Daily Archives: October 25, 2016

Thursday, November 10, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm – 2016 ELA Season’s End Summit: Landscape Design with Maintenance in Mind

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Beautifully designed landscapes are a delight to the senses. We all love the temptations shown in colorful garden publications, so full of promise and potential. All too often, the love affair ends when the maintenance begins. Join the Ecological Landscape Alliance on Thursday, November 10 at the Community Harvest Project Barn, 37 Wheeler Road in North Grafton for the 7th annual ELA Season’s End Summit to explore Landscape Design with Maintenance in Mind with our distinguished lineup of presenters. We will reconnect with colleagues, reflect on the past growing season, and get inspired for the next.

Designing and Installing Landscapes After Invasive Species Removal

Panel of Experts:
Past ELA Presidents Explore Design and Maintenance
– Panel Moderator, Theresa Sprague (Blue Flax Design), ELA President
Panelists include past ELA Presidents Dennis Collins, M.L. Altobelli, and Trevor Smith.
Darrah Cole (Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy)

Creating Sustainability – sustainable design and maintenance on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  Darrah will share the successes and challenges of a highly used, busy urban park. The Greenway is one of Boston’s only organically managed parks, comprised of a mix of design styles and approaches. The Greenway has many areas devoted to native and pollinator plants, along with a diverse collection of shrubs, trees and spring flowering bulbs. Darrah will discuss design intent and the details of plant selection, focusing on what has succeeded and where adjustments were required. Fitting all these pieces together to create a vibrant, healthy, beautiful environment in the midst of downtown Boston takes thoughtful ingenuity, collaboration, and a serious commitment to sustainable values.

Christie Dustman (Christie Dustman & Company)- Design Solutions for Low Maintenance Landscapes

Fee $85 – $110 – See more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/2016-ela-seasons-end-summit-landscape-design-with-maintenance-in-mind/#sthash.tLzreIOP.dpuf

Wednesday, November 2, 7:15 pm – 8:45 pm – City of Trees

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On Wednesday, November 2 beginning at 7:15 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, City of Trees will be screened. It is a deeply personal story about the struggle for good jobs and environmental justice in our cities. Since 1990, nonprofit Washington Parks & People has tried to reduce poverty and violence in Washington, D.C. neighborhoods by improving parks. At the height of the recession, the organization received a stimulus grant to create a “green” job-training program in communities hardest hit. They had two years to help unemployed people find jobs and care for parks in their neighborhoods.

Steve Coleman, a grassroots environmental activist who directs the organization, must hire 150 unemployed residents to plant several thousand trees and provide training in the soft skills required to get a job. For Charles Holcomb, the paycheck offers a chance to give his newborn daughter the life he never had. For Michael Samuels, the job training is a first step forward after a drug conviction marred his employment record. For James Magruder, the program offers a chance to prove that his neighborhood roots position him as an unsung leader.

What sounds like a simple goal — putting people back to work by planting trees — becomes complicated by a community’s distrust of outsiders and a fast-approaching deadline before the grant money runs out. Filmed in an unflinching and compelling verité approach over the course of more than two years, CITY OF TREES thrusts viewers into the inspiring but messy world of job training and the paradoxes change-makers face in urban communities every day. 76 min, USA, directed by Brandon Kramer, produced by Lance Kramer a film by Meridian Hill Pictures, in association with Kartemquin Films and Magic Labs Media. City of Trees had its world premiere at the 2015 American Conservation Film Festival and was the Audience Choice Award Winner). Fee $10. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.