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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
  • Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:15:16 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:14:39 -0500
From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
To: ARS News subscriber <lflj@bellsouth.net>
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
--Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ARSInformation
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*Read the magazine story
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov10/gardens1110.htm> to find out
more.*

Photo: ARS hydrologist Douglas Boyer (right) and Beckley, WV, Sanitary Board
operations manager Jeremiah Johnson examine
a rain garden. Link to photo information
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/nov10/d1976-3.htm >
ARS researchers like hydrologist Douglas Boyer (right, with Beckley, WV,
Sanitary Board operations manager Jeremiah
Johnson) are developing ways to improve the rain garden concept so they not
only reduce runoff, but also keep toxic
metals out of storm drains. /Click the image for more information about it./


For further reading

* Recycling food scraps into gardens
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090904.htm>
* New process for making activated carbons patented by ARS
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090722.htm>
* Making the most of manure
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2008/081001.htm>


Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere

By Don Comis </is/contacts.htm#Don>
December 1, 2010

Rain gardens are increasingly popular with homeowners and municipalities and
are mandatory for many communities
nationally. U.S. Department of Agriculture
<http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome> (USDA) scientists are finding
ways to improve rain gardens so they not only reduce runoff, but also keep
toxic metals out of storm drains.

Rain gardens are plantings in depressions that catch stormwater runoff from
sidewalks, parking lots, roads and roofs.
Rain gardens come in various shapes and sizes, from large basins carved by
front-end loaders to small artificial
streambed-like formations complete with pebbles. Rain gardens not only slow
water down to give it time to soak into the
ground and be used by plants, but also filter out sediment and chemical
pollutants.

Plant physiologist Rich Zobel
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=6324> at the
Agricultural
Research Service <http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/main.htm> (ARS) Appalachian
Farming Systems Research Center
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-32-00-00> (AFSRC) at
Beaver, W.Va., and research associate Amir
Hass, who works for West Virginia State University <http://www.wvstateu.edu/>
in Institute, W.Va., and is stationed at
Beaver, are working on improving rain gardens. They are collaborating with
ARS hydrologist Doug Boyer
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=575> and ARS soil
chemist Javier Gonzalez
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=32665> at Beaver,
and colleagues at the ARS Southern Regional
Research Center
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=64-35-00-00> (SRRC) in
New Orleans, La., and the
ARS Eastern Regional Research Center
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=19-35-00-00> (ERRC) in
Wyndmoor, Pa.

ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this
research supports USDA's commitment to
agricultural sustainability.

The scientists at the SRRC found that poultry litter biochar-activated
carbons created from the charred remains of
poultry litter-is a powerful pollutant magnet. It can attract heavy metals
such as copper, cadmium and zinc, which are
ordinarily tough to snag from wastewater.

ARS chemists Isabel Lima
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=3372> and Wayne
Marshall (now
retired) at the SRRC developed the ARS-patented method for turning
agricultural bio-waste into biochar. They created the
biochar by subjecting poultry litter—bedding materials such as sawdust, wood
shavings and peanut shells, as well as
droppings and feathers—to pyrolysis, a high-temperature process that takes
place in the absence of oxygen.

Hass and colleagues are testing the poultry litter biochar as well as other
farm and industrial byproducts at two
demonstration rain gardens in the Beaver area, as well as at plots at a
county landfill and a mineland reclamation site.

Read more <http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov10/gardens1110.htm> about
this research in the November/December
2010 issue of /Agricultural Research/ magazine.

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Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington,
D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272
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  • [permaculture] Fwd: Rain Gardens Sprouting Up Everywhere, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 12/04/2010

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