Performance of green infrastructure

Last month Salem experienced what some have called a 100-year storm event, with more than 6.5" of rainfall in 48 hours. Combined with melting from recent snowfall, the storm caused all sorts of chaos in town -- street closures all over the place, evacuations, and flooding.

The entrance to Pringle Creek Community during a storm, where conventional city street meets porous street.

Here at Pringle Creek Community it was just another regular day. Despite all the rain, not one of our homes flooded during the storm, a storm that shut down most of Salem. There was no impact to homeowners or businesses here whatsoever — people came and went, Café was open, we held meetings, normal day. Flowing water on the surface of the street never exceeded 1” deep at any intersection, hardly an inconvenience for anyone, and before we knew it, the water had completely vanished while the rest of the city remained underwater.

BEFORE SHOT: the peak of the storm, January 19th, showing surface flows as designed.

AFTER SHOT: the next morning, January 20th, all gone!

Vegetated detention swales along Lindburg slow
and allow water to percolate naturally.

This is the beauty of the natural system, which distributes stormwater impact across the land, allowing it to trickle down as it normally would in a meadow or a field. Through a combination of all-porous streets, limited impervious surfaces, lots of trees and open space, greenroofs, rainwater harvesting, and vegetated rain gardens, our green infrastructure knocked the socks off conventional stormwater management systems in nearby neighborhoods -- gutters and storm pipes tend to be the first to fail, blocked by debris or submerged under the water table with no where to go.


The result of all of this is that even in tough sites, where the water table is known to be seasonally high (adjacent to the creek), green infrastructure can work even in the most tested of circumstances, with tremendous benefit to aquatic ecosystems.

Bird of Prey Program this Saturday!

Great article from the New York Times about neighborhood design & impact on our health.
January 30th, 2012

Communities Learn the Good Life Can Be a Killer

By JANE E. BRODY

ACTIVE ANTIDOTE Atlanta is transforming an old rail corridor into a trail network that encourages walking and biking.

Developers in the last half-century called it progress when they built homes and shopping malls far from city centers throughout the country, sounding the death knell for many downtowns. But now an alarmed cadre of public health experts say these expanded metropolitan areas have had a far more serious impact on the people who live there by creating vehicle-dependent environments that foster obesity, poor health, social isolation, excessive stress and depression.

As a result, these experts say, our “built environment” — where we live, work, play and shop — has become a leading cause of disability and death in the 21st century. Physical activity has been disappearing from the lives of young and old, and many communities are virtual “food deserts,” serviced only by convenience stores that stock nutrient-poor prepared foods and drinks.

Preparing the Orchards for Spring

Urban Farmer Update: Over the weekend I attended a pruning workshop held by the Marion County Master Gardeners in preparation for work this week in the orchard. It is the season for late winter pruning and all of the trees are ready for a trim. The plums are showing signs of spring with buds about ready to open. A pear tree appears to be ready to bloom too!

Living in the Willamette Valley

What's it like to live in the Willamette Valley? Here is a collection of photos that Travel Salem put together that gives an idea of how beautiful and fun this little corner of the world can be. And if you are considering moving to Oregon, you should definitely check out the Travel Oregon site. Things really are different here....

Photo by Ron Cooper Photography, Copyright Travel Salem

Recent press

Marcelle Fischler included us in a list of five standout sustainable communities in the United States, pointing out that today's leading developments focus on a particular quality of life that is rooted in an old-fashioned sense of community, as well as eco-friendliness.
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/eco-friendly-communities-are-surprisingly-retro.html

Eco-Friendly Communities are Surprisingly Retro

By Marcelle Sussman Fischler, Yahoo! Real Estate

December 15, 2011


The decision to live in one of America’s emerging eco-friendly housing developments isn’t strictly about reaping energy savings or protecting the environment.

Surprisingly, what a growing number of eco-friendly housing developments share is an old-fashioned sense of community: homes with welcoming front porches that encourage neighborliness, roads and sidewalks that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Locals gather on village greens and frequent farmers’ markets, local restaurants and shops.

As the demand for greener, more energy-efficient homes and sustainable living swells, home buyers from gen X to baby boomers are opting

Happy New Year!

Here is the light show I stepped into on my walk home from Painters Hall last night. It was quiet out and the birds were darting around, really quite a beautiful sight, I felt very lucky to be there.

Paco's photos

Paco, who takes care of the landscaping for the entire neighborhood using all-organic methods, enjoys snapping photos when he sees something beautiful (which happens frequently here). This is a shot he took yesterday in the wetlands.

New Planters in the Glasshouses

Paco just built three new planters in the Pringle Creek Glasshouses, and
Nicole (Urban Farmer) is ready to put them to good use! She will grow
lettuce greens and herbs for Painters Hall Café and Farm Stand sales in the
community. Shangri-La and Leslie Middle School are continuing to use their
benches in the Conservatory for their gardening programs as well.

Solar-powered electric car charger

Check out a post about our BLINK network electric vehicle charger -- tied to Painters Hall's 20.2 kW solar system (a net-zero energy building). We hope to eventually have an EV community car share program to plug in here too. Which EV on the market do you think is best? Post your thoughts or let me know. We have our eye on Eugene's Arcimoto and Portland's Greenlite Motors.