community

‘Are you aware our present-day ‘green revolution’ is a relatively new phenomenon?’ It was in 1942 that Jerome Rodale published his Organic Farming and Gardening, renamed Organic Gardening. In 1949, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac espoused ethical land usage and in 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, emphasizing the effect of pesticides on wildlife.

As a result, focus shift toward organic gardening: mass-produced organic grown farm produce, nontoxic methods for pest control, recycling in the form of composting, and regional natural garden designs. Recognizing the effect, gardeners not only respect an existing vista but began to preserve and enhance it; in other words, North American gardeners adopt the concept of being a caretaker of space, an ecological gardener.

Nevertheless, the average American still slurp leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. And, air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. More often, the environment was a word that appeared in spelling bees rather than on the evening news. Then, on April 22, 1970 an event occurred that ignited our present-day 21st. Century Green Revolution. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest "to shake up the political establishment” and force this issue onto the national agenda.

More than 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly became well-known.

On Wednesday the 22nd of 2009, what are you doing to mark this celebrated event, Earth Day? While you could choose to participate in publicly organized events, there is another option, create your own. Won’t you join me in an effort to inspire the opening of individual backyard garden gates? Together, let's celebrate the living green in our own backyard!

TreeHugger's Land Sharing Is The New Trend article, though focusing on the UK, interests me because there are so many ways it could be applied to our own towns...

This is certainly not a new trend- people have been working collectively for local agricultural benefit for eons. My family farm had such a relationship - when we no longer had horses, we allowed a neighbor farmer to regularly cut the hay in the fields and roads. The hay was then his, and used to feed his livestock, and we didn't have to spend the hours bush hogging the trails or mowing the fields. It was a great relationship that worked for us all!

Where we live in the city is in an old urban neighborhood that has nicely sized back yards. We have always had a productive garden, but there are many here who are in their eighties and nineties who can't garden any more... And this is really where the TreeHugger article hits home to me.

How wonderful for an older person, often alone, no longer out and about, to have enthusiastic younger people working their back yard plot? Think about all the great things that could come from this, taking the community garden a step further from the median strips and publicly owned city land, into the private realm... mutually beneficial.

Wonderful! Just some... food for thought. : ) And smart growth!

Building Green is one of the most important things we can do. When it is done on a neighborhood scale the advantages are multiplied exponentially. One inspiring example of building green on a neighborhood scale is the New Urbanist sustainable community of Oshara Village now under construction in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This unique New Urbanist environmental village, the first to combine New Urbanism and Sustainable Neighborhood Design, is the first example of its kind in the United States. Oshara will allow residents to drastically reduce their use of non-renewable resources and overall energy consumption. Studies by New Village Institute in Santa Fe estimate that energy used for driving will be cut by 60% and home energy use by over 50%. Through wise land planning, mixed-use zoning, green built homes and commercial buildings, and water recycling, Oshara Village will become one of the most green communities in the Unites States.

So I have a confession to make - and you may see a few of these from me as I take steps to lessen my own carbon footprint.

As horrible as I am at it (I'm not even being modest--anyone who has played with me will agree), I really enjoy the game of golf. But I've been having a more and more difficult time finding it to be the relaxing experience it is supposed to be as I am becoming more conscious about the environmental impacts. With each golf course ranging from 75-150 acres (and they've been increasing in size apparently as improvements in equipment have allowed people to hit the ball further distances-- note I seem to be the exception to this "benefit"), you can see how the effects of water usage and land consumption could really add up. The ecosystem of Palm Springs, for example, has totally changed over the years due to all of the courses and artificial humidity, and has had a notable effect on water flows in the Colorado River from whence a lot of the required water comes.

I was pleased to discover that there are some efforts underway to get courses to be more environmentally friendly, however. Borrowing from Wikipedia: "The modern golf course superintendent is often trained in the uses of these [more environmentally sound] practices and grasses. This has led to some mitigation in the amount of chemicals and water used on courses. The turf on golf courses is an excellent filter for water and has been used in many communities to cleanse grey water, such as incorporation of bioswales." The USGA website talks about environmental impacts of golf, though they seem to still be in the research stages (and have been since 1991....)

I recall taking a walk on a golf course with my father many years ago-- he used the setting to explain the concepts of Permaculture which is a something I've been fascinated by ever since and I still have a goal of learning more about it. He constructed an image in which fish would be raised in the water hazards. And instead of mowing lawns, cattle would graze the fairways, reducing the need for electric mowers, and simultaneously alleviating the need to grow crops to raise the animals. The way I play, we'd probably need to put helmets on the cattle which would introduce a footprint of its own, but that would probably be a lesser evil.

Some of these concepts have actually been deployed in certain parts of the world-- notably in New Zealand, where Permaculture is strong and "it is not uncommon for rural courses to have greens fenced off and sheep graze the fairways." And there is apparently a sport called Extreme Golf -- I can't tell whether this is concept or reality yet, but "the extreme golf course features un-mowed meadows and forest instead of fairways, with "goals" scored on temporary greens (a circle 20 feet in diameter)."

I haven't heard of any sustainable courses in the US yet, but I'll be keeping an eye out for them, and I plan to start asking about what sustainable practices are in place when I visit different courses.