SITES project participants talk sustainable landscape certification - The Wildflower Center

                                          ABOVE: Paddlers at Kayak Beach, Scenic Hudson's
                                           Long Dock Park. Photo by Scenic Hudson.
                                         (Photos taken from The Wildflower Center website)


In Beacon, New York, the past two summers have offered what you might expect from a Hudson River town. Hundreds of visitors and residents can be found each day at Scenic Hudson's Long Dock Park kayaking, canoeing and learning to fish in the river while others picnic, sunbathe and watch wildlife from its banks. As little as two years ago, however, the Dutchess County site was an entirely different scene.
A critical 19th-century transportation link between New England and points west, Long Dock once contained a rail ferry terminal and an oil storage facility but had become a contaminated, ecologically degraded industrial site closed off to the public.
“There were Do-Not-Enter signs everywhere,” says Margery Groten of nonprofit organization Scenic Hudson, which began the long planning process to restore public access to this portion of the river through Scenic Hudson’s Long Dock Park nearly 20 years ago. This month, the park became one of the eight pilot projects newly certified by the Sustainable SITES Initiative™ (SITES™) for its sustainable site design, construction and maintenance.
....

SITES is intended to do for landscape sustainability what LEED® certification did for green building.

....
Scenic Hudson, which has a 50-year history of creating or improving more than 60 parks and protecting more than 30,000 acres, has adopted SITES principles for all new parks and preserves that it develops. Of its most ambitious project to date, Scenic Hudson’s Long Dock Park, Groten says, “We hope that it can now serve as a model for how all landscape development — not just park development — can be done along the Hudson River.”
Groten and Crowley are most proud of the degree to which the park allows people access to the river. They agree that of all the SITES credit areas to which Long Dock Park applied, it was the SITES human health and well-being category where all of the work appeared to coalesce. Groten says, “Using the right sustainable materials allows the park to endure for public use and caring for the once-degraded soils ensures that the park is now healthy for human use. Scenic Hudson’s Long Dock Park will educate people about sustainability for decades to come.”

To Read the entire article please visit: wildflower.org

Honey Bees

Pollinator Conservation- from www.xerces.org

 

 

Pollinators are essential to our environment. The ecological service they provide is necessary for the reproduction of nearly 70 percent of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species. The United States alone grows more than one hundred crops that either need or benefit from pollinators, and the economic value of these native pollinators is estimated at $3 billion per year in the U.S. Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25 percent of all birds, and of mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears. In many places, the essential service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases.

To Read More or to Take action visit: http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/learn-about-pollinators/