Archive for July, 2009
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 30, 2009
You can find nature preserves in Atlanta, Decatur, and anywhere in the United States and beyond with the Nature Conservancy’s mapping system! The Nature Conservancy’s map catalogued environmentally protected lands and waters across the globe in both google maps and google earth, with colored balloons denoting present, past, and partner preserves.
Check out the Nature Conservancy's map of preserved lands and protected waters across the globe!
You can learn more about the Nature Conservancy and their initiatives on their website by clicking here! Their mission, as stated on their site, is:
“to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.”
Posted in Environment, Parks, Trees | Tagged: conservation, Nature Conservancy, nature preserves Atlanta, protected lands | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 29, 2009
Below is a call from Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta to share your environmental knowledge at the 12th annual Greenprints conference in 2010!
Southface Invites your Input to Greenprints 2010!
Southface is gearing up for Greenprints 2010 and we’d like your help!
Have a great topic to present? Here’s your opportunity! Southface is accepting presentation proposals from now until August 14, 2009 for Greenprints 2010, which will be held in Atlanta in March 2010.
These are the major topic categories for which we are currently seeking presentation proposals:
Case Studies
- Outstanding Green Buildings – Performance Metrics and Lessons Learned
- Under-performing Green Buildings – Underlying Problems & Solutions
- Successful Multi-agency and Utilities Partnerships
Green Building Design, Construction and Management
- Existing Building Improvements and Performance Monitoring
- Net Zero Water Strategies
- Site Planning and Water Management Strategies
- Ecological Construction and Deconstruction Principles
Innovative Technologies
Green Jobs
- The “Green Movement” as a Driving Factor for Workforce Development
Policy and Greening Municipal Infrastructure
- Rebuilding and Greening the Suburban or Rural Markets
- The “Green Movement” as a Driving Factor for Economic Development
- Innovative Policy Incentives for Reducing Water and Energy Consumption
- Municipalities Striving to Meet the 2030 Challenge
- Incorporating Sustainability into a Business Model and Organizational Structure
Now in its 12th year, Greenprints is the Southeast’s most vibrant and successful green building conference and tradeshow. It attracts hundreds of professionals and practitioners from the fields of architecture, interior design, land-use planning, facility management, real estate development and engineering. Policy makers, journalists and interested citizens round out Greenprints’ dynamic and influential audience.
Please click here to access the Acrobat-enabled Greenprints Call for Presentations Form.
Posted in Education, Environment, Events | Tagged: atlanta green movement, environmental events, environmental research, green building, Greenprints Conference, Southface Energy Institute, sustainable design, water conservation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 28, 2009
Call for volunteers for the Morningside Lenox Park Neighborhood Trash Walk this Saturday! This monthly cleanup walk takes place around the Atlanta intown neighborhoods of Morningside and Virginia Highland and will be on Saturday morning, August 1st. Meet at the Intown Hardware parking lot at 9 for a chance to help keep our streets clean, get some exercise and have fun also. Let’s keep our walkable Atlanta neighborhoods clean!
E-mail chairperson Victoria Hathcox at vhathcox@hotmail.com for further details or to nominate an area that needs to be cleaned.
Posted in Events, Volunteer | Tagged: Atlanta volunteering, Neighborhood Trash Walk | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 27, 2009
Come join us as we keep the momentum going behind the Atlanta BeltLine, one of Atlanta’s most ambitious transportation and greenspace projects! Below are upcoming volunteer opportunities at local Atlanta festivals:
Sign up now!
Liz Coyle, Tom Gordon, and dozens of other BeltLine volunteers come out to help distribute information at local Atlanta festivals!
You can register for our volunteer management center here (those of you that have volunteered before have probably already received emails from Sharron through the system, so you can use your email and password to log in). If you have any issues, just email me and let me know and I can help you out (jenny.p@mac.com).
#1
- What: Mechanicsville Reunion
- When: Festival hours are from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 8th. Our volunteer shifts are in two or 2.5 hour blocks starting just before and ending just after the festival.
- Where: Dunbar Center at the corner of Fulton Street and Windsor. We’ll let you know where the BeltLine booth is going to be located within the festival!
#2
- What: Grant Park Summershade Festival
- When: Festival hours are from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 29th and Sunday, August 30th. Our volunteer shifts are in two or 2.5 hour blocks starting just before and ending just after the festival.
- Where: The festival will be located in Grant Park next to Zoo Atlanta (and along the future BeltLine transit!). We’ll let you know where the BeltLine booth is going to be located within the festival!
#3
- What: Atlanta Arts Festival
- When: Festival hours are from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 12th and 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Sunday, September 13th. Our volunteer shifts are in two or 2.5 hour blocks starting just before and ending just after the expo.
- Where: Piedmont Park
And stay tuned for these upcoming festivals!
- The Atlanta Home Show at Cobb Galleria on Sept 25th – 26th, 2009
- HOToberfest in Glenwood Park on October 3rd, 2009
- Cabbagetown Chomp & Stomp in Cabbagetown at the beginning of November
- Enviro Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center on November 14th – 15th, 2009
We do ask that BeltLine volunteers attend a BeltLine 101 session to learn the basics of the BeltLine and to get the latest info on issues and developments. We have a few coming up – just click BeltLine 101 session for more details! Thank you in advance for your help!!
Posted in Atlanta BeltLine, Events, Volunteer | Tagged: Atlanta volunteering, Atlanta BeltLine, Atlanta transportation initiatives, BeltLine events, BeltLine volunteering, Enviro Expo Atlanta, Grant Park Summershade Festival, Mechanicsville Reunion, Atlanta Arts Festival | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 27, 2009
Southeast Green sent out the following upcoming dates for Atlanta’s green community to mark their calendars! And then I added a few myself, too. So check them out!
- August 7 :: Southface Institute’s Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable; this month’s topic is “Georgia’s Coast: A Landscape in Peril.”
- August 8 :: Candler Park Sustainable Living Festival from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. in Candler Park
- August 18 :: Green Career Event Summer Breakfast Series with CareerEco from 7 – 9 a.m. at the Centergy Building in Midtown
- August 25 :: GreenBusiness Works Expo kick-off event at the W Hotel
- September 2-3 :: GreenBusiness Works Expo
- September 12 :: Southeast Green & GIPL Green Symposium
- September 26 :: Historic Fourth Ward Park groundbreaking event next to the Masquerade on North Avenue
- November 14-15 :: the Enviro Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center
The Atlanta BeltLine will be participating in a few of these events and more this coming fall, so if you’re interested in getting involved in the future of Atlanta’s transportation, please email me! jenny.p@mac.com.
Posted in Environment, Events | Tagged: Atlanta BeltLine, Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable, Historic Fourth Ward Park, Southface Energy Institute, Southeast Green, Green Business Works Expo, Candler Park Sustainable Living Festival, Enviro Expo Atlanta | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 26, 2009
Ecoverde Coffee plans on bringing their line of sustainable coffees to Atlanta!
A new line of sustainable coffee is breaking its way onto the Atlanta java scene! Ecoverde Coffee by McCullagh Coffee Company, boasts:
- The coffee is sourced only from farms that are Rainforest Alliance Certified. Thus 100% of the coffee is certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
- The packaging the coffee comes in is 100% biodegradable and compostable.
- The delivery box is also 100% biodegradable and compostable.
Thanks to Denine King of Ecoverde Coffee for sending in this information after her company exhibited at the Go Green Expo in June. The sustainable coffee line may also be teaming up with the partners from JavaSoil, the business working to recycle used, compostable coffee grounds in Atlanta and Decatur coffee houses into a high quality fertilizer. See my previous blog about JavaSoil here! Ecoverde is still in production, so look for it coming soon!
Posted in Food | Tagged: Atlanta coffee houses, biodegradable packaging, compostable containers, Ecoverde Coffee, fertilizers, Go Green Expo Atlanta, JavaSoil, McCullagh Coffee Company, Rainforest Alliance Certified, sustainable coffee, used coffee grounds | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 22, 2009
An increasing number of Atlanta and Decatur restaurants are embracing sustainable eating habits from Georgia farms and producers, which is great news! For the past few months, I’ve been compiling my own little list of local Atlanta restaurants that buy locally and support our Georgia farmers with the intention of publishing it eventually after establishing a more substantial list, but then I came across a blog today by the name of the Georgia Green Dining Guide. And they’ve done all the work! Or at least are in the process of eating their way through Atlanta’s environmentally-friendly restaurants. So you should check out their blog! I’ll definitely be checking back.
In the meantime, here is a small list of local Atlanta restaurants who buy from local Georgia farms. I will continue to update this list and encourage you to leave a comment below and let me know where you go for your favorite local Atlanta food!
Coming soon is a feature article on Atlanta’s own Green Foodservice Alliance, and organization changing the face of sustainable restaurant practices in Atlanta with Zero Waste Zones, recycling, composting, and more!
Posted in Food | Tagged: atlanta green movement, environmentally friendly Atlanta restaurants, Georgia Green DIning Guide, green Atlanta, Green Foodservice Alliance, local Atlanta food, local Georgia farms, Sustainable Atlanta, Zero Waste Zones | 1 Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 21, 2009
While Atlanta is notoriously short on parks and greenspace, DeKalb County has worked since 2000 to implement big changes and acquire greenspace around the city. In a county that is already at least 80% developed, the importance of preserving greenspace is more significant than ever. As stated on the DeKalb Greenspace Program website,
Mason Mill and Ira B. Melton Parks, near Medlock Park in DeKalb County, make up a 130+ acre park where Burnt Fork Creek and the South Fork of the Peachtree Creek intersect
Greenspace includes parks, nature preserves and recreational centers, all of which attract residents who increase local property values, and businesses that provide jobs. Greenspace also helps the community at large by lowering crime and reducing the cost of public services such as police protection, and sewer and road maintenance. Not only does our air quality benefit, but treating drinking water also becomes easier and more affordable if we allow the waterways and surrounding ecosystems to naturally cleanse themselves. However, the need for recreational opportunities is perhaps most important for the ever more sedentary, auto-dependent Atlanta area population. The trails, bike paths, and pedestrian ways provide citizens with a much-needed athletic outlet, as well as an alternative transportation route to the traffic-ridden, hazardous roads and highways.
As of October 2007 (the most recent statistics posted on their website), DeKalb Parks Bonds and Greenspace Program has purchased 2,708 acres for a total cost of $86.72 million, which is fantastic! But we have a long way to go. So how can we get involved? Click here for volunteer opportunities to help in DeKalb parks to help maintain current parks, adopt a park, and more!
In my neighborhood near Medlock Park, we have over 130 acres of nature preserve and parks between Mason Mill Park, Ira B. Melton Park, and Medlock Park. And then there’s Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, too – which we all have a great appreciation for! For information on volunteering with the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in particular, check out a previous blog post by clicking here and come out and volunteer the first Saturday of each month!
Posted in Developments, Environment, Parks | Tagged: Atlanta preservation, Atlanta volunteering, Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, Decatur volunteering, DeKalb greenspace, DeKalb parks, local atlanta parks, nature preserves Atlanta | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 20, 2009
Why do little black ants like to crowd around the stems of my cowpeas?
This is my first year planting cowpeas and I’ve been enjoying the tasty long beans as they’ve been coming into fruition the past few weeks. However, every time I go out to our little vegetable garden, the stems of the actual cowpeas themselves are covered in little black ants. Does anyone else have this problem? I did some research online and the closest thing I can find so far is that the ants are seeking to suck the juices out of the stems. Apparently, cowpeas in southern Georgia attact a number of wasps, too, and, as the University of California Sustainable Agriculture Education and Research Program stated on their website, the “Red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) forages for honeydew produced by cowpea aphid (Aphis craccivora) on cowpea and hairy indigo (Indigofera hirsuta) but not on sesbania (Sesbania exaltata), based on a replicated study conducted in Georgia (Kaakeh and Dutcher, 1992).”
I also found info about cowpea’s pests in an article by Aaron Conor on the website helium.com. Aaron said:
Insects may attempt to eat your plants and the black-eyed pea pods themselves. Grasshoppers and cutter ants are the most dangerous of the insects that you will have to worry about. All you can really do is apply pesticides liberally on your black-eyed pea plants, which will be more useful in deterring grasshoppers.
As for the ants, you may want to try and obstruct their ability to enter your garden. You can try placing a miniature plastic wall around your garden, which will help keep the ants out. Sometimes the ants will simply dig underneath it, though.
One suggestion I saw for insect control was mixing Dawn dishwashing liquid with water in a little hand held spray bottle and covering the plants. Or finding a way to retain a flock of hungry sparrows around your garden, in which case the ants are most likely to meet an untimely end.
On a side note, I also found in poking around online that cowpeas (which applies to a number of southern pea varieties, like black eyes peas and crowder peas) tend to grow very well in poor soil, which can work well for someone with a streak of Georgia red clay through the yard like me. The plant originated near Ethiopia and subsequently developed for grown in the African Savannah ad was bred to withstand the heat.
If you have any other knowledge of, or experience with, black ants and cowpeas, please let me know by commenting below!
Posted in Food, Gardening | Tagged: black ants, cowpea pests, growing cowpeas, organic vegetable gardens, sustainable agriculture | 1 Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on July 19, 2009
If you’re concerned about where our food is grown and who supplies it in the Atlanta and Decatur area, you’re not alone. The Atlanta Local Food Initiative was formed to address just that issue with a plan for Atlanta’s sustainable food future. Their website has a ton of great information that you can browse at www.AtlantaLocalFood.org. You can also download their report The Plan for Atlanta’s Sustainable Food Future.
On May 1st, 2009, the Atlanta Local Food Initiative hosted the Atlanta Local Food Forward conference to bring together leaders and put together viable actions steps. You can view illustrations and read text from the breakout sessions on www.AtlantaLocalFood.org under the “News” tab. Below are the eight goals outlined in the plan:
Supply
1. Increase sustainable farms, farmers and food production in Metro Atlanta.
2. Expand number of community gardens.
3. Encourage backyard gardens, edible landscaping, and urban orchards.
Consumption
4. Launch Farm-to-School programs (gardens, cafeteria food, and curriculum).
5. Expand cooking skills for simple dishes made from fresh, locally grown foods.
6. Develop local purchasing guidelines and incentives for governments, hospitals, and Atlanta institutions.
Access
7. Increase local, fresh food availability in underserved neighborhoods.
8. Increase and promote local food in grocery stores, farmers’ markets,
restaurants, and other food outlets.
To borrow further from their website, below is the executive summary of the organization:
The Atlanta Local Food Initiative envisions a transformed food system in which every Atlantan has access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food grown by a thriving network of sustainable farms and gardens. A greener Metro Atlanta that embraces a sustainable, local food system will enhance human health, promote environmental renewal, foster local economies, and link rural and urban communities.
Our city faces health and environmental challenges, including the obesity and diabetes epidemics and the contamination of soil, water, and air. Consumers are calling for clean food, grown without pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. A local food system can meet this demand and rebuild Southern foodways in harmony with the land. Shortening the distance from farm to fork can reduce petroleum use, enhance safety through traceability, and provide fresher, healthier products. Also, a local system can address existing “food deserts,” areas where there is little or no fresh food available in under-served neighborhoods. Municipal food initiatives that encourage sustainably grown food improve urban livability, health, and wealth. Local food systems encompass activities such as: regional food distribution systems, community gardens, farmers’ markets, farm-to-school programs, urban agriculture, and green roof designs where food is grown on building rooftops. Developing a strong, local food system is an exciting opportunity for Metro Atlanta that has the potential to deliver a multitude of benefits:
• Promote healthy eating
• Reduce petroleum consumption
• Preserve greenspace and farmland
• Reduce harmful environmental impacts
• Minimize pesticide exposure
• Build local economies
• Create new jobs
• Strengthen the social fabric
• Celebrate our food heritage
Is that enough to make you want to go check out the website? Go do it! www.AtlantaLocalFood.org
Posted in Environment, Food | Tagged: Atlanta Local Food Forward, Atlanta Local Food Initiative, farm to school programs, local food in Atlanta, local Georgia farms, school gardens Atlanta, Sustainable Atlanta, sustainable food future | 1 Comment »
