“DC’s Hidden Green Infrastructure”

SAVE THIS DATE FOR
“DC’s Hidden Green Infrastructure”!
March 13, 2002


This event is the ninth in a series of Green Infrastructure Forums and Workshops to discuss park, forest cover, open space, and recreational land approaches within the metropolitan Washington region. Featured at this forum will be:

Remarks by guest speakers Nanine Bilski, President and Katie
Rehwaldt, Director, Operation Green Plant, of the Washington, DC-based America the Beautiful Fund (ABF) (http://www.america-the-beautiful.org/)
Ms. Bilski and Rehwaldt will talk about the programs, activities and projects of the fund and its approach to community-level projects to save the natural and historic environment and improve the quality of life.

A discussion about “DC’s Hidden Green infrastructure” by:

Neil Owens, Metropolitan Police Department Boys & Girls Club

Joan Thomas, Ward 4 Beautification

Christine Gilday, Virginia “Plant-A-Row”

Dr. John Bruce, Moses Urban Gardening

A brief status report on the "Metropolitan Washington Green
Infrastructure Demonstration Project” partnership.

The “America the Beautiful Fund” was created in 1965, as a result of the White House Conference on Natural Beauty, for “the preservation and restoration of the natural wonders of America”. ABF through “Operation Green Plant” collects donations of surplus seeds from major seed companies and distributes them to thousands of volunteer projects that use them to aid and uplift communities. Through “The Freedom Gardens Project” ABF works with communities, corporations, and government agencies to develop living and lasting tributes to the events of September 11, 2001.

Ms. Bilski is a specialist in cultural ecology and has developed over 5,000 environmental and cultural ABF projects nationwide since receiving an ABF “seed grant” in 1969 for a neighborhood revitalization project in NY’s Spanish Harlem. Nanine was previously Head of Isolated Communities Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, Director of the Institute for Ecological Studies and Director of the Fulbright Scholarships in the Arts at the Institute for International Education.

Ms. Rehwaldt is a Master Gardener and has coordinated the Operation Green Plant “Free Seed” program since 1997 distributing more than 150,000 pounds of seed and 6 million bulbs to community planting projects across America. Katie has a background in farmers markets and landscaping. She previously worked for Dunham Farms to market produce at the historic Eastern Market, and Rankin Landscaping where she installed and maintained gardens in the metro-DC region.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact either Brian LeCouteur or Glenn Eugster via e-mail at blecouteur@mwcog.org or Glenn_Eugster@nps.gov . Or call COG (202) 962-3393 or NPS (202) 619-7492.