuss how to preserve natural resources and prevent waste and pollution by making more holistic decisions regarding material use and the associated impacts on land, water, air and energy use.
  • 11:30: Lunch
  • 1:00: Right Plant – Right Place
    Valerie Vartanian    , Horticulture Professions Liaison, Missouri Botanical Garden
    What is the “right place” for a plant? We will look at how plants are being identified as invasive in the US and what is being done to stop their introduction and spread. Many businesses around the US are adopting voluntary Codes of Conduct, developed at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2001 by horticulture industry representatives, which encourage their business to find new alternative plants to sell replacing those determined to be invasive. We will look at new local, state and federal laws, and some ideas on how businesses can take advantage of this positive marketing campaign.
  • 2:00: Permeable Paving Design and Application
    Thomas H. Price    , Principal Water Resources Engineer, Conservation Design Forum, Inc., Elmhurst, Illinois
    Tom will provide an overview of permeable paving systems including discussions of appropriate applications, environmental benefits, design and engineering, construction considerations, and maintenance considerations. Example project applications will be presented where permeable paving was part of an integrated stormwater management system. The applications include parking lots and city streets.
  • 3:00: Break
  • 3:15: The Aesthetics of Rain Gardens: Designing for Function & Beauty
    John Gishnock     III, Owner/Ecological Designer, Formecology, Evansville, Wisconsin
    Join John as he discusses the creation of rain gardens to suit both functional and aesthetic needs. Throughout his time designing and installing rain gardens, John has found that rain gardens can, and should, be designed with a greater level of importance placed on aesthetic considerations. With the wide variety of native wildflowers, grasses, sedges, shrubs, and trees available, it is possible to create a more natural, wild look or a clean, organized planting suitable for the most refined of settings.
  • 4:30: End

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Speakers

  • John Gishnock III is owner of Formecology, a Wisconsin-based design/build/and care firm where he balances his time between roles of ecological designer, project manager, and tireless advocate for more sustainable approaches to landscaping. John has worked on a wealth of projects around the Midwest, including green roofs, corporate headquarters, residential landscapes and the South Milwaukee High School native landscape, for which was awarded the 2006 Conservation and Native Landscaping Award by the EPA and Chicago Wilderness Consortium. John’s passion for environmentally sensitive and regionally appropriate landscaping is evidenced by his commitment to increasing public awareness and acceptance of alternative stormwater management techniques and the exclusive use of native plants in all types of landscape settings.
  • In over 20 years of practice, Thomas H. Price has been involved in a wide variety of stormwater and non-point source pollution management activities. Tom’s broad experience ranges from development of watershed management plans to preparation of engineering plans for commercial, institutional, and residential developments to developing engineering guidelines and manuals for sustainable stormwater management systems. Tom also has extensive experience in stormwater and water quality modeling. A significant emphasis of Tom’s work has been addressing the hydrologic impacts of watershed development through integration of stormwater drainage and retention systems into the overall development plan. As Director of Water Resource Engineering at Conservation Design Forum, Inc., Tom is responsible for the oversight of all engineering aspects and the integration of this discipline into every project at CDF. Tom continues to identify and implement innovative stormwater management and stream and wetland restoration techniques to prevent and mitigate the impacts of urban development. He routinely presents at workshops and conferences on sustainable development topics and often instructs at seminars on the design and implementation of sustainable stormwater management systems.
  • Jean Schwab is the GreenScapes Program Manager and senior analyst in the Municipal & Industrial Solid Waste Division at EPA Headquarters. Jean created and developed the GreenScapes program to be a multi-media EPA partnership program that promotes a holistic and multimedia approach to sustainable landscaping and land management practices that achieve economic and environmental benefits. Jean has worked in the resource conservation field for 16 years - including over 13 years at EPA. She serves on a number of national initiatives as a technical expert on materials management, including as member of the Sustainable Sites Initiative development committee. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Strayer University and Master’s degree in Urban & Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia.
  • Valerie Vartanian has earned degrees in Natural Resources Management, Outdoor Recreation, and Biogeography. In southern California, she worked for The Nature Conservancy as a Project Manager for several different habitat restoration sites for endangered species, such as least Bell’s vireo and Stephens’ Kangaroo Rat. After moving to the Midwest, she worked for the Missouri Botanical Garden and a coalition of resource managers, agencies and organizations to develop a biodiversity initiative for the greater St. Louis region. Valerie is currently employed by The Nature Conservancy’s Invasive Species Initiative as the Horticulture Professions Liaison. Her role on the team is to work with nursery and landscape businesses to adopt and implement codes of conduct that will help these businesses reduce the impact of invasive species to natural areas that come from gardens and landscaping.
  • Steve Windhager joined the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center staff in August 1999 to renew the Center’s commitment to research by creating and serving as director for the Landscape Restoration Program. This program conducts research in applied ecology, and offers fee-based consulting on a wide variety of ecological issues. Clients have included the City of Austin, City of San Marcos, San Antonio River Authority, NASA, the Department of Defense, AMD, Denver Botanical Gardens, as well as numerous homeowner’s associations, golf courses, private developers and individual land owners. He organized the 1998 and 2003 Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) International Conferences, was on the board of directors for SER International from 1998 to 2004, and currently sits on the editorial board for SER’s journal, Restoration Ecology. Over the last 8 years, the focus of the Landscape Restoration Program at the Wildflower Center has broadened, coming to include research on invasive species control, prescribed fire, roadside revegetation, native turf grasses, and green roofs. The program’s newest undertaking, the Sustainable Sites Initiative, is a joint project with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the United States Botanic Garden to create the equivalent of “green building” standards for landscapes. Steve has a B.A. in Philosophy from Texas A&M as well as a Masters in Environmental Ethics and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of North Texas.

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Questions?

Contact Brookside Gardens

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