American basketflower blooming at World Peace Wetland Prairie in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on July 26, 2010

Please click on image to enlarge view of Centaurea Americana on World Peace Wetland Prairie on July 26, 2010.

Winged loosestrife, a valued Arkansas native plant, abundant on World Peace Wetland Prairie: Lythrum alatum, variant alatum

Please click on individual images to view six-petaled, Lythrum alatum in bloom on July 25, 2010, on World Peace Wetland Prairie.

Wasps love rattlesnake master on World Peace Wetland Prairie on July 25, 2010

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE for wider view.

Centaurea Americana, the American basketflower, blooming at World Peace Wetland Prairie in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on July 24, 2010

Please click on image for wider, enlarged view of basketflower on July 24, 2010.

Land-use and green-infrastructure committee of Fayetteville forward to meet at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 28, 2010, in Room 11 of city hall to discuss stormwater managment and erosion-control ordinance being considered by City Council on August 3, 2010

To the Fayetteville Forward Land Use Planning and Green Infrastructure Committee-------

Not much has been happening this summer with our committee, but that doesn't mean green infrastructure matters aren't moving right along.  One in particular will be on it's third and final reading at the next City Council meeting on August 3, 6pm,  City Hall.

This is what is being considered for the council's vote:

1. Amend Chapters 169: Physical Alteration of Land and Chapter 170: Stormwater Management, Drainage and Erosion Control:  An ordinance amending Chapter 169: Physical Alteration of Land and Chapter 170: Stormwater Management, Drainage and Erosion Control of Title XV of the Code of Fayetteville (Unified Development Code), to clarify stabilization requirements, require phased construction for sites larger than 20 acres, clarify re-vegetation requirements, clarify requirements for cut and fill slopes and retaining walls, define maintenance responsibility for stormwater management systems, restrict location of dirt and topsoil storage and define stabilization practices for dirt and topsoil storage, define a qualified inspector for erosion and sediment control best management practices, and require site plans for one and two family residences to contain a plan for erosion and sediment control and final on-site drainage.  This ordinance was left on the First Reading at the July 6, 2010 City Council meeting and on its second reading, July 20. 

2. Amend Chapter 177: Landscape Regulations:  An ordinance amending Title XV: Unified Development Code of the City of Fayetteville, to amend Chapter 177: Landscape Regulations in order to modify existing requirements and regulations that address perimeter landscaping for development. This ordinance was left on the First Reading at the July 6, 2010 City Council meeting. 

THE COMPLETE TEXT CAN BE ACCESSED FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF THE CITY'S WEBSITE  www.accessfayetteville.org  OR DIRECTLY AT:

http://www.accessfayetteville.org/government/engineering/documents/CHAPTER_169_final_draft_May4.pdf

The yellow highlighting on the document is where changes have been made, and  which are being voted on .  Members of this committee with interest in land use should pay special attention to  this amendment so please look over it .  Sarah Wrede, from the city's engineering department and who handles matters involving storm water, will be available to explain the amendment and to answer questions.  We will be meeting with her next week  so please come if you can.  

Thanks,  Fran

Wednesday, July 28, 3:30 pm in Rm 111, City Hall

Also don't forget the conference next week June 29-30 that I sent notice out about last month.

 

THE IRWP INVITES YOU TO JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT WORKSHOP ON GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE ILLINOIS RIVER WATERSHED TMDL.   EARLY REGISTRATION BY JUNE 30, $35.   SPONSORED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, IRWP, AND BEAVER WATER DISTRICT.    Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Recent Additions | Contact Us | Print Version  Search NPDES:   EPA Home > OW Home > OWM Home > NPDES Home > Green Infrastructure >2010 Regional Water Quality and Green Infrastructure Conference

Types, Applications, & Design Approaches   Case Studies   News   Green Infrastructure Partnership   Regulatory Integration   Research   Models & Calculators   Municipal Handbook   Funding Opportunities   Links   Training & Conferences   Contacts   Green Infrastructure Home           Stormwater Home   Nonpoint Source Home   Combined Sewer Overflows Home   Smart Growth Home   GreenScapes Home   Brownfields   Climate Change

Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Workshop Agenda   |   Registration   |   Location and Parking   |   Contact  Workshop Information Date: July 29 and 30 Location: Fayetteville Town Center, Fayetteville, AR Cost: $35.00 until July 1, and $50.00 after July 1 Agenda Contact Us EPA Region 6, the Northwest Arkansas Stormwater Education Group, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, and the Beaver Water District are proud to announce the "Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure" Workshop to be held July 29th & 30th at the Fayetteville Town Center in beautiful downtown Fayetteville, AR. What is Green Infrastructure? Green infrastructure is an approach to wet weather management that is cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Green Infrastructure management approaches and technologies infiltrate, evapotranspire, capture and reuse stormwater to maintain or restore natural hydrology. Additional information on EPA's green infrastructure program is available at www.epa.gov/greeninfrastructure. Why attend? Participants will leave the conference with knowledge of tools and practices needed to effectively implement GI and different approaches to linking GI to prevent/mitigate water quality impacts. This meeting will be highly informative and will benefit all participants. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) may be available. Suggested Attendees Anyone interested in improving their quality of life is welcome! Employees, managers and supervisors of organizations interested in learning about new opportunities and initiatives to "green" their communities. This includes, but is not limited to, those who work in: City, County and Regional Governments including: Environmental or Sustainability Departments Energy offices Departments of Public Works, Solid Waste, Parks and Recreation Water Departments Mayor’s Offices and Planning Departments Tribal Governments DOD Base Planning and Military Installation Administrators School Districts College and Universities Places of Worship Engineering and Architectural Firms Landscape Architecture Landscape Design Real Estate Development Construction Vehicle Fleet Maintenance and Operations Energy Service Companies Renewable Energy Technology Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) working with local cities Homeowners’ Associations Top of page Agenda Day 1 7:45 - 8:30 Registration 8:30 - 8:45       Welcome, Introductions, Purpose 8:45 - 9:15       Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure       Overview of stormwater dynamics and defining the concepts of Green Infrastructure/LID       Nelly Smith, EPA Region 6 9:15 - 10:00       Benefits of Green Infrastructure and Retrofit Opportunities       Dan Christian, Tetra Tech 10:00 - 10:15       Break 10:15 - 11:00       Prevention, Listing, and De-listing of 303(d) Impaired Waterways       Jim Wise, ADEQ 11:00 - 12:00       TMDLs - What does it mean for the Illinois River Watershed?       Phillip Massierer, FTN Associates       Claudia Hosch, Associate Director, Water Quality Division, EPA Region 6 12:00 - 1:00       Catered Lunch 1:00 - 1:45       Local Codes and Ordinances       Dan Christian, Tetra Tech 1:45 - 2:30       Construction Site BMPs, Inspections, and Effluent Limitation Guidelines       Jamal Solaimanian, ADEQ 2:30 - 2:45       Break 2:45 - 3:15       MS4 Reporting and Program Audits       Nick Willis, ADEQ 3:15 - 3:45       Managing Nutrient Runoff through Arkansas' Nutrient Regulations       Patrick Fisk, AR Natural Resources Commission 3:45 - 4:30       Fayetteville's 5-Year Nutrient Management Plan       Bob Morgan, Beaver Water District       Sarah, Wrede, City of Fayetteville 4:30 - 6:00       Green Infrastructure Reception - sponsored by the Illinois River Watershed Partnership Top of page Day 2 8:00 - 8:15 Welcome 8:15 - 9:30       Panel Discussion: Building a Case for Green Infrastructure - Clear Creek Stormwater Management and Flooding       Mayor Lioneld Jordan, City of Fayetteville (moderator)       Mayor Doug Sprouse, City of Springdale       Jerry Davison, Clear Creek property owner       Charles Rhodes, Clear Creek property owner       Beth Breed, FTN Associates, Ltd. 9:30 - 9:45       Break 9:45 - 12:00       Incorporating Green Infrastructure in Northwest Arkansas:       Bioretention (bioswales, rain gardens and green roofs)       Kyle Engler, Sam's Club       Brandon Nikolish, Wal-Mart       Eco-Vista Landfill       Kirby Thompson, Waste Management       Green Infrastructure Planning Project       Bob Caulk, Fayetteville Natural Heritage Commission       Bob Morgan, Beaver Water District       Patti Erwin, AR Forestry Commission       Sager Creek Project       David Cameron, City of Siloam Springs Registration To register for the workshop, please download the registration form here (PDF) (1 pp, 92K). Top of page Location and Parking For more information and directions to the Fayetteville Town Center, visit http://www.twncenter.com . A parking deck is available below the building. There are many hotels in area but the closest hotel (a one block walk) is The Cosmopolitan Hotel 70 Northeast Avenue Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 442-5555 Top of page Contact Us If you have questions about the workshop or would like more information, please contact: Nelly Smith Environmental Engineer Permits & Technical Assistance Section (6WQ-PP) NPDES Permits & TMDLs Branch Water Quality Protection Division US EPA Region 6 1445 Ross Ave. Dallas TX 75202 Phone: (214) 665-7109 Fax: (214) 665-2191 This workshop is offered to all persons regardless of race, sex, marital status, age, or any other legally protected status. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (large print, audiotapes, etc.) should notify the Washington County Cooperative Extension Service office as soon as possible prior to the program at (479) 444-1755. Top of page

Hot Topics Green Jobs Training Catalog (PDF) Green Infrastructure Training New Bulletins!  The documents on this site are best viewed with Acrobat 8.0

 

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Springs beneath Bates School may be dug into to create underground storage of stormwater after Bates is demolished to make space for new high-school buildings

Diana fritillary on butterfly milkweed on June 21, 2010 CATRO_Title_03_0...

Cup plant is potential new biomass/carbon storage crop

Cup plant is potential new biomass/carbon storage crop

Cup plants get 12 feet tall in wet years even in the peace-circle garden of World Peace Wetland Prairie. Please click on individual images to enlarge view of cup plants on July 18, 2010, in peace-circle garden of WPWP, some knocked down by recent powerful rainstorms.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2010) — South Dakota State University research is exploring a native perennial called cup plant as a potential new biomass crop that could also store carbon in its extensive root system and add biodiversity to biomass plantings.

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See Also:

Plants & Animals

• Endangered Plants
• Ecology Research
• Agriculture and Food

Earth & Climate

• Grassland
• Ecology
• Exotic Species

Reference

• Prairie Restoration
• Biomass
• Biomass (ecology)
• Trophic level

Researchers are exploring whether cup plant could be grown in low, moist prairies generally unfit for cropland. It would be grown and processed along with native grasses grown for biomass.

"We anticipate down the road there's going to be a need and maybe even a market for plants that can store carbon under ground and be part of a biomass production system," SDSU professor Arvid Boe said.

Boe, a plant breeder, is the lead investigator on a grant of $324,336 from the U.S. Department of Energy channeled through the SDSU-based North Central Sun Grant Center. Project goals include studying genetic variation and developing molecular markers in cup plant populations from the eastern Great Plains; developing new cultivars that can be grown in combination with other biomass crops; determining best practices such as seeding rate, row spacing, harvest timing and nutrient management so that producers will know how to grow the plant; determining life histories of insect pests; and determining biochemical composition.

Boe said cup plant, or Silphium perfoliatum, is a member of the sunflower family found in moist low ground in the eastern Great Plains, where it can grow more than 7 feet tall. It has large seeds and good seedling vigor, and it yields a lot of biomass.

"It's conspicuous in the prairie as a very productive forb in a tallgrass prairie where you have your major grasses such as big bluestem, switchgrass and prairie cordgrass," Boe said. "We haven't come up with too many things to grow with our grasses to add biodiversity to these biofuel mixtures that we're anticipating growing down the road. It's very compatible with such things as switchgrass and prairie cordgrass and big bluestem."

Boe said scientists don't envision planting entire fields of cup plant. Instead they view it as one in a mix of biomass species that would be seeded in zones best suited for them, just as in the original tallgrass prairie. Boe and his colleagues -- borrowing a term used years ago by conservationist Erling Jacobson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service -- speak of "sculpting the landscape" with native grasses best suited to different locations in the prairie.

"We don't necessarily have a mix at any particular area, but we have various species wherever they're best adapted on the landscape. It doesn't make any sense for us to have mix switchgrass, big bluestem and prairie cordgrass together and plant it over a whole field. After five years, the species that are best adapted are going to take over anyway in their particular niche," Boe said.

"We're going to go in and we're going to plant essentially monocultures of these various species where they were in the original tallgrass prairie. There were monocultural stands in the tallgrass prairie, but they were zonal."

Cup plant is probably best suited to the same kind of terrain that switchgrass likes, Boe said, just above the prairie cordgrass zone, and possibly all the way up to the edge of the big bluestem zone.

"It fits the low prairie or moist prairie-type environment that we're shooting for and might even work out pretty well with prairie cordgrass," Boe said. "So we add diversity to that low prairie environment that is marginal land not suitable for cropland and also not a good environment for switchgrass to grow. We're not taking cropland out of production to put cup plant in there. We think it will grow in areas where crops wouldn't survive or couldn't even be planted on a regular basis."

Cup plant is likely to increase biodiversity in a plant community because it attracts a variety of insects and even birds. Goldfinches drink out of the leaves, and the stems provide perch areas for grassland birds.

SDSU professor Paul Johnson, an entomologist, adds that SDSU is also interested in a species of moth called Eucosma giganteana, first described by a scientist in 1881, that seems to have cup plant as its only host plant.

"In South Dakota, the giant eucosma has recently become more than just another interesting prairie insect because of interest in using cup plant as a biomass crop," Johnson said.

Larvae feed in the rapidly growing terminal structures, especially buds, where the damage can be extensive, often leading to complete loss of floral production. The end result can be significant loss of biomass through stunting and loss of vigor in the plants.

"Turning cup plant into a commodity thus converts the giant eucosma into a pest of significant concern," Johnson said.

"It's another case of a native prairie plant becoming a crop and the conversion of a previously neglected native plant predator to a pest."

Johnson is studying the life history of the giant eucosma as part of the SDSU project.

Perennial grasses will always be the base for biomass production, but cup plant is a complementary species, scientists say. Increasing number of species in the mix reduces probability of plant disease and insect pests attacking one species and causing large losses in yield.

Besides Boe and Johnson, other investigators in the project including forage researcher Vance Owens, plant scientist Catherine Carter and biochemist Duane Matthees, all of SDSU; Alex Kahler of Brookings, S.D.-based Biogenetic Services; and professor Ken Albrecht of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an agronomist. University of Wisconsin research has already looked at cup plant as a perennial silage crop, but exploring it as a biomass crop is new.

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