permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- 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 
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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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