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Ecological design means using every aspect of the planning, design, construction and management of metropolitan landscapes to benefit long-term ecological health and ecosystem services. One of its fundamental requirements is cultural sustainability: ensuring that people enjoy and appreciate landscapes that are patterned and managed to benefit ecological health. Joan Iverson Nassauer, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan, describes culturally sustainable ecological designs for road corridors, vacant urban properties, brownfields, greenfield subdivisions and home landscapes. She also discusses on-the-ground experiments and Web surveys that demonstrate how and why these designs work.

Ticket information.

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Come join us for the Quarterly Meeting of the Rocky River Watershed Council!!! We will provide updates on the various activities of the council, as well as upcoming events.

Our guest speaker will be Vince Messerly, President of Ohio Wetlands Foundation. He will discuss a proposed wetland mitigation bank along Granger Ditch in Granger Township. A tour of the site will follow.

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

6:30 - 8:30 PM

Medina County Park District's Allardale Park

410 Remsen Rd., Medina, OH 44256 (in Granger Township)

Contact Jared Bartley (216-524-6580 x14, jbartley@cuyahogaswcd.org) for more information.

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"Down the Drain: The Sewer System Under Greater Cleveland and What Happens to Our Wastewater" with Terry Meister and Richard Switalski of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

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Learn about the growth of the water industry and its impact on Cleveland. Also, find out what it means to “Go Green” and what you can do to help protect the environment.

Speakers: Alex Margevicius, Assistant Commissioner of Water and Andrew Watterson, Program Director, Sustainability Program at the city of Cleveland.

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Join the Friends of Old Woman Creek for a walk along the trail looking for spring migrants such as warblers, thrushes, and vireos. Terrain: gravel/paved trails, boardwalk, hills, stairs Length: 1.5 miles All bird enthusiasts welcome! Call (419) 433-4601 or e-mail info@oldwomancreek.org for more information.

• Cuyahoga County invests $4 million to restore vitality to E. 9th and Euclid as K&D Group bids $35 million (again) on a plan to adaptively reuse the Breuer Tower complex.
• “The Mind of Cleveland", an exhibit by conceptual artist Carl Pope at CIA that consists of posters with statements about Cleveland that Pope collected from regular folks, is “viral art... invasive art... it follows you home and moves into your dining room,” Norm Roulet reviews in his blog.
• Here’s a real sustainable business success story—Simple Yard Care, which uses only organic fertilizers and manual tools (push mowers), which they pull on bike trailers. The two-person Tremont company is looking to hire and expand into new urban neighborhoods.
• Have you wondered, “What’s all the fuss about the Great Lakes Compact?” Midtown Brews will delve into the "MIGHTY BLUE: The Great Lakes Basin Water Compact" a live video broadcast with Marnie Urso, Great Lakes Restoration & Policy, Grassroots Coordinator, Audubon Ohio at 5:30 pm tonight. Found out why the compact is important for all of us living in the Great Lakes basin.

Water connects us all. When it's clean, water is an indication of the health of a community, and so it has become a source of concern for many. Interest ranges from “new” regional citizen groups such as Freshwater Future to important legislation like the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Resources Compact.

One way to ensure clean water is to address stormwater runoff at a regional scale.

The mission of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is “understanding the value of clean water.” Multi-billion dollar sewer projects are expected to reduce incidents of storm and sewer water combining during heavy rains and snowmelt from 80 to four times a year with its Mill Creek Tunnel alone.

But, NORSD also recognizes a need for solutions that go beyond what pipes-so-wide-you-could-drive-a-truck-through-them can handle.

Urban sprawl has brought more flooding to our doorstep. And phosphorous-laden fertilizers from “conventional” farms continue to degrade the water quality in our rivers and our lake, says Jeff Reutter, director of Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie. Pipes alone cannot keep up with the costs of sprawl and unsustainable farming. The District is working on plans for a “watershed-centered stormwater program”, it reports in its new newsletter. That includes assisting with projects that reduce pollutants from entering local waterways and educating cities in Northeast Ohio about “green infrastructure” options like rain gardens and rain barrels.

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Northeast Ohio Watershed Council dinner and meeting.

 RSVP by April 4 to Kristy Meyer at Kristy@theOEC.org or 614-487-7506.

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Watershed Management Plan Meeting 1
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
4:00 - 6:00 PM
Big Creek Watershed Management Plan introductory meeting. Representatives from the Big Creek watershed communities of Cleveland, Brooklyn, Linndale, Parma, Parma Heights, Brook Park, and North Royalton will participate. The public is welcome to observe. For more information contact the Charles Hambly, project coordinator, at the Cuyahoga River Remedial Action Plan at 216-241-2414 x253.

We’re five years into the modern green building era—as defined by the birth of U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system—and in that time America has seen exponential growth in green building and measurable impact, USGBC Vice President Tom Hicks told a packed house at Levin College on Feb. 6.

Out of 9,000 projects that have registered for LEED in the U.S., only 1,200 have been certified, Hicks says, adding that more will be as the group catches up to demand. To do so, USGBC formed a new group, the Green Building Certification Institute, to run its certification process and deal with the rising demand.

Environmental benefits of LEED-rated buildings include a 35-50% energy savings, a significant figure for a country that pumps more than one-third of its carbon into the air from buildings, Hicks says.

USGBC, the largest green building group in the U.S., is expanding its reach to 55 countries including India and Canada. The U.S. needs to set the example and share its lessons, Hicks said, with developing nations like India and China.

LEED for Neighborhood Development will help: Northeast Ohio’s four LEED-ND projects join 240 from six countries in a pilot program where design in and between private and public spaces encourages biking and walking to work, shop and play.

Expanding the scale of LEED to neighborhoods is starting to have an impact on urban design, Hicks says. It’s influencing how cities and states are dealing with regulatory obstacles, and, in some cases, its leading to incentives, green building policies or new efforts to encourage green design.