[PCA] native plants for cities, stormwater management

[maryann whitman]

What is the Center for Sustainable Resources? What is your position there
Fred?

M. Whitman


At 09:09 PM 12/8/2004 Wednesday, Center for Sustainable Resources wrote:


I have worked with the process you speak of quite a bit at times. In fact I
use natural vegetation to biofilter our aquaculture sites. Probably the
easiest and most dependable plant you can use for this is the cattail. They
are commonly used on mine sites now because they are so good at binding many
substances. Bog plants in general are very good at this. as they burn up
bicarbonates when the sun shines they collect metals in their root systems.
Yellow Flag( japanesenaturalized) or blue flag native but not much different
are also good. Some of the most problematic plants as far as growing over
the entire waterway are the native ones. Stay away from anything viny. Lotus
and lilly are good but need to be tamed now and then. If you are dealing
with a sewage treatment system bullfrog tadpoles are good for controling
bacteria but you need large numbers. Fred Hays


From: Louisa Rogoff Thompson <louisathompson at erols.com>
To: NativePlantseast <native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org>,
WorthleyBotany <WorthleyBotany at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [PCA] native plants for cities, stormwater management
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:53:47 -0500

I'm looking for information about native plants adapted to various kinds of
stressful environments, particularly salt and heavy metals.  It's my firm
belief that plants can take care of soil and water better than facilities
made of concrete and other man-made materials.  And I prefer to use native
plants, because they are unlikely to turn out to be invasive, and because
they are more likely than exotics to form collaborative relationships with
soil organisms and above-ground wildlife.

I'm currently working on a grad school project to design a landscape for a
vacant lot which will divert stormwater from the street into the lot to be
filtered and slowed down.   Most vacant lots previously had buildings on
them, which means they now have fill dirt, and infiltration facilities are
not permitted on fill.  So the water has to be returned to the storm drain
system, but some will evaporate and the rest will be returned slowly,
reducing the volume of fast-flowing water during the storm.

The man at Baltimore's Dept. of Public Works who issues permits for this
kind of thing says a solution would be very valuable, and could be used on
many vacant lots throughout the city.  If I can get this to work, it could
have a very significant impact.  Did you know that much of Baltimore's
stormwater is piped directly into the Inner Harbor?  And it carries cadmium,
copper, chromium, lead, and other heavy metals, mostly from tires, some from
diesel exhaust, and some from old lead paint.  And road salt, in winter.

If you have seen plants either survive or be harmed by road salt, air
pollution (e.g. from bus exhaust at a bus stop), or heavy metals (e.g., lead
paint chips in the soil), I'd like to know about it.

Also, if you know of published information please tell me.  I have Dirr's
Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, which has this kind of information for
many trees and shrubs.  Is there something comparable for herbaceous plants?
I also have Md. Dept. of Environment's Stormwater Design Manual, which has a
long list of plants, indicating tolerance to salt and pollution.  The only
plant listed as tolerant to both is Eastern white pine.  Most likely this is
a list of known tolerance, i.e., no check mark means no knowledge, not no
tolerance.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Louisa Thompson
Institute of Architecture and Planning
Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD



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William C. Stringer
Forage Agronomist &
Native Plant Enthusiast
Clemson University

Entomology, Soils and Plant Science
279 P&AS Bldg
PO Box 0315
Clemson, SC  29634

864 656 3527  Voice
864 656 3443  FAX

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