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0:07
Cynthia Brown: Well, good afternoon Cynthia Brown: and welcome to Smithsonian Gardens. Let's talk gardens, Webinar. Cynthia Brown: We appreciate you joining us for this important topic, although I must say all of our topics are important. I have the best job in the world because I get to talk to so many different scientists artists, designers. It is really the perfect job for me, and I I really enjoy it.
0:32
Cynthia Brown: But my name is Cindy Brown. I am the manager of collections, education, and access here at Smithsonian Gardens, and we bring these speakers to you so that you can learn more about gardening, landscaping tree care Cynthia Brown: all different topics. We want to create an informed audience and an informed group of people that can go out and help us spread information on some of these important topics. So, as always, we ask you to please put your questions in the chat box.
1:08
Cynthia Brown: and then, when our speaker has concluded, i'll be glad to ask, transfer the questions to her so that she can answer in the time that we have available. I know we. We always want to learn more, and we always want to ask questions. So people said, Can you make it a 2 h program? No people won't. Sit still for a 2 h program. Cynthia Brown: but today i'd like to introduce you to Jen Jennifer Dowdell, and she is going to talk to you about Cynthia Brown: a special type of design.
1:39
Cynthia Brown: We have an interesting conversation ahead of time talking about how wonderful it is. seeing people and design and practices moving to more sustainable practices, more sustainable design. Cynthia Brown: And so that's exactly what she's going to share with us today. So, as always, Jennifer.
2:01
Cynthia Brown: I'm thrilled to have you here with us. I am so excited to hear what you're gonna share, and we are. I'm gonna leave. I say, we, because Zach is still here. He's behind the scene helping us. But we are going to leave you. Cynthia Brown: but only insight will be back here to be able to handle anything that comes up. Cynthia Brown: So with that. Will you please tell us more about bio habitats and what you do? And some of these fascinating designs. We appreciate your information
2:31
Jennifer Dowdell: absolutely. Thanks, Cindy, and thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to join you today to talk a little bit about our work in in really focusing on centering ecology and biodiversity in a variety of design and planning projects that we contribute to. Jennifer Dowdell: So, really Briefly, i'm gonna first just introduce the firm that I work with. I work for by a habitat we are a national mission based environmental design and consulting firm.
3:00
Jennifer Dowdell: And so we are organized around a set of values, including revering wild nature. And then our mission is really focused on supporting and and celebrating and and performing ecological restoration and supporting environmental stewardship.
3:18
Jennifer Dowdell: So we are an interdisciplinary design practice with a variety of different areas of expertise represented in our team. I have a background in landscape architecture and landscape ecology. But I am joined in in our team by ecologists and hydrologists, and a a variety of different types of engineers who focus on water and water systems and integrated water strategies as well, that other specialists in ecology, like arborists and soil scientists.
3:43
Jennifer Dowdell: and then our practitioners in Gis and technology like CAD, who are helping bring our designs to be constructed. We're organized around kind of 3 main service areas, although we do work with that kind of goes beyond the bounds of these as well in conservation, planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design, is, you see, a little bit more about our mission here on this slide, really focusing on living in whole systems and an approach to design and consulting with a variety of different
4:13
clients across the United States.
4:16
Jennifer Dowdell: So here, just a brief kind of overview of the types of work that we do organize within those practice areas along with the practice area that's continuing to emerge and integrated water strategies really focusing on water as it is part of many systems. But understanding the importance of managing water as we see different climate change impacts affecting our communities, but we work in all areas across the United States and are really organized in our practice by by a region.
4:44
Jennifer Dowdell: This is actually a slightly outdated map. At this time we have a by region that is kind of coming out of the heartland as well. In the middle of the United States. But we have bio regional offices in areas around the United States to allow for expertise focused on that native ecology and those native ecosystems to come out of those spaces and inform the design, and consulting that we offer to communities and municipalities and other landowners.
5:12
Jennifer Dowdell: Now the work that I want to really focus on today is focus on planning and design work that is, is Jennifer Dowdell: really grounded in these ideas of understanding the importance of biodiversity, understanding the principles and applying the principles of landscape ecology, and understanding the myriad ecosystem services that we can contribute to in looking at restorative design in the landscape.
5:37
Jennifer Dowdell: So we like to take a pause and really think about some of the importance behind biodiversity and the importance of us as actors in implementing projects that help support. Jennifer Dowdell: support biodiversity and help try to minimize loss of biodiversity because it really has a huge impact on us as a society on our planet and our ability to live and function in this planet as community members of the greater ecology.
6:05
Jennifer Dowdell: Landscape Ecology has a particularly important impact on the planning and design work that we do because it it. It is these principles of understanding the landscape and the systems, these ecosystems, as as
6:17
Jennifer Dowdell: organizations of patches and quarters that really connect across. So this is a map of Baltimore cities from a green network plan that I worked on a number of years ago with city planning department. And what's important about this is really this idea that while a project may have boundaries either at the site or at the city scale.
6:34
Jennifer Dowdell: We look beyond those boundaries because we know the impact, the important impact of decisions that we might make that have larger impacts on the larger ecology, the larger ecosystem connections and corridors and system, wide conditions. Jennifer Dowdell: So we always sort of ground ourselves in these principles of understanding these broader connections and those impacts, then, on whatever scale of work we might be working on with various clients or communities.
7:00
Jennifer Dowdell: We also see the importance of of connecting with our community members in each of the areas, and each of the projects that we work on and understanding what Jennifer Dowdell: part of nature is, is really part of community's identity. What is the relationship communities have to nature? And how can we we use that as a guiding light in looking at design and consultation, that we might be doing with a variety of clients.
7:25
Jennifer Dowdell: So in terms of ecosystem services, some of what is more of the focus of a couple of the projects that i'll share with you all today. Come down to some pretty simple but very powerful ecosystem services that have to do with applying a diverse native plant palette in projects that might be about storm water management. But we're kind of layering in that other component of potential habitat that can be added in with a diverse plant palette
7:53
Jennifer Dowdell: and and those clip how it's very wildly, because we, again, we are working in communities around the United States, and very specific needs of of those different systems that are there, but a part of what you'll see today are a variety of different projects.
8:09
Jennifer Dowdell: some inland and upland, some coastal, where we're looking at water as a component of the landscape, managing water and run off, but through bioengineered strategies, through different types of design systems that allow for a use of a plant palette that kind of builds on those functions and the landscape.
8:29
Jennifer Dowdell: So just a couple images to kind of arrest the senses here. So the first project I wanted to touch on was a project that we did here in Baltimore City, where I am based in our Chesapeake bay region really focused on managing storm water, but also increasing the function of the landscape at Green Streets Academy, which is a high school in Baltimore City, not too far from our offices in Baltimore.
8:51
Jennifer Dowdell: and so there are a couple of different components of the project, one being a restored pollinator meadow outside in the back of the high school with a variety of plants integrated along with what they are doing in greenhouses in terms of some of the experiments supporting their science program.
9:07
Jennifer Dowdell: This is actually the planting design around our office in in Baltimore, really trying to celebrate the native plant. Palette in this is kind of the summer season. So you see a lot of the spectacular summer need of around the outside of the building and then back at Green Streets Academy, integrating that native plate pound into rain creatures that are designed along the edge of the building. Along with that we also did a rain garden that has over time really matured
9:36
Jennifer Dowdell: with managing the surface, run off from the neighboring parking, but really supporting this broader plant palette than what was just turf beforehand. And this is a These are practices. They're becoming quite typical, I would say, in in many municipalities and in many places, because there are increased needs to manage storm water as we see further and further urbanized city centers, and wanting to really build on this idea of a functional landscape with
10:04
Jennifer Dowdell: green infrastructure that has all these other potential systems and services integrated in this layer approach to some images of of those
10:15
Jennifer Dowdell: plants in their summer glory. The second project I wanted to touch on is is quite different in both location. This one is in Philadelphia, on the Delaware River, and this was done actually a number of years ago along the Delaware River kind of on the southern portion of the city. There was this old industrial site that had basically been capped and sort of paved, but it ran along what was becoming this Delaware River, Greenway, and so they put out a design competition notice
10:45
Jennifer Dowdell: for an opportunity for design firms to propose what might be a new perspective, a new way of seeing this very tiny. I think it's a one acre parcel on the Delaware River, but to allow for some sort of storytelling about the Delaware River, the watershed and native plants and native ecology
11:05
Jennifer Dowdell: from the historic sort of legacy ecology. So, by a habitat submitted a design submission, and we won the competition. So then we went about starting to really work on designing, and then building this pocket park along the Delaware River, Greenway. That was kind of slowly being built up. So that's the project site beforehand. We did a kind of vision plan for the entirety of the site, not just the upland portion, but also this peer structure that was slowly sort of decomposing.
11:34
Jennifer Dowdell: So here are some images of that vision for a new multi functional open space accessible to the river, to invite people down, to start, to enjoy and understand. What does ecological regeneration look like in a highly urbanized river side site.
11:51
Jennifer Dowdell: But then, in terms of implementation, we focus the initial phase of implementation on the upland and really trying to reflect and respond to the Delaware River watershed ideas of watershed health and water quality and increased habitat in a very urban area. So we focus on these kind of key project features, and then started to engage with the community.
12:19
and then we planted and design and constructed the site. Now one challenge that we faced on the site was that the it was wholly paved, and to remove all of the paving and all of the impervious surface would have used the entirety of the
12:33
Jennifer Dowdell: design and construction budget that was available. So we tried to find different creative uses of much of the permeable pavement to try to reuse it on site in a variety of ways, so that we could then plant it and kind of create this gardenesque space on this pocket park. Jennifer Dowdell: but not having to worry about transporting a lot of concrete
12:57
Jennifer Dowdell: off site which was just not affordable at the time with the project budget. So we have different components that we planted and designed with this reuse of material on site. And here one of our main garden areas was a rubble meadow, so kind of taking that idea of the urban rubble, and then interplanting it with a variety of native species. We also had 2 different areas that we called the dendritic decay gardens again, finding ways of kind of punching through and revealing sort of the history of the site.
13:27
Jennifer Dowdell: But while also starting to plant it with this idea that potentially over time these plants and the root systems will slowly start to help, crack and change this landscape, so that it's constantly evolving and growing, but also highlighting. In this case the Delaware River watershed and the dendritic patterns of our watersheds. You'll also see at the back of this photograph. We did some reuse of some of that concrete paving in creating seating walls around the edges.
13:56
Jennifer Dowdell: There's a zoomed in perspective of some of those planting areas, and then some aerial perspectives of the rubble meadow in a slightly different season along a per permeable asphalt walkway. That was kind of part of the overall kind of longer trail system.
14:14
Jennifer Dowdell: We also integrated a Bmp. A stormwater Bmp. On an area that was naturally sloping towards the center of our site along the edge of the parking lot. So we in this. The vicinity of this park was the 2 kind of really important neighbors. One was the Us. Coast Guard, just in the north of our site, and one was the sheet Metal Workers local 19 Training Center, which you can see part of behind the cars here. And so this was their parking lot, their area to come out and have lunch.
14:43
Jennifer Dowdell: So it was a great way to really engage with our community adjacencies and neighbors through our design process. They came out and search, see, and and to us about what we're doing in the process of designing this other dendritic decade garden that was going to be a stormwater Vmp: and this is a couple of years later, after
15:04
the full build out and the the plants really starting to mature, and we did have some issues with invasive species. In the very foreground of this photograph there are some in that are.
15:14
Jennifer Dowdell: I think, continually managed and maintained by the the organization that now maintains this park. Here's an aerial view of that in a slightly different season. We did have some issues with some of the plants there in the middle that had to be replanted. But overall great success in that storm water project
15:31
Jennifer Dowdell: got a little ahead of myself there. So another project in Maryland, but in a different part of Maryland and Howard County. We worked on this regenerative site design at the Savage Branch and STEM Education center the Howard County library system, and we did a series of native gardens and stormwater strategies that were actually implemented into the center entry way of the library itself, and all the way out into the parking lot. So again, using a variety of different plans in this built sort of stormwater planter
16:01
Jennifer Dowdell: that was the centerpiece of the entry way, allowing for kids to really participate in understanding and playing with water as it moves through those areas. And then a variety of different techniques around the edges of the property, showcasing other types of best management practices for storm order, like permeable papers in the in the parking lot as well, and other Bmps integrated into that design. So the older project that we've worked on where we actually really focus on this idea of integrated water strategies was at the Sidwell Friends School
16:31
Jennifer Dowdell: in Washington, DC. We were part of a large design team, including a landscape architect firm, Andrew Cogan, who who worked in collaboration with us. We were focused on the integrated waste water treatment wetlands that were integrated into this landscape to manage waste water that was being produced through the school.
16:50
Jennifer Dowdell: and it was then also integrated into a storewater wetland, design that Andrew Cogon led. They were disconnected hydrologically, but from outside of that, without knowing that background. You wouldn't know that there was a difference here, and you would just see the series of wetland terraces that are both waste water treatment well and and stormwater wetlands. And so we worked with Andrew Cogon to develop this design and then really work because it was a school, and the school is very excited about this
17:17
Jennifer Dowdell: project, and the the story that the students can learn and tell that the students actually take people on tours through the school and explain the overall kind of water system and the different components of water treatment integrated into this functional living landscape laboratory. So we have some different shots of the different gardens and wetlands and different seasons.
17:39
Jennifer Dowdell: and the students here actually use the space for performance and other types of activities through the curriculum which is so exciting to see that embraced, and their understanding really being the basis for all of the teaching and learning that goes on at the school
17:54
Jennifer Dowdell: a little closer to Annapolis. In in in Maryland we have been working on a number of different living shoreline approaches, and this is applicable across the United States in in con, in mostly in calmer waters. But we're also, I think, exploring the opportunities for how you think about
18:12
Jennifer Dowdell: coastal shorelines on the ocean, and how Those can also be kind of resilient with sea level rise. But these are focused in this particular project. Just focus on this inland river and the Rendal on the bay community had hired us to look into helping them manage stormwater. So this is a before and after on the left, and then right hand side of the screen to create these stormwater bias whales that integrated some level of native vegetation that can be functional through these different water events. And then all this water flows down towards the shoreline.
18:42
Jennifer Dowdell: and we have some images here where you see some tadpoles. So there's a lot of of flora and fauna returning to these spaces with this restoration over the course of a couple of years after it was implemented. This is a before shot of the shoreline itself. So some
18:59
Jennifer Dowdell: issues with invasive species, and also just managing the I think, the coastal or the shoreline erosion here. So we we created this living shoreline approach with these stepped wetlands that kind of help Jennifer Dowdell: guide the water down towards the the open water in a way where it's filtered and managed to help with shoreline erosion
19:18
Jennifer Dowdell: and lots of wildlife we've seen out there over the years. Very exciting to see how well it's functioning, and also adapting over time as plants kind of get used to the the the different system and the conditions there, and really start to thrive. So it's kind of looking from the water side back towards
19:37
Jennifer Dowdell: the mainland in that area of storm, water, B. And we also try to use when we can, and when it's appropriate large woody debris, both to help with sometimes shoreline stabilization, or also just to create more areas for habitat increasing that opportunity for biodiversity. So you see some examples of that Here
19:58
Jennifer Dowdell: We also have an opportunity in Southern Maryland, another living shoreline that's integrated into a park that was done here in Southern Maryland, on Breton Bay and Leonardtown wharf again, where it was really exciting to integrate this living shoreline approach with a walkway and a boardwalk that allows for people to kind of walk through this restored wetland, this tidal wetland system and experience the wetland in both sides.
20:22
Jennifer Dowdell: and really start to see the potential for that shoreline. We also had parts of that, though that needed to have it still had to have some areas of hardened shoreline. So we integrated different types of tiered wetlands. That would that would be kind of functional wetlands during higher titles, system times. And then also, we did some restoration within the upland zone of a variety of different native species to really try to bring that story of watershed health and living shoreline potential
20:50
Jennifer Dowdell: back to an area that hadn't seen. This kind of diversity of plants, or the diversity of of different types of wildlife that we started to see. Return to this site Like native birds.
21:01
Jennifer Dowdell: A slightly different approach is a a project that we did at the University of North Carolina, at the Chapel Hill Campus, where they had this wide line in front of one of their older buildings, but it had a pipe stream through the center of it, and we saw it as a really exciting opportunity to do some
21:21
Jennifer Dowdell: daylighting of this whole stream system, but create this interactive garden and kind of reforested space for campus community members while managing some storm water issues that they were facing. So we did some sketches and overlays, and this was a project that had some work by landscape architect by myself, but also engineers and our ecologists local to North Carolina, who really started to develop this very diverse
21:48
Jennifer Dowdell: planting palette. So you see a couple of images here of the project, after it was finished with this day lit stream moving through the landscape. But this rich palette of native landscape plants, both wetland plants, and then trees, and an increased tree canopy that was integrated into this planting design
22:07
Jennifer Dowdell: to really bring to life more of that native system that would have been seen, perhaps, in areas around Chapel Hill, right into the heart of the campus, and we've had great feedback from the University about the students, and and I think, along with coming back and really getting excited about it.
22:24
Jennifer Dowdell: So the last project that I wanted to dig into a little bit is something closer to home here in DC. And the Smithsonians various properties, which is an ongoing project that we are currently conducting with the District of Columbia. So I do a lot of work
22:42
Jennifer Dowdell: in our urban ecology framework, planning for the practice. If I have a chat I head up a lot of that work, and we've done some work in. See Baltimore, in the city of Atlanta at this kind of urban scale, citywide urban ecology frameworks that can provide the basis for future implementation of different types of strategies that help both community revitalization and ecological uplift, the overall ecological improvement of conditions within the urban sphere.
23:11
Jennifer Dowdell: and it's becoming a great area of excitement, because we know that many many more people live in urban areas around the country and across the globe, and and we are all being impacted by different effects of climate change, whether they'd be larger flood and storm events, or more hot
23:30
Jennifer Dowdell: times of summer and urban heat, island and effects, and then sea level rise, and other types of coastal effects. And so in the District of Columbia, just a couple of years ago, we started a planning project for them on the Anacostia River corridor, within the districts bounds of the the 500 Year flood plane of the Anacostia River.
23:51
Jennifer Dowdell: and, as I said, this is an ongoing project that is so I can't. I can't get into too much of the background. But we there has been some of this material has been made available online. As this project is very much engaged with the public and with the communities who live along this quarter. So we've been doing a variety of different public engagement
24:10
Jennifer Dowdell: activities with community members and really pulling their insight into this project. So this material is available online at the website here at the bottom of the screen, and Zach might be able to put it also into the chat, but I thought it would be fun to kind of dig into this approach a little bit here at the tail end of my presentation, because it is new, and it is fresh, and it is ongoing, and it is in the Smithsonian's backyard in DC.
24:36
Jennifer Dowdell: So again, this Restoration Master Plan is really to in order for the the district, the do E. As our client, to have a foundation for, and a kind of holistic strategy for applying different types of restoration and improvements to recreation and open space in a way that is holistic, and in a way that they can then seek funding to do these different projects. So this kind of this big scale, master plan to really envision the future of it.
25:06
Jennifer Dowdell: so that it can meet some very key goals that the district has identified. So those goals are enhancing resiliency, restoring habitat for native species known to be in the Anacoaste river improving water quality within the river, and enhancing public access and recreation so similar to much of the work that we are doing in urban ecology. We take, we take the lens and the district similarly sees this through the lens of socio ecological frameworks.
25:34
Jennifer Dowdell: So we're we're balancing, and we're really seeing the interconnections between ecology and ecosystems and holistic ecological healing, and the communities who are directly impacted and who have direct needs that could be met through different practices and strategies that can be implemented again. In this case the focus of the project is on the 500 year flood plane.
25:57
Jennifer Dowdell: So it is this area that's outlined in blue on this map, and there's a lot of different kind of key locations to help people key into this area in terms of the labels that you see on this map. Jennifer Dowdell: So we had this kind of a 4 phase project, and we are currently in concept development stakeholder engagement while it's kind of noted as phase 2. Here is really an ongoing
26:23
Jennifer Dowdell: process that's happening in every phase of the work. So in the first phase, which was completed last year, we were really using a data analysis, foundation for understanding opportunity zones across the rivers corridor that would address those 4 goals. And so we did data analysis, using a a variety of Gis data. And as in as these Arcgis program to really analyze opportunities and kind of try to highlight locations with the highest opportunity to meet each of the 4 goals.
26:53
and one of those, of course, is public Jennifer Dowdell: access, enhancement.
26:57
Jennifer Dowdell: and open space improvements. So, besides that data analysis, we also conducted some public engagement to really survey the community about their needs and their understanding of the systems. So i'll get into a little bit of the results of that in just a moment. But then, after doing that data analysis, we start to develop strategies based on public input and what we've analyzed of the existing conditions. To start to look at creating this master plan of a variety of techniques, a variety of strategies that can be implemented to improve
27:27
the conditions of the river, both for ecology and the native flora and fauna and for the community. And then the last phase will be us writing a master plan and that final Mac Jennifer Dowdell: document. So here is kind of the basis of the 3 phases and our ongoing schedule, so we're of course in spring 2023. So about 2 thirds of the way through the project. And again, all of this content is available online at the DOE's website for this project.
27:55
Jennifer Dowdell: So I I mentioned that first phase was data gathering and over to these analysis really focus on those 4 goal areas. And so we did, you know, touch points with the community, and touch points with the District of Columbia, and touch points with the variety of sister and Federal agencies, who have some ownership over many of the properties that are along that flood plane.
28:15
Jennifer Dowdell: Again. Here's that map with the project area in a variety of different parks or a feature locations or amenities on the river, and this is just one of the opportunities results maps that was conducted in that first phase. And so you'll see in bright red and orange or the high and medium high, high highest opportunity areas to improve habitat based on existing data that we had for the existing conditions of the river.
28:42
Jennifer Dowdell: Then we also did that online public survey and an on, and an online public meeting for folks. And so this is that results map that shows the community members feedback to us that helps us start to understand their concerns, their desires, and their areas of high value of different experiences, both with just recreation and open space.
29:03
Jennifer Dowdell: and with ecology, a lot of the community. Members who are actively engaged in the river in the neighboring communities know a lot about the ecology of this river, and know the the history, the long history of this river, and the different impacts and different issues with environmental justice that have affected the river and the river quality and the over habitat. So there's so much insight that we can gain from the community in this public input process.
29:28
Jennifer Dowdell: These are just examples of some of the results maps from some of the activities that we conducted during the public meeting. These are also available online for folks to look at if they're interested in. And this helps us hone really in on some of the particular areas of access
29:44
Jennifer Dowdell: and even ecological value or ecological potential that community members wanted us to know about. As we start to think about the development of this holistic corridor, wide within the district's bounds master plan for restorative strategies.
30:01
Jennifer Dowdell: This is just some summary information about what some of the community community members saw as priorities in in thinking about the corridor, and then some further summary of of, and what it really does here in looking at some of these themes, is that you see that there is this very deep knowledge in the community, both of the importance of water quality in the river and habitat, as well as this need for improve access
30:26
Jennifer Dowdell: and safe and secure ways for community members to get to the river and to enjoy it, and to see it as an amenity for their neighborhoods, for their community, in in being able to access it for recreation or just enjoyment. A passive sort of recreation is so valuable.
30:43
Jennifer Dowdell: so we had a variety of different restoration and enhancement strategies that we're currently developing, because that's in process. We don't have that published Yet we are currently in a phase where actually I think it'll be this weekend, a second public survey will become live online. Do allow for community members to give us the next phase of input in this
31:03
Jennifer Dowdell: this project. So it allows for them to really start to see some of the proposed strategies and locations for different types of living shoreline or stormwater management integrated into the landscape, or increase riparian plantings along the river quarter. That also allow for access and views and increased types of amenities. I think some of the amendments that they will be able to give us further feedback on our locations for
31:31
Jennifer Dowdell: getting into the river and kayak some canoes and fishing areas that are on land, or on decks, or overlooks that are peers near the river on the river for them to increase their activities. So with that, I think that wraps up the the bulk of my presentation that allows, for I hope
31:50
Jennifer Dowdell: enough time for us to have some really interesting discussion and dialogue, and of course, because I didn't work on all of these projects myself. Personally, I may not have specific answers to every one of your questions, but what I hope to do is, give you what input I can, and then I can always get back to you all with more information from some of the project leads on those projects where I wasn't as heavily involved to get you more detail information if you're interested.
32:16
Cynthia Brown: Jennifer. That was fascinating. I mean, I like there's so many things that you did. Now you're doing it on a larger scale. Cynthia Brown: But to me the principles are so applicable to what we do in our own residents, our own communities that I I walked away with at least 15 good ideas. So that was really good. I'm really fascinated by the rubble guard.
32:39
Cynthia Brown: and the idea of touching holes through concrete, because we get to ask that all the time. Well, I have a concrete backyard. What do I do? How do I plant things. What kind of garden can I have? And so, of course, my fall back is always container gardens. But the idea of creating patterns Cynthia Brown: by punching through that that cement, or whatever it might be.
33:02
Cynthia Brown: that's fascinating. Can you tell me a little bit about the process? Especially does it? Does it the the soils that you're working with. How do you amend the soils and areas like that?
33:15
Jennifer Dowdell: Yeah, that's a great question. And this is one project that I did have more involvement in, so I can speak a little bit to the process. So yeah, that those are great questions. And this was a really interesting project. I should say that we were working with a local environmental artist, Stacy Levy. I want to recognize her contributions to this project as well as a local Philadelphia engineer, urban engineers. What's really important and very challenging of about this site, which you may not be able to see from all of these photos.
33:43
But this Jennifer Dowdell: this site was a part of this is actually decking over the river. So this isn't even solid soil below this paved area, I think, back at the back of the site if there was more soil, but at the front of the site it was actually on the decking, on the kind of old peer structure that had been built to create the space for its previous uses. So we had
34:06
Jennifer Dowdell: all sorts of considerations and a lot of we we benefit, I think, because we it was kind of a design bill project. So we were on site with
34:16
Jennifer Dowdell: the contractors through the entirety of the actual implementation, because we are learning a little bit as we went, even though we did a lot of different testing and lidar use before, and we had divers from urban engineers actually going underneath to to understand the structural integrity of the decking, and it was known to be fine. But they they just had to check it and make sure that everything was solid. So then Yes, it was.
34:43
Jennifer Dowdell: There were challenge. There were so many challenges. Jennifer Dowdell: Interestingly, as I said, one of the challenges, of course was that it was too expensive to to break up all this concrete and to remove it from the site. So we then had to think, how do we reuse? And then, in this particular case
34:58
Jennifer Dowdell: this was more solid and variable in depth of the concrete in this particular area, so it wasn't as easy as it had been in this zone of the rubble garden to cut and to create and to pull out and add some native soil amendments here. But in this area it became too expensive again to even cut it up in pieces. So what we decided to do was, well. Okay, let's be creative. And we started thinking about. How could we use this as a
35:28
Jennifer Dowdell: as a as a canvas for telling the story? And then, with Stacy we knew the importance of the water story, because it was the Delaware River, and because there has been
35:40
Jennifer Dowdell: the Philadelphia Water Department has done amazing things to really integrate green infrastructure into most of the urban sort of planning work and really start to implement the strategies. So we want to keep building on that story of water and water management and bringing it back to the surface. So then we, I think we were talking to. Even
35:59
Jennifer Dowdell: we had different union labor represented on our team as was required in the city of Philadelphia, and there was a specialist who actually had a very special tool that could make these holes, and and so we had him on site for very particular hours of time, for over the course of a couple of days of one week. dr drilling these holes, and we decided it would be fine if different size holes where you were created, and then to create this dendritic
36:25
Jennifer Dowdell: pattern that those holes would fall upon. We had seen some great examples of other types of urban renewal and brown field redevelopment designs that have been occurring over the last 20 years. For sure, all over the Us. And in Europe. And so some of those designs play on this idea of decay and urban decay becoming part of the design story. And so we just we. We build on other examples we found of how do you play with this idea of decay?
36:54
Jennifer Dowdell: And so we said, let's plant these we we added a little bit of soil, and each one of these we also thought of plants that wouldn't need very deep roots. I don't have the palette names with me now, but you can even see surprisingly, even though we didn't really plan on the deep roots necessarily working Golden Rod did fine. And so you see a variety of grasses
37:15
Jennifer Dowdell: and fl flowering sort of Forbes here that were planted. But we also did some more succulent, some things that could be in a condition that's really difficult, because it's hot in the summer. It's going to be dry, you know, after a rainstorm it's going to dry up faster. The evapotranspiration is going to be pretty high, so these had to be very hardy
37:36
Jennifer Dowdell: kind of urban plants on the more upland side of the species Gill, because we knew that it would be pretty hard conditions, tough conditions. But yeah, it was a really exciting process, and honestly, in many of the landscape.
37:51
Cynthia Brown: I mean, that's absolutely beautiful. Yeah, You would never know that that was an answer. Because you didn't have the funds to be able to remove at all. I'd rather do that. And this just the patterns it it just so enlightening to think that you could. Cynthia Brown: you know, take something that has Cynthia Brown: little to no use and make it as beautiful as this, and functional, too. It looks like the water is really directed well to I'm. Assuming there's some type of
38:19
Jennifer Dowdell: bio or cistern that would collect the water on this end. It's a bio retention area so it's got special bioretention soils that allow for it to slowly infiltrate. But yeah, all of it's kind of flowing overland, and through that dendritic pattern. This is another interesting kind of design challenge. This side of the site was. As for instead of concrete, and so asphalt was very easy to cut into, so we were able to car
38:45
Jennifer Dowdell: because it was softer in being able to cut and manage in this space. So we really reacted almost real time to some of these different design constraints on the site, but it allowed for us to get creative, and then really find some exciting ways to address it.
39:00
Cynthia Brown: Well, it is creative, but then it's exciting and and that's beautiful. Did you have a problem? You mentioned that one area had a lot of invasive that are coming back, so of course they probably have a maintenance team. Did you have to do something to the soil before you planted what you wanted to be to get rid of
39:20
Cynthia Brown: a seed bank, or whatever else that's in a seed bank. For this I don't know all seeds drop, and then, if you don't, if you don't, cut the flowers off and the seeds off before they drop. Then you have a seed bank in your soil. So did you have a problem. With that. Jennifer Dowdell: I think there was probably some seed bank that we weren't able to manage, which is why it came back to some degree, because we often try to.
39:43
Jennifer Dowdell: We like to try to use native soils as our our foundational point, no matter what. And then build into that with some amendments, a little bit of extra carbon, maybe a little bit of other types of sandy soil we needed to in the Bmp. Because you want to make sure the water is flowing through and percolating. And so I believe there was some challenge with that seed bank and some of it. But we did a full, invasive
40:07
Jennifer Dowdell: clearing of the entire site before construction began, and that was really not part of our scope. It was sort of the responsibility of the managing nonprofit who owns or kind of manages this space, and I believe they probably did Jennifer Dowdell: spot treatment with some very specific herbicides. But again, being this close to the river, even that has to be done very, very carefully. So I think they and most people would air on the side of
40:36
Jennifer Dowdell: you know, a light treatment versus too much chemical here, and in order to also make sure that we didn't kill everything the seed bank, because we want to keep what might be native. And I think what we found is that in this rubble meadow area. In particular, we're seeing amazing regeneration every year
40:54
Jennifer Dowdell: as those native species established. And we've actually even did a seed collection afternoon where we went out and we collected seeds from these plants, and we had done an extension of this further south of just the rubble meadow along the trail, and we planted it with some of the seeds we collected from up here. So it was wonderful to have that regeneration active in our implementation strategies that that's fascinating. It's almost like.
41:19
Cynthia Brown: Of course everyone knows the High Line it is. It's a new look, you know, to be able to bring it down on a level where people can walk through it, enjoy it, have movement in an area where it was just concrete. I I really enjoy this type of thing. I'm. I'm. Looking at the questions now. Just so, Pardon me looking away. But do you have any pilot projects that are focused on urban backyards or urban areas that change
41:47
Cynthia Brown: lawns to it wouldn't have to be residential. It could be, of course, another area. And I think you did have a picture of something where it was mostly lawn, to begin with. Oh. Jennifer Dowdell: the the universal yeah. Green Streets Academy. Yeah. And we're seeing more interest in that. We have done some programs with some of the local counties in Maryland, I think
42:12
Jennifer Dowdell: Montgomery County and Rockville, Maryland. Years ago we we developed some guidance for turf, conversion, and other storm water vmp design strategies for residential. We don't do as much residential design. But we have advised municipalities on integration of stormwater vmps, and one of those being turf conversion. I think. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. The Green Streets Academy example is a is a nice one, because it was just plain turf. It was a very urban
42:43
Jennifer Dowdell: condition in Baltimore City, and we're still kind of it's it's only in its first couple of years. Now, well, actually, I guess, with the pandemic. It's probably in year 5 now, and so it continues to shift and regenerate and self organize, which is what we like to see is we like to watch and see what's happening, and not necessarily
43:05
Jennifer Dowdell: change anything unless there's invasive to be managed, of course, and then we might advise the high school. The students are very involved. They actually did the planting day for this. Unfortunately, I don't have the picture of the planting day. I thought I did in here, and so. They are very active in this space, but it was just turf and kind of urban soils, turf, and and I think there were some limited amendments that we did, but not a lot, but I think just being able to create.
43:31
Jennifer Dowdell: And then we did. Jennifer Dowdell: I'm pretty sure. In this case we had container plantings of some of these native species, as well as an overseating of kind of a seed mix of natives. But really those container plants are most important and kind of getting some of those established species. So in this project did you
43:52
Jennifer Dowdell: again punch holes through the existing material, which of course, would be turf to be able to plan, or did you remove all the turf ahead of time? I'm. Pretty sure. In this case the turf was removed, so a certain a certain couple of inches was removed to get the turf out to start. Yeah, in this case, you know
44:12
Jennifer Dowdell: It's it's it's likely that that usually helps I. I did my graduate work in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and at the time we were also seeing a lot in the midwest in particular a lot of
44:26
Jennifer Dowdell: influence on this idea of maintaining with burning with control, Burns. And that is another way of of I mean you have to work within the rules of your municipality, and also within very strict rules associated with wind and humidity and temperatures. In in doing a controlled burn. But a control burn can be a great way of clearing a site or kind of creating the beginnings of a site to renew itself with a native palette.
44:55
Jennifer Dowdell: and it sometimes releases some of that native seed band. But again, that you can only do that in in certain location. Cynthia Brown: I'm not doing it in my house community within a. I can tell you that right now. But it is interesting to think of the approaches that we take to be able to turn something over to a more wild area, and there are a a number of choices out there to be able to handle it, which is good. So there's another question. This is a long one. So
45:24
Cynthia Brown: i'm. Working on a community scale. Suburban landscapes with the focus on restoration of the like native plant communities and and wildlife habitat. Cynthia Brown: finding there is a conflict when trying to safeguard shy wildlife with request from parks and recreation folks to activate the areas with
45:42
Cynthia Brown: active recreation boardwalks hardscape that disrupts the shy of wildlife. Do you have Restoration project examples where the prioritization of wildlife and its habitat protected from human destruction, disruption was achieved? Cynthia Brown: Maybe yeah, Anacostia waterways might.
46:03
Jennifer Dowdell: Maybe. I think that's the beginning. There, now, I can't. You know that one is ongoing. So I think that we we don't have a lot of built works, yet we actually are doing some other restoration work Jennifer Dowdell: in the Anacasia watershed. That's not part of that particular project at where we're doing wetland and shoreline restoration and river restoration streamed Restoration. You know it's a very it's a very
46:28
Jennifer Dowdell: fine dance. There's a balance there, but I think there are strategies that one can use to help support that. So one of the Jennifer Dowdell: big parts of again going back to these principles of landscape ecology is understanding the impacts of fragmentation in a landscape in a forest like landscape in particular. But in all sort of systems fragmenting those landscapes creates less
46:52
Jennifer Dowdell: kind of core protected areas. So you have more tiny little pieces. And so you don't have that interior forest where more sensitive species are able to exist more happily, or even can re reproduce because they need a certain amount of shelter. Perhaps Jennifer Dowdell: every landscape is different, and every species has its own requirements. But i'm actually going to talk about an example that by habitats didn't do. But I experienced
47:19
Jennifer Dowdell: in Ann Arbor and Grad school, because I think it's a really lovely big example. So I think there is way. There are ways of doing this. So there's a a meadow that's part of the operating botanic gardens in Ann Arbor.
47:31
Jennifer Dowdell: and it has been restored. It's this enormous meadow native meadow, and there are trails, but there are also pretty large parcels of intact meadow. So fragmentation was considered, I think if you look at it in an aerial, you'll kind of see the way the trails have a circulation. You get to experience a lot of the meadow. But there's also pretty large. Well.
47:53
Jennifer Dowdell: not huge patches, but patches of significance where there's going to be that interior core area of prairie. In this case where there will be the possibility for ground nesting birds who use that as habitat, because it's far enough away from the edges that it gives that inter interior space. We did do a project in Buffalo, New York, a number of years ago, on a a brown field where we did this master plan for redevelopment of the brown field
48:19
Jennifer Dowdell: in Buffalo, along the river, along the Buffalo River, where we knew that the corner blue butterfly Jennifer Dowdell: have very specific habitat requirements.
48:29
Jennifer Dowdell: and we could fulfill this because it was a minimum of 10 acres of meadow for the blue butterfly. So if we could have trails around that 10 acres that may be too large for some sites right in in the case of the person who's asking the question today. But if you can find a way of figuring out some of the species requirements for a certain amount of area that is needed for their habitat, and then see if you can't weave in
48:53
Jennifer Dowdell: the trails or the boardwalks, in a way that gives people opportunities to visually access those spaces, but not intrude into those spaces. Now, important design considerations or programming management. Considerations include
49:09
Jennifer Dowdell: not allowing for dogs to be off leash, and when there might be sensitive species, especially during nesting seasons. It is about when you load those spaces because you probably will want to know them, but only once or twice a year, not during those nesting times. So you really have to know the very specific species needs
49:28
Jennifer Dowdell: of this species that you are likely inviting into the space, because the last thing you want to do is create a vector for impact on that species in in designing that space. But I think it can be done. Another example, a great example. Along with gardens we didn't. We didn't participate in this design, but it is lovely. Their meadow restoration incredible, large, intact patches with a a wonderful trail network. In their case they benefit from having a change in elevation, so you can be up on a high ridge looking out over the meadow.
49:58
Jennifer Dowdell: you can see the birds kind of coming out of different portions of it. And there's a stream quarter that runs through the middle of it that they've made sure to buffer appropriately with woody plants and other types of native species for that stream.
50:12
Jennifer Dowdell: So there are some great examples, and it really is about thinking about fragmentation, thinking about how circulation moves through. So people have views, and then maintenance and programming. One final word on maintenance and programming and materials
50:26
Jennifer Dowdell: is the use of lighting in those spaces. It's particularly critical in making sure that you are sensitive to impact on dark sky and and the habitat needs of animals who are migrating through these spaces, who get very confused by lighting when they're
50:43
Jennifer Dowdell: really trying to rely on the full moon, the cycles of the moon, and they get totally messed up and have chat in reproduction. Even humans are impacted by lighting, and and I think we have to realize that it is significant and important in designing trail lighting especially Jennifer Dowdell: to be mindful of that. We can create safe spaces, but we should also be doing it in a way that understands the impact on habitat when we are intersecting with restored landscapes.
51:11
Cynthia Brown: Right? That's so good. I mean. Longwood was one example I was thinking of, because I've visited many times, and that meadow is absolutely beautiful, and they have a way to be able to integrate art shows and all kinds of programming, and still keep the the shy and wildlife safe
51:30
Cynthia Brown: and and keep the habitats available for them. So i'm! I echo your response with doing a survey to make sure you understand who is actually there. So you can understand what type of habitats they really do need. Cynthia Brown: that they function in the butterfly. One is just fabulous to think about. What does this butterfly. Really.
51:51
Cynthia Brown: the there's certain animals that humans they're so used to being with us. We don't have to worry about it at all. But how often do we think about? What are the requirements for that little blue butterfly that happens to be in the area? So those are the ones that you really do have to survey. Find out if you're serious about creating something that is going to encourage that habitat. That's Cynthia Brown: the first step Cynthia Brown: in any project we do surveys all the time.
52:17
Cynthia Brown: We created a garden at a and a cost here, which is, of course, on the waterway, and that was something we looked at, you know who who could possibly visit there. It's in a very urban area, and it it. It was exciting to learn what was there, and then what we could plant to be able to service those those things that were in the area. And yet at the same time, yeah.
52:42
Cynthia Brown: inform the the visitors what they might see, not trying to always give the positive views of habitat and the positive views of visitors. When we have so many negative views of things. My neighbor in, for instance. Cynthia Brown: I hate snakes. She wants flowers and other things, but she hates snakes so it's very hard to say. Well, you can have this, but you can't have this. There's no way that if you do invite people or not people. If you invite wildlife.
53:14
Cynthia Brown: you you're going to invite all wildlife, not just the ones that you want to visit and see? Jennifer Dowdell: Exactly. Yeah, and to your point signage. And so I wanted to. Jennifer Dowdell: A couple of the examples at the Leonardtown waterfront. The signage tells the story of a different components about the history of this harbor zone, about the Restoration itself and that. And then about the species. There's 2 signs that really focus on the species.
53:38
Cynthia Brown: Yeah, that's a great way. If you are doing a a public project to be able to put those. Of course we do it. We we're a museum. We we always want to interpret what we're doing, but
53:48
Cynthia Brown: just to be able to let everyone know what's going on. I I love it when people put signs up for like national Wildlife Federation. So you know that that's a backyard habitat that's telling your neighbors what you're trying to do. You're not a messy neighbor. You're trying to create a habitat to go with it. Yes, but all these are beautiful examples that really bring so much to the community.
54:16
Cynthia Brown: You, you first go to them, and he listen to them instead of just come in and make a design and put it down. I I love that because I'm. I'm a proponent for students designing their own gardens at schools, so because they know how they use it. Cynthia Brown: So how how do you do that in the community? So it it's. It's like walking softly.
54:40
Jennifer Dowdell: Yeah, absolutely Well, so there's a lot I would say, our city of Atlanta Project. We did what we call well. It was under Atlanta City design, and we did city design nature the component, and it was an urban ecology framework for the city of Atlanta, and from the beginning we identified in the city identified. Community engagement
54:59
Jennifer Dowdell: would occur from the very first meeting all the way through the planning process, and so we devised a variety of different activities. This was pre pandemic, but I think we're getting back to that now in in in sort of a post. Jennifer Dowdell: Hi! Jennifer Dowdell: I guess Jennifer Dowdell: the highest
55:18
Jennifer Dowdell: issues of the pandemic have passed, if not the pandemic itself. But anyway, we're getting back in in person with people. But we can also do this online. But what we did in Atlanta is, we set up all these different rooms with different types of activities, so that we could really get all of their senses involved in hearing their relationship to nature in the city, and I think that is applicable in any site that you might be working on, even if you're doing community design with your own neighbors in your own neighborhood, at the residential scale
55:47
Jennifer Dowdell: you get together, and you talk about what does it smell like? And we had pulled plants and soils from different natural areas around the city of Atlanta into little jars, and we had them smell them. We, of course, you know, warned them. If you have any allergies, don't smell these, but if you don't have any allergies, go ahead and try this. What do you smell? What does this make you think about
56:07
Jennifer Dowdell: of your memories of it? Of like city of Atlanta and nature ideas. And so we did smell. We did a storytelling booth where we asked people to draw diagrams of different ways that they experienced nature, and whatever nature meant to them in Atlanta we did a a verbal storytelling like an Npr. On the spot. I'm. Interviewing you. What do you what comes to mind and tell us. We had all these audio recordings that we took.
56:34
Jennifer Dowdell: and we had a variety of maps, and we had mapping activities where we said, okay, here's the city of Atlanta. Find where you live, or find that part that you love. Tell us more about it, and to tell us how you get to there, because it was not just about increasing the ecological kind of potential, and the opportunity to preserve, as Atlanta continues to grow in population preserve this important kind of component of the city's identity, but also how people
57:01
Jennifer Dowdell: traveled across the city and interacted with green space. So there was this part of you know? How do you connect to nature? Where do you connect with nature so a variety of different activities? We tried to again involve their senses involve them kind of physically. So they were just like sitting at a table, but moving around a space.
57:21
Jennifer Dowdell: And then, of course, at the beginning of the pandemic, our first phase of work with the Anacostia. It's all virtual, but we have a variety of different online activities. We've created map activities and surveys, asking for opinions and perceptions of relationships or issues
57:36
Jennifer Dowdell: on the river that they want us to be aware of. And so we can collect that data from those various virtual activities, and then start to organize and analyze that data, see pattern, see themes, and then also see kind of spatial stories and patterns that are kind of arising from their use of map point activities.
57:56
Cynthia Brown: That that's and I. We just got a question that popped up, though I think the explanation that you just gave would help them out. I'll just want to overcome our love affair with lawns. How do you convince somebody that holds punched in concrete with
58:09
Cynthia Brown: grass is coming up through is a a garden is a designed space, and I think, between offering signage to explain doing meetings ahead of time meet with your neighbors and talk to them. And you know some people love lawns, and we're not going to change that. But you can change the type of lawn that you plant as well. It. It could be like we have a be lawn here in front of natural history, just to show people that it doesn't have to be the perfect manicured
58:38
Cynthia Brown: turf that we all think of as as a lawn or not all of us. I certainly don't. But you know. Have those meetings? Have those talks? Have those signs relate to the people in a way, understand that longs are very important. If you'd like watching ball, or
58:55
Cynthia Brown: you really want that. That's a family tradition. So thank you for all those great designs and ideas i'm excited to to try some of them out in my own neighborhood how they work absolutely terrific. But this has been exciting. Jennifer Dowdell: Yeah, One final kind of closing word I will say to that point about lawns and the desire to have some areas that might remain on.
59:24
Jennifer Dowdell: There is my my advisor and a landscape ecologist, landscape architect who's done a lot of work on this is this: Joan Nassau has talked a lot about the idea of queues, visual cues, that there is an intention in this, even if it's messy, even if it looks wild.
59:42
Jennifer Dowdell: If there's an edge. And so maybe there's a moan edge between your green space that's staying on, and your new wild space that's that restored native planting, or meadow, or or prairie, or whatever it might be. But as Joan points out, it's about that queue that visual cue that these are maintained landscapes there is intent, even if it looks different. And so I think her writings on this idea are really key, and what has informed my work and many designers work
1:00:12
Jennifer Dowdell: of how you integrate these native landscapes with the more conventional or more kind of turf lawn, as is needed; for, as you mentioned, a variety of activities, yeah. Cynthia Brown: So important, so terrific. Well, thank you. You definitely gave us food for thought and and images that I will remember, and and if I ever get the opportunity to do something similar, so thank you for that. I hope you enjoy your big day at work, and
1:00:40
Cynthia Brown: hopefully, we'll see you around the Anacostian neighbor. Jennifer Dowdell: Sounds good. Thank you. Okay, Thank you. Bye, bye.
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