Many open spaces, including municipal parks, are covered by groomed lawn. Most people these mown areas "green and tidy", but in reality, they often act like parking lots: the underlying soil is so compacted that rain runs off almost as though the grass was paved.
Letting mown areas become natural meadows returns them to functional parts of the system--which prevent flooding, create habitat, and are beautiful to behold...
When a township acquired a property once owned by a landscaping business, it looked for an opportunity to benefit the local community in multiple ways. The result was Koontz Park, a beautiful recreational area that offers lessons in landscaping, native species, and managing runoff from storms. The holistic vision became a reality because many partners contributed to the effort by sharing their expertise, personal passions, and willingness to get dirty and sweat...
Pennsylvania was once a landscape of green, but as development altered the land, it also affected the water regime. Runoff became an issue, so basins were created as a standard "stormwater management" tool. Much like giant bathtubs, basins were designed to fill up in heavy storms and keep water at bay. That was then.
Today, it's pretty well acknowledged that traditional basins are not very effective. The good news is that there are a number of retrofits that can make them perform more naturally and help prevent flooding, filter pollutants, and get water back in to the ground.
Since residential roof tops account for a pretty significant amount of impervious cover, Green Homes is an element of the Philadelphia Water Department's ambitious Green City, Clean Waters program to which anyone can relate.
PWD is working with homeowners to help them initiate projects to lessen the amount of rainwater that runs from rooftops into the City's storm drains, because this rooftop runoff adds more water than the sewer system can handle during flash storms--resulting in polluted water flowing into local streams, rivers, and creeks.
Green Homes brings small-scale solutions to the City's neighborhoods: projects like installing rain barrels, rain gardens, and flow-through planters to capture runoff when it rains. For the more ambitious, actions might include de-paving, planting trees, or building green roofs. Becoming the greenest city in America means everybody is doing their part...
We're an award-winning nonprofit on a mission: to inspire ordinary people to take action towards a more sustainable lifestyle by showing that simple actions do make a difference when you decide to get engaged and involved.
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