Posts tagged stream health
GreenTreks documentary on Philly greening to air on WHYY Apr 26 & 29
Apr 11th
If you’ve been following us for any period of time, you know we’re stoked to be a part of Philadelphia’s transformation from down on our luck wannabes to nation leading innovators — and yesterday’s landmark agreement between the City and US EPA reinforces the fact that there’s much more to come.
You also probably know we’ve been documenting the exciting efforts of the Philadelphia Water Department to change our cityscape into a vision of green. Besides the dozen short videos that can be found on our Green City, Clean Waters Vimeo channel, we’ve put together a 30 minute PBS special that encapsulates brings this game changing program to life.
We’re thrilled to announce it’ll be airing in a couple of weeks!
Download the flyer and pass it around.
Post it on your Facebook page, send it out on Twitter, Pin it, email it to friends.
And be sure to tune in and watch!
Mar 11 Schuylkill Watershed Congress: We’ll be There. Will You?
Mar 11th
Every year, dozens of passionate people come together to share ideas, experiences, and their love of local waterways at the Schuylkill Watershed Congress–and we’ve been proud to present our materials quite a number of times. This year, we’re teaming up with the Brandywine Conservancy to promote an exciting new education and advocacy tool we developed together. Come check us out in our afternoon Poster session: Site Design Procedure for Better Stormwater Management.
Here’s our abstract:
GreenTreks Network and the Brandywine Conservancy Environmental Management Center have collaborated to bring a whole new level of awareness to the challenges and opportunities for those charged with creating and implementing stormwater management programs through StormwaterPA. The latest result of the partnership is a multimedia, guided tour to integrating stormwater management into the land development process, from initial planning to final design.
This presentation provides insight into the latest thinking in conservation design and introduces this new tool to help engineers, advocates, and municipalities understand the process of creating the most appropriate plan for a particular site. The Site Design Procedure toolkit provides several pathways through the site planning process, including a narrated walk through, schematic flowchart, and step-by-step checklist. Besides offering a nice summary overview, it provides a comprehensive discussion document, and incorporates video segments, supporting materials (including relevant excerpts from the PA BMP Manual), and a new Model Ordinance (fully updated by the Conservancy in January, 2010).
The Schuylkill Watershed Congress puts its focus on networking across disciplines and a goal of presenting new information about watershed restoration, and has become a highly anticipated event for watershed citizens interested in understanding, protecting and restoring their local streams. Learn more here >>
If you can’t make it to Pottstown on Saturday, we’ll let you in on a secret: even though it’s not officially being promoted on StormwaterPA until our new site is launched, you can view the multimedia Site Design Procedure online now. Turn on your speakers, sit back, and get ready to be WOWed. We think it’s pretty cool.
Ready? Set? Check it out here >>
Not sure where you line up on the debate on drilling for Natural Gas? Hear Philly Water Department’s take…
Dec 8th
There’s so much polarizing debate going on around the issue of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation that it’s hard to know what lies ahead. On one side, there are those who see the “gasrush” as nothing less than economic salvation; on the other, those who believe environmental disaster is imminent and drilling must be prevented no what the opportunity cost. There are a ton of far smarter minds than ours weighing in, yet we tend to believe that somewhere along the line we must reach a middle ground and PROCEED SLOWLY, AND WITH EXTREME CAUTION, because it’s pretty clear we’re not getting to a 100% renewable energy future anytime soon…
Kelly Anderson and Paula Conolly of the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) will present an overview of PWD’s approach to source water protection and what steps are being taken to address the challenges presented by natural gas drilling in the Schuylkill and Delaware River basins–the source of Philadelphia’s water supply.
Please RSVP by December 13. For reservations or more information, please call 215-685-0723. More Information at FWWIC website >>
As a prelude to the program, you might want to Remember The River by tuning in to a video we created for our tireless friends at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. It’s mainly derived from a pair of our beautiful documentaries, Life on the Delaware and PA: A River Sojourn. Both are available now on DVD. Go to the Shop >>
Remember the River from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.
Be Moved to Action: Stories that Change the World on DVD just in time for the Holidays
Dec 3rd
We’ve got our online Shop up and running just in time for the Holiday season, so you can now watch entire programs on your big screen television or give them as gifts to family and friends!
If you haven’t been following us for several years, you may not even know about some of the great programs we’ve put out! The fact is, we’ve been so focused on building our EcoExpress portal and helping bring municipalities and engineers up to speed on the state of stormwater management that we haven’t been promoting award-winning programs like Farming on the Edge and From the Bay to PA; beautiful documentaries such as Life on the Delaware and Raycing the Sun; and quirky thought-provokers such as Environmental Classroom and Enviro-Art. Many of the programs from our GreenWorks series continue to air on cable and public television stations in various parts of the country, but you can own them now on DVD.
We’ll be highlighting one of the programs right here, every week, but you can check ‘em out now (literally–Purchase ‘em and Check ‘em Out!) with a safe secure purchase, right from our shop. Go Stock up >>
Philadelphia’s “Green City, Clean Waters” program on National, International stage
Dec 1st
If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you probably know how proud we are to call Philadelphia home–all the more so because of the amazing number of “greening” efforts that are popping up all around us in recent months. Interestingly (coincidentally?), the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability named the city’s sustainability strategy Greenworks Philadelphia when it was launched in April 2009. (In case you didn’t know, our GreenWorks television series and web initiatives began more than a decade earlier and set the stage for the GreenTreks of today–more on that some other time.)
What has us most stoked at the moment is what the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) is doing for the city, because they’re trailblazers in the movement to a more natural way of dealing with the problems caused by runoff from rain. We’ve been fortunate enough to be working with them to educate residents and business owners about the many benefits of making the city more green.
Rina Cutler, Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor, Transportation & Utilities, is in Denver this week at the 2010 Congress of Cities & Exposition. She’ll be speaking to City leaders from across the nation about Greening Water Infrastructure, and will be highlighting PWD’s ambitious program to transform Philly into a greener, cleaner, more liveable place. We’re told she’ll be using our just completed short video to help get the point across. Check it out:
Green City, Clean Waters Promo from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.
If one headed North and West from Denver, they might catch the same video on display at Cities Alive, the 8th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, being held in Vancouver this week. Our friends at Pennsylvania Horticultural Society will be there, talking to delegates from all over the world about Philly’s efforts.
Believe it or not, Philly’s leading the way!
