June 2009 Archives

Community development techniques -- both commercial and residential -- have a major impact on fresh water supplies and the surface and underground water system. Pavement is a big contributor to the problem. Now it can provide a solution.

Sustainable Solutions with Low Impact Development

L.I.D. is in. That's Low Impact Development, the standards by which the local ecosystem is minimally impacted by development, and water is preserved as a precious resource.

West coast microclimates are interesting. From rain soaked areas like San Anselmo, to rain starved areas like Bakersfield, each zone presents it own challenges for water issues. With each water challenge comes difficulties that municipalities, developers, and home-owners have to adapt to, and manage.

California Water Conservation Solutions

For example, water conservation is critical in California's central valley where each gallon of runoff can be a precious resource, if properly managed. Other areas of California offer surprising challenges -- such as Marin county, which is more like Portland, Oregon, which receives over 40 inches of rain a year.

LID offers workable solutions that developers and home-owners can implement to manage water issues whatever their situation -- dearth or deluge. Whether the issue is drought conditions or excessive runoff, sustainable water management is important to California.

Permeable Pavement allows water to rapidly pass through the pavement into a cistern or natural underground water supplies.

Modular Pavers Used in Hardscape Applications

Permeable pavement is a relatively new concept and product that reduces "impervious" surfaces from driveways, sidewalks and other hardscapes by allowing water to run through the pavement and back into the soil - not follow the hardscape to the street and eventually into our waterways. This solution retains more rainwater for our underground aquafers - but it also allows plants and the soil to filter pollutants out of the water naturally.

Permeable Pavers

One LID product that can provide solutions for water runoff and infiltration issues, large or small, is permeable pavers from Permapave Northwest.

Different from traditional concrete pavers, Permapave NW pavers have an actual flow-through rate of over 1 gallon of water per second. The pavers are manufactured from natural rock, with an acrylic polymer binder similar to the clear coat on your automobile. The finished product is a completely inert paver which returns water directly to the soil, or underground storage, without adding alkalinity, zinc or hydrocarbons to the runoff.

When permeable pavers are installed over properly prepared secondary filtration in the sub-grade, they will capture and filter 100% of gross pollutants and up to 70% phosphorus, 80% of heavy metals and 98% of hydrocarbons from the water that flows through them.

Residential Applications Alleys, Driveways Walkways Patios Camper Parking High Traffic Grass Areas Pools / Hot Tubs Courtyard Rooftops Sidewalks / Pathways Foundation Drainage

Commercial / Industrial Applications Parking Areas Pedestrian Walkway Bike Path Plaza / Entryway Bioretention / Rain Garden Rooftop Tree Grates Rooftops Roadways / Median Strips Large Public Spaces

Modular Permeable Pavers for Sustainable Landscaping

Modular pavers over an advantage over "poured" pervious pavement by allowing edges of permeable pavement to be installed in many locations - under downspouts, along sidewalks, along driveways, around trees, around rain gardens, and on or around patios.

Modular Pavers Used in Landscape Applications

• Permapave NW pavers are available in a number of colors/aggregates to enhance building and landscaping aesthetics.

• PermapaveNW's Permeable pavers come in a modular, 12x12x2" standard size, with widths up to 16" and thicknesses up to 4" for heavier vehicle loads.

• The pavers, while extremely pervious, provide the hard surface needed for normal urban activities.

The surface not only performs well for sidewalks, biking paths, parking lots, and driveways but also handles water efficiently in both drought and flood conditions.

The EPA has long noted the benefits of pervious pavers, highlighting them in their Best Management Practices: "depending on the design, pervious pavements (pavers), when used in combination with other techniques such as vegetated swales, or vegetated filter strips, may eliminate or reduce the need for land intensive BMPs, such as dry extended detention or wet retention ponds." (EPA Best Management Practices- porous pavements)

Both residential and commercial developers may find that the use of pervious pavers, which can range up to $8 per square foot, can actually make money for them, by eliminating detention ponds and increasing the amount of land that can be developed.

Home-owners can install the easy-to-use permeable pavers themselves, providing drainage areas for driveway or patios that may be puddling, or as a pervious cover for an underground water storage cistern.

The pavers can also be used as stepping stones, in pet areas, in gardens, along walkways, as parking areas for RVs -- the landscaping possibilities are endless.

Some municipalities are offering rebates for the purchase of LID products like Permapave. Check with your local city or county city and county governments, as well as water providers (ie: Metropolitan Water District) to find incentives and rebates to improve water quality, reduce runoff, or retain stormwater.

Sustainable Solutions to Stormwater Runoff

Retaining rain water for your landscape can be especially helpful during California's prolonged droughts. By protecting your landscape with adequate water supplies from a cistern, and from focusing the available rain into specific rain gardens, your plants will not suffer as much - and your water bill will thank you, too!

Sample permeable pavers by Permapave Northwest

CONTACT:
Permapave Northwest
Distributor for Western US
1-877-694-0141
815 NE 172nd Ave
Vancouver, WA 98684
www.permapavenw.com

California landscaping is... well, different.  Having lived in several states in the eastern half of the country, I was not prepared for the dramatic differences in plant species, seasons or water situations when we moved to California.  And it appears I'm not alone.

California, having a very long southern to northern body is as diverse as ... well, most of the eastern seaboard states combined.   That covers a LOT of habitat diversity!

California has deserts, semi-deserts, foothills, mountains, coasts, and dense urban habitats that have been radically altered from natural landforms. 

Landscaping in California is about water conservation more than it' about a green lawn.  At least it is to most native Californians who understand that we get no rain ... I mean ABSOUTELY NO RAIN for NINE MONTHS every year. That's different!

Okay...so that's Southern California.  Like I said, our southern to northern diversity is mind boggling!

Sustainable landscaping is important in California no matter where you live.  It's even more important here than many other states because of our unique geography, our dense populations along the coasts, our high agricultural influences, and yes, our high tourism appeal.

California looks like a tropical paradise in some areas...but we're not.  We're a desert.  We're one of the Western states...with lots of sand, hot winds, droughts, cacti, rattlesnakes and of course, floods, fires and landslides!  Those wildfires are a major contributor to California's unique necessities in landscaping. 

Even urban sprawl has added the need for water conservation.  Native plants and low-water requirements of plantings and hardscapes are helpful when your neighborhood is threatened with wildfires and the fire department needs water pressure ... and an ample supply of water for disaster prevention.

Native plant societies do their best to spread the word about alternatives that are more suited to our climate and wildlife and seasonal uniqueness, but most new residents don't even take the time to learn what is different here.  They just go to a big box store and stock up on the plants they know how to tend.  And those plants frequently last about as long as it takes for water to seep through 90% sand soils!

Here's one resource for landscape  professionals -- who can be as challenged as anyone to keep pace with climate change and regulations and client demands.

CLCA 'Greenovate' Your Yard Tip of the Week

With the threat of global warming looming on the Earth's horizon, eco-friendly ideas have once again revitalized the "green" movement. Going "green" is not only a state objective, but meets local policy mandates for healthy communities. One place you can begin to go green is by starting in your own yard. There are some simple changes you can make that will not only benefit the planet, but will also save you money as well. Here is one way that a CLCA licensed contractor can help you "greenovate" your yard. Check back weekly for a new tip in the series.

Learn to GREENoVATE!

Plants in our cities are as environmentally important as those in our wild areas. They provide oxygen, homes to wildlife, and cooling without burning fossil fuels. Plants clean our air and water, prevent erosion, and reduce glare and noise pollution. On the most basic level our landscapes are a green urban ecosystem mitigating the effects of intensive urban and suburban living. As California grows, the environmental challenges will increase. Plants are our most important assets for protecting and enhancing our environment.

Urban plants provide many benefits such as:

Clean Air

Natural Cooling

Clean Water

Wildlife in our Communities

Quieting the City

Healing

The California Green Industry Council (CGIC) is a multi-billion dollar industry that not only provides a large percentage of jobs in California and contributes to the state's GNP but provides a more beautiful and healthy environment for California. The California Green Industry Council's member organizations all contribute to make California the beautiful and thriving state that it is today.

California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA)

California Assn. of Nurseries & Garden Centers (CANGC)

California Golf Course Superintendants Assn. (CGCSA)

California Landscape Contractors Assn. (CLCA)

California Landscape & Irrigation Council (CLIC)

Western Plant Health Association (WPHA)

California Sod Producers Association (CSPA)

Irrigation Association (IA)

Pesticide Applicators Professional Assn. (PAPA)

The professionals in the 'Green Industry' include sod producers, nurserymen, pest control advisers, pesticide applicators, landscape contractors, irrigation specialists, landscape architects, golf course superintendents, fertilizer and compost manufacturers and many others. Many of the professionals in the 'green industry' are required to have state licensing and certification and/or have professionally managed certification programs.

By working together in trade associations and councils of diverse trade associations, information about standards, issues of mutual interest or that cross multiple professions and multi-disciplinary working teams can be created.  And the more diverse the communications, the more likely our natural resources such as fresh water, native habitat, wildlife, and human communities can be understood and managed for sustainability.

California Green Industry Council

The environmental, economic and societal benefits of plants in our communities are profound. We need them to make it possible to live together in dense urban and suburban communities. As California's population continues to grow, we must increase the amount of plants making our human habitat habitable.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally recognized the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency (NN EPA) in 2009 for their efforts to protect and preserve the environment over the past 30 years.

"For over 30 years we have partnered with the Navajo Nation to protect public health and precious natural resources," said Laura Yoshii, acting regional administrator for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region.  "The EPA applauds the Navajo Nation EPA not only for their achievements on their land, but for their leadership role in the development of tribal environmental programs nationally.  The Navajo Nation continues to build and implement its programs, has enacted seven of its own environmental laws, and set a national precedent for tribal sovereignty and environmental protection." Navajo Nation leaders met with federal officials to discuss environmental priorities for the Navajo Nation which administers several of the country's largest and most sophisticated tribal environmental programs.

"Former Navajo Nation elected leaders and managers have provided the foundation for the partnership with U.S. EPA," said Steve Etsitty, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation EPA.  "Under President Shirley's guidance the Navajo Nation EPA has truly emerged as a key implementer of environmental regulatory programs, and it will continue to protect the Navajo Nation and the south west United States from unhealthy pollution."

Abandoned Uranium Mine Cleanup

Navajo Nation EPA, four federal agencies and EPA are working together to implement a 5-year plan to address the legacy of over 500 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.  Currently, NN EPA and EPA are working to

• identify and cleanup mines,
• assess potentially contaminated structures, and
• conduct massive outreach efforts to warn residents of potential hazards from unregulated, contaminated wells.

Together, the agencies have assessed 113 structures and are in the process of demolishing and excavating 27 radiation-contaminated structures and 10 residential yards.



This year, the NN EPA, the Navajo Department of Water Resources, EPA, and the Indian Health Service are working together to provide

• safe drinking water to 3,000 people and
• wastewater infrastructure to 2,500 homes.

 Over the past 25 years, Navajo homes with access to safe drinking water rose by nearly 20 percent.

Federal Drinking Water Program

The Navajo Nation remains the first and only tribal government that has EPA's authority to implement the federal drinking water program which ensures that the 162 public water systems serving approximately 150,000 people meet federal drinking water requirements.  These groundwater supplies are also protected through NN EPA's underground injection control program.

Underground Injection Control Program of Disposal Wells

The underground injection control program regulates the construction, operation, permitting and closure of storage and/or disposal wells.  In 2008, NN EPA took over the program to protect the tribe's groundwater resources.  Together with their prior authorization to oversee public water systems, the Navajo Nation is the first tribe in the nation to implement the two main regulatory programs under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.  In addition to the underground injection control program, the Navajo Nation also administers protects groundwater resources through their underground storage tank program.

Underground Storage Tank Lead Prevention Program

 The NN EPA runs the most capable tribal, underground storage tank leak prevention program in the country with two federally credentialed inspectors and a field citation pilot program. Recently, federally credentialed tank inspectors began inspecting the Nation's 125 underground storage tank facilities on behalf of the EPA.  

The pilot project allows the two inspectors to write EPA field citations for federal violations and is expected to increase field presence and improve compliance.  A hole the size of a pinhead can release 400 gallons of fuel in a year's time, enough to foul millions of gallons of fresh water.  To address leaking tanks, both agencies have cleaned up over 100 leaking underground storage tanks since 2004, using a combination of both federal and tribal leaking underground storage tank funds.

Title V Air Permitting

The Navajo Nation EPA has been successfully implementing their Title V air permitting program for 5 years, and collecting the permitting fees for 13 major sources. The NN EPA was the first tribe in the nation to achieve authority to implement this program.

Pesticide Inspections to Restore Land and Soil

Other programs protect and restore Navajo Nation's land and soil.  Last year, Navajo Nation Pesticide Program's federally credentialed inspectors conducted 120 federal pesticides inspections and 25 tribal inspections.  To address open dumps throughout the Navajo Nation, the EPA has invested $2 million dollars since 1990.  To date, 41 open dumps have been closed using federal and Navajo Nation funds.

First Tribal Superfund Law

In February 2008, the Navajo Nation Council passed the Navajo Nation Comprehensive Environmental Response, and Liability Act (Navajo CERCLA) or Superfund modeled after the EPA's program.  This is the first tribal Superfund law in the country, and is a huge success for the Navajo Nation, as it gives the Tribe the authority to address hazardous contamination across the Nation.

 For more information, please visit: http://www.navajonationepa.org/

Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf of Mexico Among Highest Measured in 30 years!


Too many nutrients, which are essential for plant growth, are not necessarily a good thing. Excessive nutrients can be harmful by decreasing the amount of oxygen in the water, also known as hypoxia.

This can result in an area experiencing stress or death of near or bottom dwelling organisms called a hypoxic zone, or "dead zone."

Hypoxia, along with overfishing, habitat loss and toxic contamination, can significantly impact the Gulf of Mexico coastal region, an important resource for the Nation providing about 1.2 billion pounds of fresh seafood every year.

The amount of nutrients transported from the Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf during the spring is a major factor controlling the size of the hypoxic zone. The northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone is the second largest in the world, and threatens the economic and ecological health of one of the nation's largest and most productive fisheries.

Nutrients can come from many sources, such as fertilizers applied to agricultural fields, golf courses, and suburban lawns; atmospheric contributions; erosion of soils containing nutrients; and sewage treatment plant discharges.

USGS releases estimates of nutrients from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico in early June each year. The estimates are used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and other researchers to predict the areal extent of the hypoxic zone. 

The amount of nutrients delivered to the Gulf each spring depends, in large part, on precipitation and the resulting amounts of nutrient runoff and streamflow in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. Streamflows in spring 2009 were about 17 percent above average over the last 30 years. Last year's elevated levels were most likely due to the flooding during the spring.

States and Federal partners serving on the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Taskforce are trying to reduce nutrients transported to the Gulf to reduce the size of hypoxic zone to less than 5,000 square kilometers by 2015. Tracking nutrient levels every year is important to determine if partners are on target with that goal.

Predictions of the size of the 2009 hypoxic zone reflects USGS estimates of about 295,000 metric tons of nitrogen (in the form of nitrate) delivered in April and May 2009 to the northern Gulf. In 2008, the hypoxic zone exceeded 20,000 square kilometers, an area similar in size to the state of New Jersey. Spring delivery of nitrogen in 2009 was about 23% lower than what was measured in 2008, but still about 11% above the average from 1979 to 2009.

USGS has monitored streamflow and water quality in the Mississippi River Basin for decades, to access more information visit the USGS nutrient flux webpage.

For more than 125 years, the USGS has served as the Nation's water monitoring agency, including flow and (or) quality in selected streams and rivers across the U.S. Access data from more than 7,400 streamgages, many of which provide real-time data in 15 minute increments at the USGS WaterWatch site.

For an even larger variety of USGS data, such as for ground water and water quality, access the National Water Information System Web Interface, which contains over 1.5 million sites, and averages over 25 million hits per month. 

I've always suspected that a family of living beings that are as prolific as plants must be smarter than we give them credit for being. After all, we can't even communicate very well with animals that we KNOW are intelligent. Science is finally catching up with a gardener's intuition.

Plants engage in self-recognition and can communicate danger to their "clones" or genetically identical cuttings planted nearby, says professor Richard Karban of the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, in groundbreaking research published in the current edition of Ecology Letters.

Sagebrush exhibits communication only when air contact is allowed, says Rick Karban, shown here bagging sagebrush. When air contact is blocked with plastic bags there is no indication that communication has occurred.

Karban and fellow scientist Kaori Shiojiri of the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Japan, found that sagebrush responded to cues of self and non-self without physical contact. The sagebrush communicated and cooperated with other branches of themselves to avoid being eaten by grasshoppers, Karban said. Although the research is in its early stages, the scientists suspect that the plants warn their own kind of impending danger by emitting volatile cues. This may involve secreting chemicals that deter herbivores or make the plant less profitable for herbivores to eat, he said.

What this research means is that plants are "capable of more sophisticated behavior than we imagined," said Karban, who researches the interactions between herbivores (plant-eating organisms) and their host plants.

"Plants are capable of responding to complex cues that involve multiple stimuli," Karban said. "Plants not only respond to reliable cues in their environments but also produce cues that communicate with other plants and with other organisms, such as pollinators, seed disperses, herbivores and enemies of those herbivores."

In their UC Davis study, Karban and Shiojiri examined the relationships between the volatile profiles of clipped plants and herbivore damage They found that plants within 60 centimeters of an experimentally clipped neighbor in the field experienced less leaf damage over the season, compared with plants near an unclipped neighbor. Plants with root contact between neighbors, but not air contact, failed to show this response.

"We explored self-recognition in the context of plant resistance to herbivory," he said. "Previously we found that sagebrush (Artemisa tridentata) became more resistant to herbivores after exposure to volatile cues from experimentally damaged neighbors."

The ecologists wrote that "naturally occurring herbivores caused similar responses as experimental clipping with scissors and active cues were released for up to three days following clipping. Choice and no-choice experiments indicated that herbivores responded to changes in plant characteristics and were not being repelled directly by airborne cues released by clipped individuals."

In earlier research, Karban found that "volatile cues are required for communication among branches within an individual sagebrush plant. This observation suggests that communication between individuals may be a by-product of a volatile communication system that allows plants to integrate their own systemic physiological processes."

The scientists made cuttings from 30 sagebrush plants at the UC Sagehen Creek Natural Reserve and then grew the cutting in plastic pots. They grew the cuttings at UC Davis and then placed the pots near the parent plant or near another different assay plant (control group) in the field.

The research, "Self-Recognition Affects Plant Communication and Defense," is online. Their grant was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch Project and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

"The Plight of the Bumble Bees"
Monday, June 22
10 a.m. to 12:30  p.m.
Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History.
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.

Native pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, is one of the key speakers at a public symposium on "The Plight of the Bumble Bees"   at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Thorp, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences since 1986, will speak on "Western Bumble Bees in Peril."  

 "The loss of a native pollinator could strike a devastating blow to the ecosystem, economy and food supply," he says.

He recently spoke at a UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Franklin's bumble bee, a bumble bee historically found only in southern Oregon and northern California that he fears may be extinct. View the Bumblebee Webinar.

The symposium, themed "Plight of the Bumble Bees" and part of the National Pollinator Week activities June 22-28, will take place from 10 a.m. to 12:30  p.m. in the Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian is located at the corner of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.

Other speakers are:

• Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona, "USA Native Bee Diversity: Rarity, Threats and Conservation Ideals"
• Paul Williams, Natural History Museum, London, 'A Global View of Bumble Bees and Their Conservation Status"
• Sydney Cameron and Jeff Lozier, University of Illinois, "Status and Trends of Midwestern and Southern Bumble Bees"
• Leif Richardson, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, "Bumble Bee Trends in Northeastern North America.'
• Buchmann received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1978. Thorp was his major professor.

Moderator is Michael Ruggiero, senior science advisor, Integrated Taxonomic Information (IT IS) of the Smithsonian Institution.

The event is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey, Smithsonian Institution, National Biological Information Infrastructure, Pollinator Partnership and ITIS.