Farmscaping is the management of vegetation
on and around the farm, to include plantings
on roadways, field margins, waterways, natural
areas and generally non-cropped areas. The term
"farmscaping" can cover a wide range of practices,
such as grassed waterways, buffers, filter
strips and cover crops, as well as hedgerows and
windbreaks.
Hedgerows are defined as lines or groups of
trees, shrubs, perennial forbs, and grasses that
are planted along roadways, fences, field edges
or other non-cropped areas. The word "hedge,"
from the Old English word "hegg," referred to an
enclosure or boundary formed by closely growing
bushes or by dead plant material.
Windbreaks are barriers usually consisting of
trees or shrubs that are used to reduce and redirect
wind, resulting in microclimate changes in
the sheltered zone.
Filter strips are planted areas that use vegetation
to control soil erosion, slow water runoff, and
capture and prevent sediments and nutrients from
entering waterways.
Hedgerows can have multiple functions
They can
serve as habitat for beneficial insects, pollinators
and other wildlife;
provide erosion protection
and weed control;
serve as windbreaks;
stabilize
waterways;
reduce non-point source water
pollution and groundwater pollution;
increase
surface water infiltration;
buffer pesticide drift,
noise, odors and dust;
act as living fences and
boundary lines;
increase biodiversity;
and provide
an aesthetic resource.
Diversity in hedgerow
species, especially when using natives, assures
a range of attributes, such as multiple kinds of
insects and wildlife attracted, positive effects to
soil and water resources, and success of individual
plants under site-specific climatic and other
environmental conditions.
The practice of intensive gardening is not just for those
with limited garden space; rather, an intensive garden
concentrates work efforts to create an ideal plant environment,
giving better yields with less labor.
A good intensive garden requires early, thorough
planning to make the best use of time and space in the garden.
Interrelationships of plants must be considered before planting,
including nutrient needs, shade tolerance, above- and below-ground
growth patterns, and preferred growing season.
Growing food almost year round in the mountains of Colorado is a green solution for localized food. It's a bit beyond farming -- this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager this cozy dome greenhouse, the plants are growing happily. Take a grand tour with Buckhorn Gardens manager.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Over the years, hundreds of thousands of miles of river corridors and
millions of acres of wetlands have been damaged throughout the nation.
Restoration seeks to return some of these ecosystems to their approximate
pre-disturbance conditions.
The ecological and societal benefits of river corridor and wetlands restoration
are substantial:
Rivers transport water, sediment, and nutrients from the land to the
sea, play an important role in building deltas and beaches, and regulate
the salinity and fertility of estuaries and coastal zones. Rivers serve
as corridors for migratory birds and fish, and provide habitat to many
unique species of plants and animals, including federally endangered
and threatened aquatic species. According to the 1985 National Survey
of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife -Associated Recreation (U.S. DOI,
Fish and Wildlife Service, 1988), 38.4 million fishermen spent $17.8
billion for non-Great Lakes freshwater fishing in 1985, with 45 percent
of reported anglers fishing in rivers and streams.
Wetlands provide food, protection from predators, and other vital habitat
factors for many of the nation's fish and wildlife species, including
endangered and threatened species. In addition, wetland ecotypes have
economic value associated with recreational, commercial, and subsistence
use of fish and wildlife resources and they remove pollutants from overland
flows before they reach our lakes, rivers and bays.
Wetlands intercept storm runoff and release floodwaters gradually to
downstream systems. When wetlands are converted to systems without water
retention capacity, downstream flooding problems increase.
From 1982 to 1992, a total of 768,700 acres
of wetlands were gained as a result of restoration activities around the
nation (USDA, 1997). Likewise, numerous miles of rivers and streams were
restored in our nations watersheds over the same time period. When properly
planned, executed and managed, restoration works; its success can be attributed
to the hard work and dedication of practitioners, scientists, and others
who seek to heal damaged natural systems and improve our communities.
Celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's
ecological, economic, and social health.
May, American Wetlands Month is also a great opportunity
to discover and teach others about the important role that wetlands
play in our environment and the significant benefits they provide -
improved water quality, increased water storage and supply, reduced
flood and storm surge risk, and critical habitat for plants, fish, and
wildlife.
In organizing its activities this year, EPA is placing special emphasis on encouraging Americans to:
Learn about wetlands.
This is a great time to better understand what a wetland is, where
wetlands can be found, and the importance of wetlands. Activities may
include reading and studying about wetland areas, drawing maps or
illustrations of wetlands, and identifying native species found in
wetlands. Information on wetlands and the important benefits they
provide is available on this website, through EPA's wetland fact sheet series, or by visiting the websites of our partners.
Explore a wetland near you.
Unless you live in the most extreme climate zones, there is a good
chance a scenic wetland exists nearby for you to visit and explore
during American Wetlands Month and throughout the year. To find a
wetland near you, consult your local parks department, state natural
resource agency, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov/refuges). If you live in the Washington, DC area, a guide has been created to highlight wetlands and wildlife sanctuaries.
Take action to protect and restore wetlands.
Support and promote wetlands informing community members about
wetlands' vital roles, "adopting" a wetland, joining a local watershed
group, or participating in a wetland monitoring, restoration, or
cleanup project. There are many other actions Americans can take to
help conserve wetlands.To learn more about what you can do to help
protect and restore these valuable natural resources in your state or
local area, visit http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/awm/#you.
Plumbing conservation is widely accepted and routinely called for in federal, state and local legislation, ordinances for new development and agency rebate programs.
These devices are making a measurable difference. For example, Los Angeles saw a 25 percent decrease in demand in the 1990s with a plumbing retrofit program funded by water agencies.
The major benefit of low-flow plumbing device programs is that they can be implemented without requiring a change in the behavior of end users.
Outdoor Water Conservation
Saving water indoors with low-flow plumbing is easy compared to controlling outdoor water waste. Yet the vast majority of household water flows outside.
A study conducted by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) shows that 58 percent of residential water is applied to landscapes. Gardening, recognized as the number one outdoor leisure activity, is growing in popularity as a national pastime.
According to a report published in the journal Environmental Management, some 40 million acres of the U.S. are covered in lawns, making turf the nation’s most irrigated crop.
And according to the American Water Works Association, most landscapes are overwatered by 30% to 300%, accounting for 80% of all landscape damage...and water waste!
SOLUTION: Remove the TURF and replace it with DROUGHT TOLERANT GARDENS or NATIVE HABITAT, etc. that reduces water use.
See more research studies that can help you save water at the Independent Research Studies webpage provided by WeatherTRAK.
Streams feed and pull from the groundwater supply, the water table. When streams in a region are low, landscaping is also vulnerable to drought conditions. Some regions are more susceptible to low streamflow conditions on a seasonal basis, but some areas have increasing population stresses put on a normally healthy ecosystem. Landscaping professionals and conscientious landowners can play an important role in the health of their ecosystem and their longterm water supply by applying conservation practices in selection of plant species that require minimal water, and using protective devices such as cisterns, swales and raingardens to protect the groundwater system from contaminants and pollution.
The Land Institute has worked for over 20 years on problems of agriculture. Their purpose is to develop an agricultural system with the
ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to
that from annual crops. They have researched, published in refereed
scientific journals, given hundreds of public presentations here and
abroad, and hosted countless intellectuals and scientists. They are now assembling a team
of advisors which includes members of the National Academy of Sciences.
These scientists understand thei work and stand ready to endorse the
feasibility of what they have come to call Natural Systems Agriculture.
The Land Institute's strategy includes collaboration with public institutions in order to
direct more research in the direction of Natural Systems Agriculture.
The team at the Land Institute feels
comfortable having demonstrated the scientific
feasibility of their proposal for a Natural Systems Agriculture. Because
this work deals with basic biological questions and principles, the
implications are applicable worldwide. If Natural Systems Agriculture
were fully adopted, we could one day see the end of agricultural
scientists from industrialized societies delivering agronomic methods
and technologies from their fossil fuel-intensive infrastructures into
developing countries and thereby saddling them with brittle economies.
Perennial Grain...a hybrid of intermediate wheatgrass and triticale could produce a more sustainable food crop that lives for years and builds deep root systems to tap deeper water sources.
According to Scientific American's article about the Land Institute in 2007, Americans assume food production is easy and highly efficient already. However, reality is that agriculture requires vast areas of land, regular high quantities of waer, energy and chemicals to meet the demands for our escalating human and animal populatons.
The UN sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment suggested that agriculture may be the "largest threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function of any single human activity." OUCH!
"Today, most of humanity's food comes directly or indirectly (as animals feed) from cereal grains, legumes and oilseed crops. These staples are appealing to producers and consumers because they are easy to transport and store, relatively imperishable, and fairly high in protein and calories. As a result, such crops occupy about 80% of global agricultural land. BUT, they are all annual plants, meaning that they must be grown anew from seeds every eyar, typically using resource-intensive cultivation methods. More troubling, the environmental degradation caused by agriculture will likely worsen as the hungry human population grows to eight billion or 10 billion in the coming decades."
Plant Breeders, Agronomists and Ecologists Strive for Solutions
Grain-cropping systems that functin much like natural ecosystems that have been displaced by agriculture is the holy grain for agriculture researchers.
Significant advances in plant breeding science are bringing this goal within sight at last!
Kansas plant geneticist Wes Jackson looked at the ecosystems that preceded agriculture to look for a solution. Mixtures of perennial plants once dominated nearly all the planet's landscapes and they still do in uncultivated areas today.
More than 85% of North America's native plant species are PERENNIALS.
Because annuals have relatively shallow roots -- most less than 0.3 meters -- farming areas have problems with erosion, foil fertility depletion and water contamination...and lack of nature's natural farmers, wildlife.
Today the traits of perennials are becoming better appreciated for their root depths of more than two meters, plant communities that regulate ecosystem functions such as water management and carbon and nitrogen cycling. They are also highly productive yet resilient in the face of environmental stresses.
Timothy grass, a perennial hay crop, is roughly 54 times more effective in maintaining topsoil than annual crops. Scientists also find a fivefold reduction in water loss and a 35-fold reduction in nitrate loss from soil planted with alfalfa and mixed perennial grasses compared with soil under corn and soybeans.
Carbon sequestration by perennials is also boosted. Carbon is the main ingredient of soil organic matter and can contain 50% more than annually cropped fields. And perennial fields do not need to be worked every year, so less farm machinery cycles and less fertilizers and pestcides also reduce fossil fuel use.
Wildlife also benefits -- bird populations can be seven times more dense in perennial crop fields than annual crop fields.
And perennials are far more capable of sustainable cultivation on marginal lands, which already have poor soil quality or would be quickly depleted by a few years of intensive annual cropping.
Perennial plant breeding research are focusing on wheat, sorghum, sunflower, intermediate wheatgrass and other species as perennial grain crops.
At The Land Institute, breeders are working both on domesticating perennial wheatgrass and on crossing assorted perennial wheatgrass species with annual wheats. Although perennial crops such as alfalfa and sugarcane already exist around the world, none has seed yields comparable to those of annual grain crops...and here is where creative plant breeding works with the growing environment, selective breeding stock, and judicious use of fertilizers to increase the yield of these perennial grains.
Deep roots mean resilience, and that trait might be more important than many short term plant attributes currently valued by agriculture.
Additional programs include the Climate and Energy Project (CEP)
See www.climateandenergy.org . The Land Institute formed this new project on climate and energy in February 2007.
Because of the close connections between climate change, energy from coal, and agricultural vulnerabilities -- research is growing to explore the issues and find solutions to the issues that connect energy and farming.
The Land Institute 2440 E. Water Well Road, Salina, KS 67401 785-823-5376 www.landinstitute.org
Nancy Jackson, Project Director
Climate and Energy Project
P.O. Box 442217
Lawrence, KS 66044
Ph: 785-331-8743
jackson@climateandenergy.org
www.climateandenergy.org
Celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's
ecological, economic, and social health. 
This interactive map is available at the 
