Volunteer Opportunity with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
Saturday, March 31 from 9 a.m. to Noon Patuxent River Cleanup
Sign up for a number of sites to pick up trash throughout the Patuxent River watershed and help the Chesapeake Bay. Email saugust@wsscwater.com.
For more information, visit the WSSC website.
Here’s another product that doesn’t really seem to be “environmentally friendly” to me: those motion activated water repellent systems that are supposed to scare away nuisance animals from your yard.
You set the devices up in your yard, attach them to a garden hose, and turn on the hose. The motion detecting devices say that they protect over 1900 square feet, work day and night and even squirrels will activate them. The way that they "protect" your property is by squirting large blasts of water to deter the creatures that dare to set foot on your land.
One website describes their product this way: it “provides an environmentally-friendly and safe alternative to chemical repellents and electric fences, so it’s safe for use around your family and pets.”
I have to admit, I would love to find a product that would help keep the birds from eating the fish out of my garden pond and keep the neighborhood cats and dogs from pooping in my yard. But it just doesn’t make sense to me to waste a lot of water to do it. PLUS, if you had a few nights of really active critter activity, I would think that you would run the risk of overwatering you lawn, which really isn’t healthy for it.
What do you think?
According to their website, the Wyland Foundation, along with a whole slew of other organizations, are giving away $50,000 in prizes to people who take an online water challenge between March 30 – April 30th, top prize being a Toyota Prius Hybrid.
But here’s the thing: in order to win, you have to live in the city with the highest number of residents who take the challenge….and this is a NATIONWIDE contest. So the first step to get anywhere near winning the Prius, or any of the other great prizes, is to contact your mayor and ask them to challenge their citizens. The website provides a letter that you can download and use to contact your mayor.
Sure, the chances of winning the Prius are a long shot, but what have you got to loose? Getting people in your city to pledge to conserve water and other valuable resources is a good thing, and a cleaner environment for your city is a great prize, in itself.
More information from the Wyland Foundation website:
Mayors are encouraged to challenge their residents to visit mywaterpledge.com from March 30 to April 30. Visitors to the website enter their zip code and then make a series of online pledges to conserve water, save energy and reduce pollution.
Participants in cities with the highest percentage of residents who take the challenge will be eligible to win more than 1,000 prizes, including a Toyota Prius and water-saving home products from Waterpik, Sterling Plumbing, Rainbird, and Lowe's.
“The mayor’s challenge gives communities a way to come together for one very important reason—the future of our planet,” said famed marine artist Wyland. “We see mayors making gentlemen’s bets over who will win college football games. Here’s a way for them to take on an even more important challenge in a friendly, competitive way.”
Raingardens for Homeowners. Saturday, March 31st. 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM.
Rain gardens, also known as bioretention areas, are attractive landscape features that allow rain water and snow melt to infiltrate into the ground. A layer of mulch and plants intercept water running off streets, driveways, and rooftops, slowing its flow and removing pollutants before the water reaches local streams, the Occoquan River and the Potomac River, drinking water supplies for the region.
The workshop will be held at Fairlington Community Center, 3308 S. Stafford St. Arlington, VA.
To register, please email Aileen Winquist at awinquist@arlingtonva.us More information: http://www.novaregion.org/raingardens
Since 1993, March 22nd has been observed as World Water Day to focus attention on the importance of preserving and protecting our planet’s fresh water resources.
World Water Day has a theme each year, and this year’s theme is “Water and Food Security” and deals with the planet’s supply of clean, healthy, abundant water and its relationship to providing food to the people of the world.
As eco-friendly gardeners, we often talk about waterwise landscaping. We know that by utilizing rain barrels, choosing waterwise plants, and using mulch, we all can help conserve water in our landscapes. But for World Water Day, this year’s theme seems to focus on "waterwise eating". "Waterwise eating" means following a healthy, sustainable diet; consuming a less water-intensive diet; and reducing food waste.
Of course, we all realize that we need water to grow food for people to eat. But the “Water and Food Security” theme also wants to encourage everyone to consider the water required in the production of the food that they eat, and to adopt a diet that is less water “hungry”.
Each food has its own “water footprint”, which accounts for the amount of water used to grow and/or produce that food. By learning a little about the water footprint of your foods, you can choose to make a choice for a more “waterwise” diet.
Here are some quotes, and a short video, from the World Water Day Website:
The world is thirsty because of our needs for food. Today, there are over 7 billion people to feed on the planet and this number is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. To be able to feed everybody, we first need to secure water, in sufficient quantity and adequate quality. We will also need to produce more food using less water, reduce food wastage and losses, and move towards more sustainable diets.
Here are some additional links for information about the “water footprint” of various foods:
Here’s a neat idea I saw online and its so simple, it really makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.
The product is called Weed Recede and it is mulch that comes in its own, self-mulching paper bags. You just lay the bag on the ground, pull a couple of strings to open the bag, and spread out the mulch right on top of the paper bag. The video for the product says that “the landscape industry in the United States uses over 700 million and one billion plastic mulch bags each year”, most of which end up in our landfills.
Anyway, if you like this product, you can vote for it in the Walmart on the shelf contest (which will make the product available at Walmart stores).
We just got the April/May issue of National Wildlife Magazine in the mail and I was excited to see that this issue is dedicated to Gardening for Wildlife.The Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District, in partnership with the Leesburg Environmental Advisory Commission, will offer four rain barrel workshops for Leesburg residents during April and May.
Rain barrels are an economical and practical way for homeowners to conserve water and save money. In addition, they reduce runoff, as stormwater is collected before it picks up sediment and contaminants that pollute area streams and rivers, which drain to the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay.
The rain barrel workshops will be held at Tuscarora Creek Park, located at 425 Solitude Court SE, on Wednesday, April 25; Thursday, April 26; Tuesday, May 15; and Wednesday, May 16. All workshops begin at 6:30 p.m.
Residents can make a rain barrel to take home or purchase a pre-made barrel. Each workshop will last approximately one hour; participants need to attend only one workshop. The rain barrel kits to make on site are $50 each; the pre-made barrels are $65 each, plus tax. The EAC is offering a $20 discount on the purchase of a rain barrel to each Leesburg household as an incentive to promote water conservation. Discounts are limited to two per household.
Participants are reminded to dress appropriately if they will be constructing their own barrels. A registration form can be downloaded from the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District website at www.loudounsoilandwater.org. For more information, call Suzanne Brown, education outreach specialist for the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District, at 571-918-4530, ext. 105.
