The Providential Gardener

Taking Root and Other Films at RI International Film Festival

The RI International Film Festival has several films on "green" themes this year. Nobel Prize winner, Mangari Maathai, is the subject of Taking Root about the Green Belt Movement in Kenya that resulted in reforestation. This film is showing at Macmillan Hall on Sunday, August 10, at 5pm, along with Hidden in the Leaves, a film produced in RI about ticks.

Professor Maathai discovered her life's work by reconnecting with the rural women with whom she had grown up. They told her their lives had become intolerable: they were walking longer distances for firewood, clean water was scarce, the soil was disappearing, and their children were suffering from malnutrition. Maathai thought to herself, 'Well, why not plant trees?' A seemingly innocuous idea, Maathai soon discovered that tree planting had a ripple effect of empowering change.

Also note that a film about Denmark's wind farms, The View and the Vision, is also being shown at Bell St Chapel, Providence, 2:15pm on Saturday, August 9.

February 2008 School Vacation Week ~ Nature & Outdoor Activities in Rhode Island

Not only is there a LOT going on at the Flower Show, but this is also School Vacation Week.

For dozens of things to do with your children, see the Calendar. Soon you'll be able to view the Calendar in categories ~ separating the Children's Events from Gardening Events, for instance. You can see it will be really helpful ~ At the moment, the Calendar is listing about 20 activities for everybody to do on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but it's up to 37 total events on Thursday. All the Flower Show events begin with "RI Flower Show." But some Flower Show events are for children also.

Especially note that the first "Kids and Carnivores" program is Tuesday the 19th at Roger Williams Park Botanical Center (RWPBC) Mayor David N. Cicilline has announced that starting Monday, February 18, the first 100 kids (14 and under) who visit the Botanical Center will also receive their very own Venus Fly Trap!

All of these organizations have special children's activities during the School Vacation Week, and they also are generally great places to spend the morning or afternoon whenever you can go. Save the Bay does not seem to have specific activities for children, but its wonderful headquarters on the Bay is also open for exploring this week each day from 10am to 4pm.

You will find, in Agenda format (though you can change to Calendar formats if you like), children's events at:

• Audubon Society of RI (Bristol)
• Biomes (North Kingstown)
• Providence Children's Museum
• Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center (Mystic, CT)
• George Hail Library (Warren)
• Haffenreffer Museum (Bristol)
• Jamestown Philomenian Library
• Mashantucket Pequot Museum (CT)
• RI Spring Flower & Garden Show
• RWP Museum
• RWP Zoo
• RWP Botanical Center

There's surely no reason to leave any child inside at home this week!

What did I miss? There must be more! Send info to Providential Gardener ASAP if you know of other outdoor/nature/environment-related activities for children, large or small.

Protect Rhode Island's Plants as You Plan Your Natural Holiday Decorations

The Providential Gardener received the following press release from the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society, which I'm publishing in its entirety:

PROTECT RHODE ISLAND’S PLANTS

PLANTS USED FOR DECORATIONS 

As the holiday season approaches, many of us are beginning to think about natural decorations:  wreaths of hemlock, sprigs of holly, boughs of fir, twining or ground pine, vases of sea lavender…we love the colors, textures, and smells of these gifts from nature.  Unfortunately, many of our plants are in danger of being loved to death as people tramp the woods and fields in search of them, and dealers in holiday decorations strip our public lands.

There is a law to protect these plants.  It is known as the “Christmas Greens” law (State of R.I. & Providence Plantations, Chapter 15, General Laws 1956, 2-15-12 through 2-15-17).  It is illegal to take a part, or the whole, of any plant protected by this law, unless you are on your own property, or have written permission from the owner of a property. 

All plants on state property are protected; this includes state parks, management areas, state beaches and salt marshes.  You must have written permission from the Department of Environmental Management to dig or cut plants in these areas.  All plants on Nature Conservancy and Audubon Society of Rhode Island properties are also protected.

Visit the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society website at www.riwps.org to view illustrations of plants protected by the Christmas Greens law.  There are many.  Please respect this law and encourage others to respect it too.  Try to avoid purchasing decorations from dealers who steal from public lands or private property of others, and let them know why you won’t purchase from them.

For further information, contact the RIWPS office

(401) 789-7497 or www.riwps.org

~ Prepared by the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society, Inc., PO Box 414, Exeter, RI  02822 ~

The Rhode Island Wild Plant Society is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the preservation, protection and propagation of our native plants.

Edible Forest Gardens

If you follow through on the link to The Real Food Summit (the post before this one), you'll find links to a great green blog by NYU students called The Wild Green Yonder. They work on such things as local food initiatives in New York City. Their post, "Three Shades of Green," caught my eye, as did Edible Forest Gardening, another blog. This fascinating approach is gardening like the forest, as described on the About page:

...Edible forest gardening is the art and science of putting plants together in woodlandlike patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. You can grow fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, other useful plants, and animals in a way that mimics natural ecosystems. You can create a beautiful, diverse, high-yield garden. If designed with care and deep understanding of ecosystem function, you can also design a garden that is largely self-maintaining....

...Forest gardeners use the forest as a design metaphor, a model of structure and function, while adapting the design to focus on meeting human needs in a small space. While you can forest garden if you have a shady site, it is best if your garden site has good sun if you want the highest yields of fruits, nuts, berries, and most other products. Edible forest gardening is about expanding the horizons of our food gardening across the full range of the successional sequence, from field to forest, and everything in between.

I must read up on this! I think it would really suit me with its emphasis on perennials. Personally, I prefer my gardens to require as little intervention from me as possible. I'm still spending a lot of time out there refereeing the reseeding and spreading plants that compete with each other for room. This year, although we are (still!) in a drought, I watered as little as possible ~ I'd just as soon have plants that survive and thrive without needing life-support systems. As far as the lawn goes, well, it goes as far as it will grow well. If there are too many problems with a section of lawn, I make it into another garden. I'd rather have plants that can survive dry spells than be out watering every day or install an irrigation system.

Forest gardening sounds like the way to go. Have you ever heard of Forest Gardening, and do you know anyone in Rhode Island with a "forest garden?"

Volunteers Sought for Rhode Island's Wildlife Refuges

On October 9, 2007, the Providence Journal highlighted the problems Trustom Pond Refuge in Charlestown, RI, is facing due to serious funding cuts. Two articles worth reading were in the paper on page B1:

• Cutbacks at refuges puts staff, volunteers on endangered list ~ by Peter B. Lord
• Reed wants children to get out there ~ by Natalie Garcia (No Child Left Inside)

"...People willing to volunteer at the refuges should contact volunteer coordinator Janna Greenhalgh at 364-9124, ext 29, or Janna_greenhalgh@fws.gov. For more information on the refuges, go to www.fws.gov/refuges."

There is some hope that the new legislation Jack Reed has sponsored, No Child Left Inside, may eventually provide financing for wildlife refuge programs, but meanwhile the staff is trying to recruit retired school teachers or others with expertise in education and with nature. Defenders of Wildlife, a national environmental organization, has reported that "Rhode Island's refuges were among 10 around the country 'that are feeling the effects of years of inadequate funding and a failure to uphold core refuge values.'" (See www.defenders.org/refugesatrisk). I don't think this means the actual staff in Rhode Island, but rather the results of the current administration's lack of financial support for the refuges. The staff is doing all it can to find grant money and teachers to keep their extensive educational program going. If you can help, this is a fine opportunity.

Note the Defenders of Wildlife's press release on Rhode Island's refuges, and also the one-page summary about Rhode Island's 5 refuges from the report.

The Mannahatta Project ~ and, Perhaps, The Mooshausic Project?

The New Yorker Magazine's October 1, 2007, issue has a wonderful article, The Mannahatta Project: What did New York look like before we arrived? Work is underway to develop views of the lay of the land, the ponds and springs, and the vegetation of the island of Manhattan as accurately as possible ~ "down to the varieties of moss."

The Mannahatta Project is lead by Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. The project has two phases:

• Establish geographical models for Manhattan based on historical records, descriptions, and maps.
• Outreach and public education through posting of signs around the city explaining the natural history of, say Times Square, "to help New Yorkers learn about their forgotten, wild past."

The project will be one highlight of the 400th anniversary celebration of New York City in 2009.

Reading the article made me wonder what the original name of Providence was. It is not mentioned in most recent Rhode Island histories I have at hand here. A little web research, plus a little knowledge of the geographic characteristics of the land where the first English settlement was (i.e., North Main Street just south of Smith Street) indicates it would have been called by the name of the river that entered The Great Salt Cove, the Mosshasuck, which means "Great brook in the marshy meadow; great fish; meadow." Providence was Mooshausic in a document quoted in The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, p. 115, by Thomas Bicknell in 1920. This first settlement was at a crossroads of what are now Routes 1, 6, and 44, and it was not inhabited by Narragansetts, I believe, but was used as a meeting place for trading among different tribes in the area. If anyone has more accurate historical information, I'd be happy to have corrections.

Now, if you have ever wandered around downtown Providence, especially on a Waterfire night, you may realize that we have already compiled similar research for what Providence looked like before the English arrived. In the passage under Memorial Boulevard, between Waterplace and the plaza where Union Station Brewery is, the walls have several maps of how the city used to be. In fact, the Mall is sitting in what once was The Great Salt Cove. Take a look at them the next time you are at Waterfire (the next ones are October 6 and 27, 2007).

The New Yorker article has an accompanying slideshow of 11 renderings of such places as Tribeca, Murray Hill, Times Square, and the southern tip of Manhattan, which was originally much smaller than it is today. Boy, did people move a lot of earth around, and probably mostly with horses or oxen and carts.

Providence already has its posted historical illustrations, for instance, of the ford over the Providence River at Weybosset (which means "narrow place or crossing" in Algonquin). You'll see several of these posters on downtown bridges in the Waterfire area. Stop and think about them. 

It's probably a deep-set Rhode Island trait to try to see everything "the way it used to be." I always find it intriguing to imagine how quiet the land once was, but how difficult it must have been to live here; and what vistas there were, and how the landfill wasn't visible from Providence once upon a time (which it now is, folks)! Maybe some creative ones among us will learn from the Mannahatta Project how to do a full-blown Mooshausic Project to help Rhode Islanders understand our state's ecology and our place in it. 

What is a "Certified Forest Ally"?

The Providential Gardener scans the Providence Journal regularly for their reporting on "what's growing on" in Rhode Island and posts the article titles, with occasional comment. You can find all of these posts under the category PROJO DIGEST. While this is derivative rather than original research, there's no point in reinventing the wheel, and the Providence Journal is reporting on many environmental issues the public needs investigated. When I can, I'm adding some further background on news stories reported elsewhere so Rhode Islanders will be even better informed.

This news brief [scan down the page] was in the Projo on June 20, 2007, and that's how I came to read about the "chain of custody certification" program of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). According to the FSC,

Chain-of-custodý is the path taken by raw materials from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution.

The first U.S. engraving company to earn this certification is just over the border: Artcraft Company is located in North Attleboro, MA. This company also has earned the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood certification program. There are four Smartwood certifications. These function for wood products somewhat like fair trade coffee certification does, assuring consumers that products have been tracked from their origins to retail outlets and have met the criteria the certifications specify. A Providence resident, Vincent Standley, wrote a 2005 article at the National Geographic Traveler comparing coffee and wood certification programs: " Where Fair Trade Certification works to ensure fair wages and labor practices, Rainforest Alliance Certification works to transform land-use and business practices as well as consumer choices to protect ecosystems."

Are any Rhode Island companies seeking Smartwood certifications? And what about Rhode Island forests and their products? As with most issues, there is substantial background to master. Blog posts can hardly scratch the surface. But here are a few starting points for further research if you are interested in seeing such programs develop in Rhode Island:

• Heidi Hausman wrote her 2003 senior thesis at Brown on this topic. See her summary slides, "The Future of Certification for Rhode Island Forests and Forest Products."
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative is another certification program Heidi Hausman compares with Smartwood
• Evaluation and Assessment of Sustainable Forestry Initiative
• Analysis: Sustainable Forestry Initiative.... ~ This report appears to be critical - website is named "dontbuysfi.com"

Lots of knotty issues here. Forestry folks, RI Tree Council members, and companies involved in wood products need to understand all the aspects of such certifications. Many of them probably already do. Contact the DEM Forestry Division and ask your questions about our state forests.

Wildlife at Work

A couple of days ago on Saturday, I posted news of Fidelity Investments' participation in National Pollinator Week, June 24-30, through the Wildlife at Work program. Now that it's the work week again, I want to remind readers of this and give a little more info about Wildlife at Work. Maybe another company in Rhode Island would like to become certified.

Fidelity went through the 2-year process to become certified in the Wildlife at Work project recently at their 500-acre Smithfield, Rhode Island campus. The formal Widlife at Work certification process is a big undertaking, and not every company can devote the staff time to it. The only other company in Rhode Island with this certification is Raytheon, as far as I have heard. [The Providential Gardener always welcomes corrections if I get the facts wrong ~ Please advise if you know things to be otherwise.] But maybe smaller companies might want to explore this program and implement some segments of it informally.

The Wildlife Habitat Council encourages employees to get "Wild at Work" by participating in a wildlife management team at their place of employment. WHC's Habitat Opportunities Report and Team Kit are valuable step-by-step guides for employees and employers as they establish, develop and manage a wildlife program, leading up to WHC accreditation. When corporations, conservation groups, the community and WHC come together to plan a wildlife habitat enhancement program, Wildlife at Work is in action.

Wildlife at Work is the foundation of WHC, from which other programs spring, such as Corporate Lands for Learning and Wings of Wonder.

These strong community-based projects receive increased public recognition and environmental awards by related industry associations. WHC’s annual Registry of Certified Programs is recognized globally as a source for the press, general public and government representatives.

A Flare for Planting Trees

Planting trees was one of the topics on the Garden Guys show on March 18, 2007. Read on so you can develop a flair for planting trees. The secret is the tree trunk's flare.

(By the way, the Garden Guys' program is now streamed" which means that if you are away from the local airwaves that carry  their show,  you can hear it live from anywhere by clicking on the little radio on their website, www.garden-guys.com. So now every Sunday from 8 to 10 am you can hear The Garden Guys through any online computer, even if you are in Europe or Nebraska! Great news, and thanks for implementing this, WHJJ!

Most important is FLARE CARE. Trees are ALIVE and need to BREATHE in their own way. Folks, the FLARE is where the TREE BREATHES. When the Garden Guys explained that the trunk flare had to be exposed, NOT covered with mulch, the caller with the tree question asked what the flare of a tree is. Here are some links to more information, and some great pictures.

Tree Organizations in Rhode Island

I've just received notice of the Newport Tree Society's lecture, Protecting, Preserving, and Rejuvenating Newport's Aging Urban Forest, to be held on March 6, 2007, 7:00 p.m. at The Pell Center. You may not have realized it, but because of Newport's mild climate and wealthy residents who have been planting trees for more than one hundred years, Newport has a spectacular collection of extraordinary, enormous trees from all over the world.

Following the meeting, a few low-cost specimen trees, grown at local nurseries, will be for sale (pick up at a later date). This is a fabulous list of trees! Red Oak, Dawn Redwood, Rivers Purple Beech, Blue Atlas Cedar....

Many organizations care about the trees in Rhode Island. Of course there is the Rhode Island Tree Council, TreeLink (which is somewhat out of date), and the RI Division of Forest Management. Several cities have tree codes and regulations, and some have tree wardens. Providence has a City Forester. Nine Rhode Island towns/cities are recognized as holding the official title, Tree City USA. The Land Trusts also actively care for our forests and woodlands.

Some other cities and towns in Rhode Island have their own active organizations dedicated to trees, many of which are city/town commissions. Here are a few of them:

• Bristol Tree Commission
• Middletown Tree Commission
• Newport Tree Commission
• Tiverton Tree Commission
• Warren Tree Commission
• Warwick Tree Commission

These are only some of the groups concerned about Rhode Island's trees and forests. Send news about your town's tree-planning and -caretaking activities.