Above: Landscape designer Holly Greenleaf (Greenleaf Design) gives the first presentation in the series on rain gardens. 

This Fall, we welcomed the return of the Yestermorrow Speaker Series! Over five Wednesday evenings, we welcomed folks to the studio to gather beneath the projector’s glow, greet each other, and hear engaging lectures on the theme of "Sustainable Sites." By which we mean: how can we build in concert, not conflict, with the earth and land? How do we responsibly steward the land we inhabit, and where can we improve our sites’ resilience? Thanks to generous funding from the Robbins-de Beaumont Foundation and the Champlain Basin Program, Yestermorrow has been working with the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District to develop and implement curriculum around sustainable site design, infrastructure, and management. This year, we saw major climate-driven events impact our state, as well as communities across the globe, which spurred more urgency around beginning this conversation. As we continue to develop the curriculum, we wanted to engage our community in the early stages with some free, fun, and inspiring talks on the theme. 

First up, landscape designer Holly Greenleaf gave a presentation on rain gardens, and a variety of steps that homeowners and municipalities can take to "slow, spread, and sink" storm-water runoff. Holly showed several examples of local rain gardens, including gardens she has designed and installed at the VSECU branch in Montpelier, the ECHO Center, and C.P. Smith Elementary School in Burlington. Holly detailed some design considerations for each site and helped attendees consider easy modifications they could make on their own land. Implementing simple infrastructure like rain barrels, swales and infiltration trenches, and rain gardens can go a long way toward mitigating runoff on your property, thereby decreasing the amount of pollutants that enter our rivers and lakes. 

Ian Quate, a designer who has worked in both rural and urban landscapes, followed up with an engaging talk on microbiome communities of extremophiles - microorganisms that seek out environments deemed toxic or too extreme for other life. Quate focused on his work in the Gowanus Canal of Brooklyn, NY, where he spent time with researchers from Cornell and Genspace, testing the muck at the bottom of the canal. As it turns out, living in this Superfund site's "black mayonnaise" bottom layer are millions of organisms, not only surviving but actually remediating some of the toxic effects. Quate underscored the importance of science communication and public education, promoting the idea that life is everywhere, and striving towards equilibrium, even in the most polluted places. Given enough time (billions of years), these microbes could remediate the entire canal - in the meantime, we'll work towards solutions on a human scale while acknowledging the work already being performed by these organisms. Working in tandem with our environmental neighbors, we may hope for a cleaner, healthier Brooklyn watershed. For further reading, you can refer to Tracy Brannstrom's excellent article on Ian's talk in the Valley Reporter.

Speaking of a healthier watershed, next in the series were Ira Shadis and Luke Foley from Friends of the Mad River (FMR). An organization that overlaps with us at Yestermorrow both in mission and in leadership, FMR’s Ridge to River program began in 2015 with a broad vision for watershed health in the Mad River Valley. In 2023, they are looking at how the program moves forward in supporting our current needs. Moving forward, Ridge to River will focus on three main areas: smart growth, healthy spaces and beings, and community education and workforce development. 

One consistent and particularly effective aspect of the Ridge to River program is the Storm Smart initiative led by the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District. Adelaide Dumm, WNRCD District Manager, went in depth about the Storm Smart program and its benefits to homeowners and the watershed. Storm Smart provides free assessments for homes and businesses and makes personalized recommendations of Best Management Practices, or BMPs, for managing water on the property. WNRCD offers these free assessments to engage homeowners in the collective task of managing storm-water runoff in our communities. Their creative solutions include permeable pavers, check dams and terrace gardening, water bars and swales, and rain catchment techniques: low-impact and accessible modifications that can make a big difference in the watershed. 

Finally, Yestermorrow Executive Director Britton Rogers wrapped up the series with a presentation on Yestermorrow's sustainable sites case studies and initiatives. Rogers discussed our definitions of the terms, the need for education in site planning and management, and the current lack of workforce development in these areas. Our on-campus Sustainable Sites initiatives will include some much-needed culvert maintenance on our campus, as we see increasing water runoff on our property throughout the year. Yestermorrow will also begin implementing curriculum to address the needs of property managers, homeowners, real estate developers, and landscape designers in cultivating and maintaining a sustainable, healthy site. These courses may include site analysis and planning, resilient infrastructure and retrofits, storm-water management, and more.

We’re grateful to everyone who attended one or many of these lectures, mingled with us, and asked thoughtful questions. If you missed any or want to view the talks, they are all recorded and posted on our YouTube channel. We encourage you to join the conversation with us! Stay tuned for updates on our emerging curriculum and campus improvements. Keep an ear out also for our Spring speaker series, which will focus on affordable housing solutions. 

Thanks for being with us in 2023, and here’s to a better, more sustainable 2024!