Sunday, September 30, 2007

Rain Garden information for Red Oak neighbors and others Page 1

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE TO READ EASILY

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't there some self-promotion in this online publication of a brochure from Pennsylvania? You have a photo credit on it!

October 5, 2007 at 6:28 PM
Anonymous said...

His flickr photo site has hundreds of photos. I would imagine he has had plenty of photo credits when people pull them off that site and publish them. He should be charging for some of them.

October 5, 2007 at 11:04 PM
aubunique said...

You are correct that I donated a photo that was requested by a woman gathering material for the Pittsburgh brochure. She asked for it back in the summer and sent me the file of the finished publication by e-mail just in time to share it when the Red Oak Park issue came to public attention.
I don't get money for such publication because I consider it a pleasure to see the photo being used for the very purpose that I made it: public education on wetland and watershed issues.

As we gradually remove nonnative species of plants from World Peace Wetland Prairie bird-nesting and roosting habitat is being lost.
The native button bush will grow to a height allowing some birds to nest in it and there were quite a few beautiful button bushes on the wetter parts of the land before a speculator who later sold the land to a developer brushhogged the land twice in one year.

While button bushes may come back from their roots when cut down, they appear to need at least two growing seasons and some take longer before they mature enough to bloom and provide nectaring for pollinators.
Some may take 10 years to get tall and strong enough actually to benefit nesting birds. Their foliage isn't dense, so birds that require thickets will be hoping some of the existing young trees with vines on them remain.

World Peace Wetland Prairie is only a fragment of the prairie acreage that previously existed. The clearing of nearly 30 acres for Aspen Ridge wiped out the habitat of millions of living things.

If you look at the 1965 aerial photos of the area, it is obvious the WPWP was never open grassland. It was the spot where water from a much large savanna/prairie area and deposited leaves and stems and, over time, created the dense, rich organic soil that, in a wet year, doubles the speed of growth of many plants on the 2-acre nature area.
So, yes, I am proud of my photos because they don't harm anything. I am proudest, however, of the fact that some natural spots remain in our city and would like to see see developers go to the city planning commission with plans bragging about what they are NOT going to do to such land.

"We will minimize earth-moving and build only what will fit on the site and our payback will take longer, but we will be happy to sell people homes with trees and native grass and shrubs and low-cost of landscaping and maintenance.
"Our stormwater plan is to allow the water to soak in where it falls and minimize runoff and prevent all erosion, even during construction."

A photo can't stop the current destruction. But enough photos and enough public support and education gradually will make a change.

We are far behind the times. We don't even have a watershed or wetland commission. Our city's environmental concerns committee doesn't have any veto power when development plans come in with little or no provision for protecting nature.

October 6, 2007 at 9:52 AM

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