Transition Pasadena
  • Home
  • Our Projects
  • News
  • Get Involved!
  • Calendar of Events

Beautiful Swales

10/5/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Urban Acupuncture to Cure Drought

Beautiful Swales is a Transition Pasadena initiative to popularize and facilitate the contouring of residential land. Why? To capture rainwater and percolate it to groundwater so that it is not allowed to run off into the street to storm drains and the ocean.

Sylvia and I are the dirt diggers pushing this idea, and we have happily discovered that Melanie Winter of Water LA has already figured out how to build coalitions to get the word out and to organize neighborhoods for workshop trainings and mutual, community-building effort. Removing a 2-foot section of curb ushers gutter water into a trench in the parking strip studded with river stones to keep the dirt sides of this “swale” from falling in. A tree at the bottom gets occasional deep watering during storms; native plants add beauty. Or, if you are not a do-it-yourselfer, Melanie will train installers in a green jobs program.

60% of the urban area is residential properties, so the amount of water conserved will be considerable, and a better plan than just using less of the water imported from Northern California. If each household creates a parking strip swale, this “Urban Acupuncture” will reduce the amount of water reaching storm drains. LA County now requires each city to clean water that reaches their drains, so Pasadena will save time and money by working with Water LA to reduce runoff.

Beautiful Swales has told Pasadena Planning and Water and Power Departments about the work of Water LA and invited their staff to hear Melanie Winter describe her program in detail at the Environmental Advisory Commission meeting at 6:00 pm October 11 at the Permit Center, 175 N. Garfield Ave. Please come to learn how you can make a swale in your parking strip and to show the Commission that Pasadenans support conserving rainwater, a precious resource. And visit https://www.facebook.com/Beautiful-Swales-999988803354733 to see more photos that show why we call them beautiful swales.


— Lin Griffith 

www.fb.com/Beautiful-Swales-999988803354733

Photo by Sylvia Holmes.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe To Our Blog

    Want to stay current with news from us on a (almost) weekly basis? Click here to subscribe to our blog feed!

    Transition Network News


    Other Resilience News



    Our Previous Posts

    July 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011


•  Home
•  Latest News  /  Event Photos
•  Throop Learning Garden  /  History  /  Garden Photos
•  Repair Café Pasadena  /  Photo Gallery
•  Get Involved  /  Contact Us

Creative Commons License
Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Picture
Site design: Qrys Cunningham
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, club125.greenbelt, Luigi Mengato, Images_of_Money, KJGarbutt, Will Merydith, Sayjack, skampy, El Coleccionista de Instantes, audreyjm529