The Providential Gardener

Rhode Island's Eco-Blogging Scene: PostCarbon Rhode Island

This morning I heard from PostCarbon Rhode Island, a new blog that entered the world just three days after 2008, on January 3. It's a great website with info on efforts to deal with energy and natural resource issues locally in South County. Looks like they are doing some reverse globalization, taking national-level resources and using them for local good.

They focus on sustainability and "relocalization":

Building on the models established by groundbreaking organizations worldwide, we hope to serve as a clearinghouse of information, a means of networking, and an organizing hub for those who share a sense of urgency in these endeavors.

The author writes,

...we have been approved as a new member of Post Carbon Institute's Relocalization Network, a worldwide network of more than 150 groups working in the areas of relocalization planning. Our efforts with our group are still in the early stages...

Several of the posts are about starting a community garden or gardens in South Kingstown, which I'm sure would interest many folks around there. Community gardens are sprouting up all over the place. If anyone else knows of other people cultivating such ideas, please let me know! I stumbled onto Sustainable Sakonnet a couple of weeks ago, which shares similar interests with PostCarbon Rhode Island; how many more Rhode Islanders are blogging away out there on environmental topics?

Here are some other sustainability and garden blogs that are based in Rhode Island. You know, using Google and the other search engines is simply not an efficient way to find focused local information ~ they're better at the big picture and finding leads. The rich information sources are what librarians call the "hidden web," the stuff within websites that is never indexed by the search engines. Blogs show up better in Google searches than regular web pages, but still it helps to have local folks organizing local information. This is especially true in gardening because of the variations in climate and ecosystems.

When you need local information, start with Rhode Island-based blogs:

    Primarily gardening info:

• Blithewold Blog ~ A fabulous journal recording the Blithewold gardens in Bristol, RI
• Earth Friendly Gardening ~ A beautifully presented and fascinating garden blog
• Ledge and Gardens ~ Another fabulous journal recording a Northern RI garden
• Projo Garden Blog ~ "What's growing in RI gardens and how"

Eco/environmental blogs, some of which may also have gardening info:

• Baykeeper Blog ~ Save the Bay
• Controlling Carbon ~ A RISD blog
• Natural News Network Blog
• PostCarbon Rhode Island
• Projo Energy Blog
• Sustainable Agriculture @ URI
• Sustainable Sakonnet

Visit What Grows On in Rhode Island!

What Grows On in Rhode Island

is your personal assistant for environmental news.
See what's "growing on" locally and do your part!

What Grows On in Rhode Island ~ Mid October 2007

Don't forget to check What Grows On in Rhode Island ~ a sister blog to Providential Gardener that is a kind of newswire service, publishing press releases and meeting announcements I receive of upcoming events. You can send environmental event notices to postinfo@providentialgardener.com for that blog.
It really helps if you send announcements ahead of time. I cannot always get last minute notices onto the blog fast enough. Three days or more is good. I posted twelve new announcements today (October 11, 2007) of events scheduled in the next few weeks.

Also, see The Providential Gardener Calendar, which organizes these announcements and even more events by hour, day, month. On Saturday, for instance, there's trail planning, a teacher workshop on bay animals, bird carving, tree pruning, and a sustainability volunteer work day, to say nothing of all the farmers' markets that are still going strong with the warm weather we've been having. And it's still Coastweeks, I think. So enjoy your weekend!

Keeping Up with Environmental News in Rhode Island

We are lucky in Rhode Island to have an increasing number of dedicated individuals and groups that watch out for our environment in one way or another. And they are producing some great online publications available to anyone who wants to subscribe. Here are a few newsletters and blogs I see:

• Natural News Network ~ "Rhode Island's own online magazine about your environment -- the news and info you need to explore it, have fun outside, keep up with local issues, live greener, and get involved."
• Environment Rhode Island Report ~ "sent to Environment Rhode Island members three times a year by Environment Rhode Island."
• The Fence Post ~ "Stay current with the happenings along Rhode Island FarmWays. Learn more about our Rhode Island FarmWays places. Get announcements about seasonal events and special offers for Fence Post subscribers."
• Audubon's eWing (for general public) and Nature Notes (for educators)
• Rhode Island River Council e-News

And note that Save the Bay now has some blogs, including the BayKeeper blog by John Torgan. There aren't as many blogs as we currently have menhaden in the Providence River yet, but who knows, there may be more bloggers and news sources for our state's environment than we can possibly count some day soon.

Now, how to keep up with all of this? Well, we don't have to. That's not the point, and it's not possible anyway, so don't try to do that. But at least seek out one blog or news source about something you really love, subscribe, and open the emails they send! There are many entry points to environmental news about our wonderful shared garden called Rhode Island, so start where you are, choose something you enjoy, and go for it. The sidebar of this blog lists more than 50 Rhode Island environmental organizations, and I'll bet you'll find something worth reading ~ and doing!

What Grows On ~ September 13 ~ 16

How to Keep up With What's Growing On...

1. Remember to check What Grows On in Rhode Island regularly for press releases and detailed  announcements about upcoming environmental events in Rhode Island. Announcements are posted as they are received.
2. Zip over often to The Providential Gardener Calendar for a listing of day-by-day environmental events in Rhode Island.
3. But I'm surely not listing everything yet, although it is my goal for The Providential Gardener Calendar. You will also find great things to do outdoors in Rhode Island as well as other news and information at Natural News.

Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices Manual Published

From the Center for Watershed Protection in Ellicott City, Maryland:

The Center has released the Latest Manual in the Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual Series.

Until now, no definitive guidance has been available on the art and science of urban retrofitting. The Center for Watershed Protection's new manual reflects over two decades of Center experience in retrofitting more than 25 urban watersheds across the country.

As a country, we have degraded many of our small urban watersheds. Nearly 80% of them were developed without effective stormwater practices. The key to restoring these watersheds lies in the practice of stormwater retrofitting, which involves subwatershed detective work, storm drain forensics and imaginative design.

This manual outlines the basics of retrofits, describes the 13 unique locations where they can be found, and presents rapid methods to find, design and deliver retrofits to meet a wide range of subwatershed objectives.

The concepts of retrofitting are illustrated in more than 75 figures, 150 photos, 60 tables and nine appendices. The manual contains

• updated costs for retrofit practices,
• updated pollutant removal data for stormwater treatment options,
• a design point method to estimate individual retrofit removal rates, and
• practical tips to support the design, permitting and construction of retrofit projects.

In short, the manual provides all the resources needed to develop an effective local retrofit program. This 400+ page guidance is available as a free download on the Center website. A hard copy of this manual will soon be made available.

Download Manual 3: Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices

North Main Street Project: An Example of Residents Shaping Their Neighborhood

One reason for haphazard, ugly, people-unfriendly, and/or environmentally unsound development is the absence of neighborhood residents in town and city planning processes. Nobody thinks about what it's going to be like to LIVE near the results of development or redevelopment. Some people in Providence, however, are setting an example of constructive and proactive resident involvement in what their own neighborhood could be.

The Providential Gardener will be following their activities as they develop plans and influence changes on the part of North Main Street in Providence that stretches from Branch Avenue/Cypress Street (at the entry of North Burial Ground) to the Pawtucket city line. For those of you not in the immediate neighborhood, this section of North Main Street goes past:

• North Burial Ground, dating from 1700
• the Dexter House (built in 1755) at Rochambeau Avenue,
• "where the Auditorium used to be" (I understand Rocky Marciano's fights were held there, among many other events, but it's now a parking lot for The Miriam Hospital),
• the Armory, headquarters of the RI National Guard 103rd Field Artillery Regiment, and
• the derelict Sears Roebuck building on North Main.

The task is daunting. North Burial Ground isn't in the best of shape, but it could be another Mount Auburn Cemetery (see an earlier story), and several buildings are long abandoned, making for a depressing sight. It's worth your life to cross the street, and this commercial strip isn't well integrated into the neighboring residential areas. You can't walk from nearby homes to banks, dry cleaners, or a grocery store, for instance, because there aren't any. [There's a drug store, though, and a couple of blocks away, a major chain is building another big drug store. What does this mean? Is there only money in serving sick people? Are we all sick yet?]

So what are North Main Street's neighbors doing about this?  What's been done so far? Click on the picture in this post to enlarge it so you can read it for details. In sum:

• Organized a group of partners (click on the picture above for the list)
• Set goals, for instance,
  
  • New jobs for Providence residents [near the neighborhood]
  • More homes and people on North Main
  • Model Smart Growth & green buildings
  • New business start-ups
  • Destination attractions: shopping, entertainment, restaurants, park
  • Safe pedestrian routes and paths
  • Efficient, low-emission transit options
• Identified a process:
  • Define the problem
  • Find out what the neighbors want
  • Figure out how to make happen what folks want
• Align with larger planning processes such as The Providence Tomorrow Initiative's series of charrettes, part of the new Providence Comprehensive Plan. More background on the development of the North Main Street Project are on the Summit Neighborhood Association (SNA) blog. The SNA has a meeting on Monday, September 17, to prepare for the neighborhood charrettes being held the week of September 24 for the Blackstone, Mount Hope, and Summit neighborhoods in the northeastern section of Providence. 

Stay tuned! And send news of others who are making innovative plans for improving their neighborhoods. For instance, here's another neighborhood's plans: a March 2007 story about Washington Park/South Elmwood in Providence.

What's Going Down on the Farm

Rhode Island Farmways has wagon loads of things to do this summer. Their calendar lists events such as therapeutic horseback riding and many concerts at Rhode Island farms and vineyards, which are increasingly the venue of choice for summer outdoor entertainments.

I will be adding some of the events to The Providential Gardener Calendar, but if you love music, you might also check their website now and then for the concerts, because I won't be listing them here. RI Farmways has a activities search page to explore as well. Or sign up for their newsletter, The Fence Post.

Ticks

I was looking over recent articles in the Providence Journal tonight, and I'd like to highlight a couple of them in separate posts from the Projo Digest series I started a few weeks ago. I suppose you might like it if I added links to the articles, but creating posts takes a lot of time and if you go to www.projo.com and type in a few keywords from the titles, you will get the text of the article ~ at least I'm finding them pretty easily when I go looking for them, so their website works pretty well.

Rhode Islanders should especially note that URI has started a tick study, according to an article on Monday, June 18, by Peter B. Lord. This is important research. I know of someone who just came down with a fever of 104 degrees and has been told it's Lyme Disease. URI researchers would like Rhode Islanders to fill out a 56-question survey at www.tickencounter.org. The website is also informative, describing what ticks look like, what diseases they cause, where they are most often found. Additionally, it tells the stories of some people who have contracted tick-caused diseases and indicates where you can get tested for these diseases.

www.tickencounter.org is a very useful resource, and I urge you to check it out.

Count the Butterflies in Rhode Island!

Here are the details on how to participate in the upcoming Rhode Island Butterfly Count, from July Lewis of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island....