Greenbelt Food Forest: Phase I Photo Journal

Phase I Photo Journal

Springhill Lake Recreation

Center

6101 Cherrywood Lane Greenbelt, MD 20770

www.greenbeltfoodforest.com

The City of Greenbelt was founded on the concepts of community design & “green” planning, in which every acre is put to its best and most sustainable use. Permaculture and other best land management practices are now being

formally established throughout the city.

A major focus of Permaculture is Forest Gardening, which

looks at the ecological interactions of healthy forest systems and integrates those strategies into our own

methods of food production, water capture & storage, natural building, and energy usage.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6014/5950647589_9c3808d0c3_z.jpg

City of Greenbelt Public Works, Camp Fire USA, Citizens to Conserve and Restore Indian Creek (CCRIC), CHEARS – Chesapeake Education,

Arts, and Research Society, Ancestral Knowledge, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust are all working together to help improve

water quality in our local watershed and throughout the Chesapeake Bay region by establishing the Greenbelt Food Forest.

Phase I of the project consisted of rain garden installation and water quality monitoring workshops linked with a workday at Three Sisters

Demonstration Garden. Our goal is to provide safe outdoor classroom spaces to be used for intergenerational education, eco-

arts, food production and community gatherings.

Earth Day CelebrationSaturday, April 21,

2012

Mayor Judith Davis and Council Members Emmett Jordan, Konrad Herling and Edward Putens dig to plant a native black chokeberry, held by council

member Silke Pope.

Residents of Greenbelt and friends of the Earth gathered at Springhill Lake Recreation Center to learn

more about the purpose of rain gardens and their impact on nearby Indian Creek stream.

Rain gardens will help to capture water, reduce erosion, attract beneficial pollinators, and bring beauty to the park, which

improves the quality of life for residents and visitors…

…even for our smallest friends!

The prepared areas were very susceptible to storm water runoff due to the sloped impervious parking lot surface, so rain gardens were installed on each side of the drain pipe that leads to Indian Creek.

Mayor Judith Davis (holding shovel) and Greenbelt City Council Members, along with residents of Greenbelt, plant the first shrub to

kick-off the celebration of Earth Day 2012.

Lesley Riddle, Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Greenbelt, planned out the design of the garden

and the selection of native Chesapeake Bay friendly plants.

We also planted some trees, one of which is held by City Council

member Rodney Roberts, leading to the stream…

…with help from Miss Greenbelt and friends…

We had plenty of helpers, planting a cinnamon fern on

the edge.

Planting was fun for everyone!

Once our rain garden was set up, Kim Walsh from CHEARS watered the plants to help them settle into

their new habitat.

This is only the beginning of the Greenbelt Food Forest project in

connection with CHEARS’ Three Sisters Demonstration Gardens project.

Water QualityMonitoring

Saturday, May 19, 2012

CHEARS, Camp Fire USA, and CCRIC hosted a “Train the Trainer” workshop to teach local community members about water quality

testing methods in Indian Creek.

Many parts of Greenbelt are within the Indian Creek

sub-watershed, which is part of the Anacostia River

that flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

(http://www.ccric.org/IC_Watershed/IC.htm)

People of all interests and backgrounds gathered to learn and practice

techniques for measuring pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature…

…and how to identify and examine macroinvertebrates that tell us the biodiversity and health of the stream.

We studied the habitat and examined the stream as an ecosystem.

MOM’s Organic Market in College Park donated healthy and tasty snacks to keep us going while we learned and worked.

We split ourselves into partner groups to complete

our surveys and tests…

Sometimes you just have to dance it out for the environment!

…and had lots of fun doing it.

Maria Sgambati, M.D., a trained biologist, physician, and

outreach educator, spent a few hours helping us learn about the

health of the creek and best practices in measuring it.

Adults and youth in the community joined us to

learn observation techniques and how to use the equipment to collect stream data.

We snacked on ripe mulberries from trees in the area as we collected the data.

It was a great day to be learning outside!

At the beginning of this training, we were not optimistic about the health of our creek.

During our investigation, however, we found some good news!

We discovered that our pH and turbidity measurements were

near acceptable ranges…

…and we even found some sensitive species of insects, including mayflies and stoneflies!

Habitat assessment surveys determined that the creek’s buffer zone is much smaller

than the accepted range, which will continue to cause problems if not corrected.

Since the Greenbelt Food Forest will be established directly adjacent to this portion of the creek, the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous

perennials it will contain will reduce erosion, increase tree canopy, and provide a demonstration of diverse native fruits and plants.

It will also provide a more functional place for the community to enjoy, adding to the

playground, mulberry trees, and Three Sisters Demonstration Garden’s outdoor

classroom.

We will get to use the skills that we learned later this summer to teach local Camp Fire USA and Greenbelt Middle School students about our local water quality and monitoring

techniques.

Thank You!

We’d like to give a big thank you to all those who have made

Phase I of the Greenbelt Food Forest project a success!

• CHEARS – Chesapeake Education, Arts, and Research Society • City of Greenbelt Public Works• Camp Fire USA• Citizens to Conserve and Restore Indian Creek (CCRIC)• Greenbelt Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (Green ACES)• Ancestral Knowledge• Chesapeake Bay Trust

And a special thank you to our friends and neighbors in Greenbelt!