Rooting DC: A Forum for Urban Gardeners

Rooting DC: A Forum for Urban Gardeners
February 2, 2008
Remarks by Glenn Eugster, National Park Service

On behalf of:

DC Urban Gardeners, Washington Parks & People, and the America the Beautiful Fund welcome! The goals of today’s forum are:

To share resources and foster partnerships between
groups and individuals who are working toward common goals through gardening.

To see how your urban garden work fits into the big picture of creating a greener healthier DC!

Early in my career, in 1968, I was introduced to the innovative gardening work of Hubert Owens at the University of Georgia, Paul Bruce Dowling and Nanine Bilski at the the America the Beautiful Fund, Ernesta Ballard and Blaine Bonham at the Pennsylvania Horticulturalist Society. They were advocating garden clubs, community gardens, urban gardens and the greening of vacant lots in neighborhoods, towns and cities across the U.S. Watching their work I was reminded of how important urban gardens are to all of us and to our communities.

The other day I was flipping through a copy of Lester Brown’s book “Plan B 3.0 —Mobilizing to Save Civilization” and came across research on community gardens. People were asked why they garden and they responded this way:
14% said they wanted higher quality produce
17% said they did it for physical health
19% said they did it for mental health
20% said they did it for recreation

In that same book there was reference to the Urban Agriculture Report which asked and answered the question, why is this type of urban gardening so desirable? The reply was, It has a regenerative effect when vacant lots are transformed from eyesores into bountiful, beautiful, and safe gardens
They feed people’s bodies and souls.

I’ve been an advocate for green space for a long time and I’ve had the opportunity to work on various projects designed to add value to this movement. I’d like to mention a few of these to give you my sense of how urban gardening fits into a larger context of what is going on across the US and around the world.

1996 EPA Sustainable Development Challenge Grant Program
Connecting farms to neighborhoods without access to fresh fruit or vegetables.

In 1999 I was assigned to a workgroup with the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Metropolitan & Rural Strategies Task Force with Harriett Tregoning, now of DC, and Ruth MacWilliams of the USFS. We focused on developing the concept of green infrastructure.

Green Infrastructure: Infrastructure is normally a term that describes networks of roads, rapid transit systems, sewers, waterlines, utility lines, and other artificially made physical structures that provide public services. “Green infrastructure” is the network of open space, airsheds, watersheds, woodlands, wildlife habitat, parks, and other natural areas, which provide many vital services, such as providing nutrients and replenishing soils for agriculture, sustaining human life and biodiversity, providing natural stormwater drainage, providing recreational space, improving the physical attractiveness of an area, and naturally filtering air and water. To sustain these benefits, many communities are increasingly promoting place-based approaches to conserve, protect, and restore local and regional systems of natural resources and amenities.

As a result the President’s Council on Sustainable Development adopted the following definition:

"Our Nation’s natural life support system – an interconnected network of waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats, and other natural areas; greenways, parks and other conservation lands; working farms, ranches, and forests of conservation value; and wilderness and other open spaces that support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to the health and quality of life for America’s communities and people".

In 2000 Washington Parks & People sponsored a forum called “Common Ground”
With the energy and amazing leadership of Steve Coleman and the team here at Washington Parks & People DC green space advocates decided to act and implement the PCSD national recommendation local.

Attracted 100 leaders; day-long dialogue. Resulted in support for a national demonstration project to implement a green infrastructure approach through a collaborative, community-led, public and private partnership within the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

A work group developed a proposal called “Green Space for Living” which was funded by the House Interior Appropriations Committee through the National Park Service. Implemented through a partnership between NPS and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Two of the anticipated benefits included:

Increase the supply of fresh food within the metro area;

Extend the ecological services and public benefits of green infrastructure into under-served neighborhoods of the DC metropolitan area.

I think these and other public and private efforts have created an opportunity to look at how we regenerate communities and ecologies by looking at green space as a form of infrastructure like roads, water lines, and sewers.

When we talk about green infrastructure in the Washington [D.C.] area, we talk about everything from window boxes, to Rock Creek Park and in between: it’s urban gardens, residential landscaping, pocket parks, landscaped portions of a development parcel, linear parks, riparian buffers, street trees, parkways, farms and large parks and reserves.

It’s not something that is nice to have if we can afford it. Being connected to this type of infrastructure is an essential value and service and a God-given right of every citizen. It’s a system that we need to support our quality of life. It’s a system that won’t happen unless we advocate its creation.

As you work together today I hope you listen and learn, and share your experience and knowledge. I also hope that you also answer these three questions:

1. Why are urban gardens important?
2. Why are they important now?
3. What are you individually, and organizationally, willing to do to advance urban gardens in DC?

I look forward to hearing about your work and listening to your ideas. Thanks for coming and may you have a very successful day!