Resource Conservation
Conserving resources now is essential to sustaining our way of life in the future. In landscape design and construction, resource conservation can be integrated into the early phases of planning. With foresight, on-site resources can be captured and utilized in creative ways that reduce the need for supplemental inputs — like water or fertilizers, help form the structural elements of a biodiverse system, and create a sense of place.
Water can be captured and reused on site, sometimes as the primary irrigation of an urban landscape. Boulders, dead trees, downed wood, and plant litter can be used to support soil biotic communities and create microclimates that expand the plant pallete for a design. Even paying attention to different exposures and wind patterns can help inform plant choices that will thrive in unique locations.
The High Desert Horticultural Center is developing Best Management Practices that that address water, biodiversity, habitat quality issues, and pesticide/fertilizer use to reduce dependence on external resources. And we are coordinating efforts with State and Regional municipalities and oversight agencies to affect change in standard practices throughout the western U.S.
Stormwater capture and reuse
Water is a limited resource in arid and semi-arid areas of the west. By including stormwater capture and reuse systems in a landscaping project, you can significantly reduce the need for supplemental irrigation and create environments that expand the diversity of plants that will thrive on your property.
Resource collection
Identifying available resources on site and collecting them before construction can reduce costs, help restore the ecological balance of the site after construction, and preserve some of the natural aesthetic quality of a property.
Project Highlights
Climate Change Research, Deschutes County
A few years ago during the first heat dome to seriously affect the Pacific Northwest, we noticed a significant decline in the health and vigor of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in the high desert east of Bend, Oregon. Sagebrush is extremely resistant to changes in climatic conditions, and a visible decline in vigor that year was alarming. Since that first heat dome we’ve been monitoring a number of environmental variables and physiological indicators of plant stress to assess the long-term affects of a warming and drying climate on a number of high desert species. Data we’re collecting suggests a few possible mechanisms of decline, and indicates a possible fundamental shift in plant community structure throughout this portion of the High Desert in response to changes in environmental conditions. The work is ongoing.
Crooked River Riparian Restoration
Most of the Crooked River in central Oregon is classified as a degraded waterway (EPA classification 303(d) under the Clean Water Act). An increase in agricultural production and urban development along the river has resulted in a significant decline in riparian vegetation, an increase in nutrients due to fertilization and grazing in agricultural fields adjacent to the river, and the associated increase in sediment entering the river. There are several efforts underway to reestablish vegetation throughout the corridor, but this specific project was designed to restore a native cottonwood gallery with a site specific understory. The plant choices were based on historical records and reference communities within the same drainage (although few good examples exist). We’re monitoring the site annually to assess success rate and changes to the avian community in the previously overgrazed pasture.
