An illustration of a layered, diverse and native Rhode Island habitat. (Illustration by Bryan Harrison)KINGSTON — While the local food movement continues to gain momentum, that same sense of sustainability is absent from Rhode Islanders’ yards.

“There’s been a paradigm shift in what we view as beautiful,” said Kate Venturini, coastal landscapes program manager for the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. “There’s this perception that neat is best.”

That perception has been reality for the past several decades. Lawn-care professionals and amateur green thumbs have dumped pesticides and fertilizers on lawns and soaked them with water in hopes of creating lush, green carpets of neighborhood envy.

Green lawns coated in chemicals, however, are not sustainable, contribute to the state’s stormwater management problem and are expensive to maintain. They also don’t attract wildlife.

A hawk, for example, wouldn’t regularly visit Venturini’s backyard in Edgewood if her landlord had simply covered his property in green. Instead, he created a diverse and layered habitat in the midst of an urban jungle — an ecosystem that a bird of prey feels protected enough to frequently visit.

“When I went to check out the apartment, I was wondering why the backyard was filled with feathers,” Venturini said. “He told me that’s because a hawk had just finished dinner."

A backyard and/or front yard featuring a diverse mixture of native trees, shrubs and plants is cheaper to maintain, easier to take care of, environmentally beneficial and more interesting.

“Native plants serve a purpose,” said Venturini, who often gives presentations about creating native habitat to conservation commissions and garden clubs. “They support native wildlife, which prefers to eat native plants. They’re also accustomed to the weather and soil, so you won’t need to fertilize and water them. When you introduce species that aren’t native to the area, they require lots of inputs. Native plants save time and money.”

Native plants also make good natural buffers, which capture rainfall and filter surface runoff, and are pest resistant.

To create this type of easy-to-maintain, environmentally friendly habitat, Venturini recommends buying native trees, shrubs and plants from local nurseries that grow their own stock. She also said it is important to layer the different species, cluster the same ones together — it creates shelter for wildlife — choose plants that produce pollen and nectar and have an equal percentage of evergreen and deciduous species.

Ground cover also is important. “A healthy duff layer (decaying leaves and branches) — the type that crinkles under your feet when you go hiking in the woods — is one of the most productive elements in a natural system,” Venturini said. “Bacteria and insects continually break down the material.”

Native plants attract the insects needed to do that work. Nonnative or invasive species introduced from, say Europe, may host hundreds of insects in the backyard of a Spaniard, but may only be suitable for a handful of insects in a Westerly garden.

For information about native trees, shrubs and plants, check out the Rhode Island Coastal Plant Guide, which Venturini recently created for the Coastal Resources Management Council. It features a detailed list of 230 native plants that thrive in Rhode Island.

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI staff

KINGSTON — The annual Land and Water Conservation Summit was held last weekend at The University of Rhode Island’s Memorial Union. It was an all-day event that featured a keynote address by author Tom Horton, the presentation of the Peter Merritt Award for Conservation and the Blueways Stewardship Award, networking and contact opportunities for conservation leaders.

It also offered 32 different workshops to about 300 representatives of land trusts, conservation commissions, watershed councils, charitable foundations, planning boards and zoning committees from across New England. Last-minute registrations last Saturday morning made for the best turnout in the seven years that the event has been held.

Since the Rhode Island Land and Water Partnership first hosted the summit, in 2004, each year it has offered a way for conservation leaders to build their organizational skills and cultivate relationships between individual agencies.

Rupert Friday, director of the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, stressed the importance of the annual event to the Ocean State’s 45 land trusts, 12 watershed councils and more than 30 conservation commissions as a tool to network with peers.

The event began with opening remarks by Peter August, a member of the URI Natural Resource Science Department, Meg Kerr, of the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, and Friday. August said the record turnout as a testament to the “commitment to land and water conservation in Rhode Island.”

Keynote address
Horton, a native of Maryland, is a former environmental reporter for The Baltimore Sun, award-winning author of seven books about the Chesapeake Bay and is currently teaching Chesapeake Bay issues at Salisbury University.

Before the summit began, I had the chance to speak with Horton briefly. In the course of our conversation, we talked about the disparity between the United States and the European Union when it comes to environmental and sustainability issues.

He said “the U.S. may not be the country that solves these problems,” that “globalism has destroyed agriculture in poorer countries” and that the United States has to “strike a balance between globalism and isolationism.”

In his keynote address, he underscored the problems in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, saying that all bays and their watersheds share similar concerns. He noted that the federal enforcement legislation introduced in the 1980s by Rhode Island’s late Sen. John Chafee was a “bill that had teeth” when it came to enforcing the regulations concerning the fishing of striped bass, a fish whose habitat includes the Narragansett and Chesapeake bays.

He acknowledged the contributions of the green movement in the ’70s, but also mentioned our failures since then. He highlighted the correlation of environmental protection and population growth, quoting the Nixon administration’s Rockefeller Commission, which concluded, “It is no longer in the social, economic, or environmental interests for the United States to continue to grow.”

In the 1970s, the environmental movement “vastly underestimated the scope and ferocity of big agribusiness’ pushback on tougher environmental regulation, and the impacts (of big agribusiness’ obstinacy) still persist to this day,” Horton said.

He said strong state and local oversight, in regards to planning and zoning, has for the most part been the exception and not the rule in the Chesapeake Bay area. Calvert County, Md., is a rare exception.

Through a series of zoning regulations in the past five years, Calvert County saw fit to cap the number of homes in the county at 42,000, and they are quickly approaching this cap on residences, with about 37,000, Horton said.

Horton asked the Maryland Association of Builders what it thought of the regulations and, in his words, they replied, “We’re a little worried about it, because if Calvert County doesn’t crash and burn, that could be an example that might spread.”

“We can only hope,” Horton said.

Horton stressed the need for municipalities to have comprehensive zoning and mass transit plans to address and mitigate the impacts of urban sprawl.

“As our population becomes more diverse … our needs to protect open space change,” he said. “The smart growth constituency in Maryland has proposed things like using protected land to grow timber for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, and protecting farmland that is used to strengthen the regional food system.”

Two million people move into the Chesapeake Bay watershed every decade, according to Horton. The goal of water protectionists in Maryland is to reduce the pollution levels in the bay to 1950s levels, but, Horton said, “You’ve got to totally offset the impact of those 2 million people, and the next 2 million, etc., before you can even start on restoration, and I don’t think we can do it.

“It is not something that has an easy solution, but it is something that can’t just be ignored. If we do not start questioning this ‘grow or die’ assumption that underlies virtually every economic decision we make from the townships on up to the federal government … we’re just not going to get there.”

Horton believes that unless environmentalists ally themselves with other socially progressive causes, political reform causes and with the growing movement to question the constant economic growth paradigm, we will never achieve pollution reduction, in the United States or worldwide.

Peter Merritt Award for Conservation
Julie SharpeSince 2002, the Peter Merritt Award for Conservation has been awarded by the Rhode Island Land Trust Council to a volunteer who demonstrates outstanding dedication to land conservation. The award honors the late Peter Merritt (1943-2000) a dedicated member and former president of the Aquidneck Land Trust. Ted Clement, current president of the Aquidneck Land Trust, presented the award.

This year’s winner, Julie Sharpe, former member of the Narragansett Land Trust and former president of the Land Conservancy of North Kingstown who currently serves as president of the Narrow River Land Trust, was essential in the effort to acquire the donation of 230 acres of land at Rome Point to the state.

Mike Ryan, then president of Narragansett Electric, said Sharpe was “persistent, but pleasantly persistent.” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., then the state attorney general, said, “Without her leadership and determination, the 230 acres that are now open to the public at the site simply would not exist today.

Sharpe said she was “truly humbled by the receipt of this award. So many of you are friends, and I’ve worked with so many of you. You are all part of this award.”

Blueways Stewardship Award
Frank MattaThe Rhode Island Blueways Alliance seeks to develop a water trail network linking the Ocean State’s rivers, lakes and ponds to Narragansett Bay. The Blueways Stewardship Award is a new award given by the alliance to an individual who has the respect of their peers and has notable accomplishments in watershed management. Keith Goncalves, president of the Rhode Island Blueways Alliance, presented the award.

The inaugural Blueways Stewardship Award winner, Frank Matta, is a member of the Blackstone River Watershed Council and Friends of the Blackstone River. Matta, an avid paddler, has worked tirelessly to clean up the Blackstone River, has led numerous tours of the river and has worked to promote safety and protection of the state’s coastline and inland waterways. He thanked the nomination council, and said he was “just tickled to receive this award.”

The summit was sponsored by three organizations: the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, the Rhode Island Association of Conservation Commissions and the Rhode Island Land Trust Council.

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

Christopher Riely, a forest supervisor for Providence Water, said the timber behind him, which was taken from a harvest in the northern tip of the Scituate Reservoir watershed, was low quality and would likely end up being used as chip wood, fuel wood and/or shavings for horse paddocks. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)NORTH SCITUATE — In the early 1900s, the city of Providence, in its pursuit to create what would become Rhode Island’s largest body of fresh water, started buying barns, sawmills, icehouses, dairy farms, schools, churches and the land upon which these structures sat.

The city ended up taking control of nearly 400 homes, 230-plus barns, about 30 dairy farms, a handful of schools and churches, and a railroad. Some of the 2,000 or so people who were displaced — they were compensated in some fashion for their property loss — fought their evictions, to no avail.

The buildings these people lived in and worked at were quickly torn down. The fields and pastures that weren’t flooded, became nurseries for the 7 million trees, mostly red and white pines, that were planted during the late 1920s and ’30s.

Begun in 1915, the Scituate Reservoir by 1926 had flooded a great natural bowl at the headwaters of the north branch of the Pawtuxet River.

Health issues and increasing demand on the Pawtuxet River prompted the Providence City Council to develop a new water supply system.

Now, eight decades later, two-thirds of the state drinks water from this manmade lake, which forms a long, crooked V across the midsection of Scituate. Some believe this source of clean water allowed metropolitan Providence to grow and for the state to prosper.

It’s also possible that if the reservoir is managed wisely, the state’s largest freshwater tap could run forever.

That responsibility falls to Providence Water, which was established in 1926 and is now an independently operating city department supplying water to about 600,000 Rhode Islanders.

Providence Water, however, manages more than just the 5,000 acres that comprise the Scituate Reservoir and its five smaller tributary reservoirs. The agency is responsible for monitoring the entire 93-square-mile public drinking supply watershed. The agency owns about 25 square miles of that land.

There are 12,500 acres of mostly forested lands in Cranston, Foster, Glocester, Johnston and Scituate that surround the reservoirs and are owned by Providence Water. This mixed oak-pine forest has been heavily shaped by human settlement and changing land uses during the past three and a half centuries.

Rob MacMillan, a senior forest supervisor who has worked for Providence Water for 20 years, told those who attended Saturday’s walk-and-talk through the northern tip of the Scituate Reservoir watershed that a healthy forest is needed to protect the drinking water supply. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)Thus, forest management plays a vital role in what Providence Water does.

“Forest cover is needed to protect water quality,” said Rob MacMillan, a senior forest supervisor for Providence Water. “We need to continue to regenerate these forestlands. Every time a house, road or field is introduced in the watershed, more pollutants and contaminants follow. Healthy forests provide protection.”

On Saturday, MacMillan and Christopher Riely, a forest supervisor for Providence Water, led a three-hour, 2.5-mile walk-and-talk through some forestland in the northern tip of the watershed.

Watershed lands around the Scituate Reservoir are closed to unauthorized access for security reasons — someone caught trespassing could be fined up to $200 — so Saturday morning’s guided tour, which Providence Water hopes to make a seasonal event, attracted about 30 people.

The primary goal of the agency’s forest management program is to manage forests in the watershed to optimize water production and quality. To properly manage these forestlands, Providence Water allows loggers to bid on harvesting timber from specifically targeted sites.

“You have to plan looking ahead decades,” MacMillan said. “Trees have lifetimes in the hundreds of years, so you better plan ahead.”

Saturday’s tour went through a slice of a 126-acre timber harvest that currently is in hiatus. This harvest, which began last year, is intended to improve growing conditions and forest health in five stands.

The harvest, which will begin again this summer, will primarily remove mixed oak small sawtimber, white pine sawtimber and cordwood of both species, according to the agency’s Saundersville Crossing Timber Harvest Plan.

Water quality of the Scituate Reservoir depends largely on the health of the watershed’s forests. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)Besides monitoring well-planned timber harvests that encourage forest regeneration and promote the continued growth of a stand’s remaining trees, Providence Water makes sure the watershed forestlands feature a diverse tree population — mostly white pine, red pine, red oak, white oak, red maple and sugar maple — and manages invasive species — bittersweet, barberry and buckthorn — that hinder the development of a healthy forest.

“Our job is to promote a healthy and resilient forest that can withstand hurricanes, insects, pathogens, gypsy moths and invasive species,” Riely said. “We need to maintain a diverse portfolio of (tree) species and age classes that ensure the watershed remains healthy.”

For more information, visit provwater.com.

Recommended reading: “The Lost Villages of Scituate,” by Raymond A. Wolf.

Agency works with towns on Conn. border to balance development, conservation

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI staff

A swath of land straddling the Rhode Island-Connecticut border from Long Island Sound to the Massachusetts line shows up on nighttime satellite imagery as a noticeable dark spot amid the eastern seaboard’s bright lights.

Nestled in the thick of this largely rural region referred to as the “Borderlands” — the largest patch of mostly undeveloped land between Boston and Washington, D.C. — is Exeter.

This town of about 7,000 people, which sits prominently in the Wood-Pawcatuck watershed, plays a key role in how this sensitive region will be developed in the future. About 65 percent of the land in this watershed remains undeveloped, and contains some of the most ecologically important lands in the Northeast, including unfragmented forests and pristine watersheds.

“The Wood-Pawcatuck watershed is unique and Exeter has authority over a big part of that watershed,” said Kevin Essington, director of government relations and communications for the Rhode Island chapter of The Nature Conservancy. “The decisions they make will impact that watershed for good or ill — so far it’s been for the good.”

The Nature Conservancy has been working since 2001 to conserve 136,000 acres of largely intact forest along the Ocean State-Nutmeg State border. The effort expanded seven years ago when the Rhode Island chapter of the international agency created the Borderlands Project to build greater awareness for the region’s natural resources, explore the shared threats and opportunities that the region faces and foster a culture of learning and collaboration.

The Borderlands is home to some 200,000 people and within an hour’s drive of more than 3 million others. About 40 percent of the Borderlands is protected by two large forest preserves — the Pachaug State Forest in Connecticut and the Arcadia Management Area in Rhode Island.

Some of New England’s cleanest watersheds, including the Wood-Pawcatuck, can be found in the Borderlands, supporting native brook trout, alewife and herring, and providing much of Rhode Island and Connecticut’s water supply.

The project that bears its name is working with the 20-odd municipalities to adjust to growth pressures without losing their distinctive character. Those behind the project are helping the communities develop 21st-century solutions to issues such as affordable housing, sprawl, economic sustainability and environmental conservation.

“We’re trying to present conservation and economic development in complementary ways,” Essington said. “We’re providing assistance in planning and helping build capacity so better decisions are made. We heard a unified cry for assistance.”

In 2008, The Nature Conservancy — in partnership with the Orton Family Foundation, The Rhode Island Foundation and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and with support from private donors — launched the project’s Village Innovation Pilot, to help two border towns balance the challenge of absorbing new growth with safeguarding the features that make their communities great places to live.

The effort has provided assistance to Exeter and Killingly, Conn. — two of 20 towns invited to submit proposals to be part of the pilot program — in developing a shared vision for the future. Data has been gathered through interviews, an online survey and public workshops.

In Exeter, development of a shared vision for the town’s future remains as a challenge, but most residents, while not opposed to growth and change, are unwilling to sacrifice the rural character and lifestyle that originally drew them to live there, according to Essington.

The program has determined that the buildable undeveloped land in Exeter could accommodate about 5,000 homes, which would more than double the number there now.

Residents and town officials have identified four to six areas, including along Route 2, that could best accommodate development.

Originally slated as an 18-month program, the Village Innovation Pilot will likely take three years to complete, Essington said.