APRIL2008

IN THIS ISSUE

Gallup to Receive Obd’s 2008 Green Leaf

Scorecard Project to Help Neighborhoods Live Green

Mayor’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant Applications Due April 18

Support Sought for Highway Landscaping Project

ObD to Participate in Omaha Health Expo

Thom Mayne to Speak April 17

GOC Council Gathering May 4

Green Homes: How to Green Your Trash
In addition to being a point of pride for employees and a roadside interest for passersby, The Gallup Organization’s native meadow is a learning laboratory for kids from its on-site child care facility.
Gallup to Receive Obd’s 2008 Green Leaf

Editor’s Note: The Gallup Organization will receive the 2008 Green Leaf at the April 16 meeting of Omaha by Design’s Advisory Committee. The Green Leaf recognizes an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s natural setting and public park system. It is part of a trio of awards established by Omaha by Design in 2007 to emphasize the goals of the Urban Design Element, a planning tool designed to improve the quality of development in Omaha while protecting and enhancing the city’s natural environment.

The killdeer, a medium-sized shorebird, has a home at The Gallup Organization. So do butterflies, bees and the occasional fox. All can be found in the front yard of Gallup’s riverfront campus, a 20-acre field that once served as a haphazard dumping ground for gravel, asphalt and other construction debris.

It’s been five years since the corporate leaders at Gallup built their new Omaha facility and invested in an employee’s idea – one that called for creating a native meadow on close to one-third of the entire 59-acre campus.

Compared to using turf, a field planted with wildflowers and native grasses would result in water and labor savings, reasoned Bruce Rieckman, a member of Gallup’s three-person grounds crew. More importantly, it would give the extremely poor soil a chance to recapture the health of its prairie past. “We began by digging chunks of brick and other debris out of the soil - it took days,” Rieckman said.

That fall, the crew planted a crop of winter wheat to keep the freshly worked soil in place. The following spring after no-tilling the wheat crop, the field received two applications of Roundup to take down its varied collection of weeds. The goal was to give the first plantings of wildflowers and native grasses a level chance at taking root for future success.

It worked.

Rieckman, who grew up on a farm near Murdock, Neb., selected a mixture of 22 wildflower species and four native grasses. The wildflower selections included annuals as well as perennials. Several of the species - the Purple Prairie Clover and the Showy Partridge Pea, among others - are legumes, which are known for their ability to fix nitrogen on their roots for eventual release into the soil.

Today, the Gallup native meadow is its own thriving ecosystem. Rieckman’s crew walks it several times during the summer, cutting out weeds and volunteer cottonwood trees. The end result was met with such enthusiasm that an additional 10.5 acres of Gallup property on the other side of 6th Street was planted with native grasses. To Rieckman’s surprise, wildflowers have begun to appear there as well, thanks to the birds that fly back and forth between the two plots.

In addition to being a point of pride for employees and a roadside interest for passersby, the native meadow is a learning laboratory for kids from Gallup’s on-site child care facility. “We take them out in groups and help them identify wildflowers,” Rieckman said. “Each year looks different, depending upon the type of winter we had.”

The majestic yellow blossom of the Lanceleaf Coreopsis should begin making its appearance with the other wildflowers in the coming months, followed by the graceful blades of Little Bluestem and the other native grasses.

“It all comes down to planning, patience and the willingness to keep at it,” Rieckman said. “I like to think of this project as taking the land back to the way it was. We’re giving it a well-deserved rest.”

For more information about The Gallup Organization, visit www.gallup.com.

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One of the ways neighborhoods can live greener is by participating in Keep Omaha Beautiful’s Storm Drain Awareness Project. For more information, contact Cindy Smilley at 444.7774.
Scorecard Project to Help Neighborhoods Live Green

How green is your neighborhood?

A new tool designed to help local groups answer that question will be launched in the metro area Tuesday, April 15. The Green Neighborhood Scorecard, a 15-question survey that covers topics ranging from food to transportation, will be distributed to registered neighborhood associations and sanitary and improvement districts in Douglas County.

The scorecard was developed by the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Neighborhood Council, a venue for neighborhood associations, homeowners and nonprofit groups committed to educating residential neighborhoods on the collective benefits of sustainable home ownership. Its goal, said committee chair Trilety Wade, is to create an awareness of the elements associated with green living at the neighborhood level and to, over time, encourage individuals and organizations to institute behavior changes that facilitate green living.

“The Green Neighborhood Scorecard Committee, comprised of people from a variety of neighborhoods, worked diligently to develop an inclusive tool that can gauge areas of environmental need and success in neighborhoods throughout Douglas County,” Wade said.

The scorecard is divided into four categories – waste and recycling, food, water and stormwater, and transportation. Each relates to the Green Neighborhood Council’s focus areas for programming in 2008. The questions are varied. Some ask for “yes” or “no” responses while others call for a count based on observational analysis. One of the questions in the transportation category asks groups to determine their neighborhood’s walkability score by using www.walkscore.com, an easy-to-use online measurement system.

“We encourage neighborhoods to complete the scorecard as a group activity, perhaps as part of a neighborhood meeting,” Wade said. “Some neighborhoods might want to form a smaller team to take on the scorecard as a mini-project.”

In addition to collecting neighborhood data in each category, the scorecard will provide users with a list of local resources directly related to the questions asked. “We want to give people access to easy-to-understand, usable information that supports a greener approach to living,” Wade said.

All groups that receive the scorecard will be asked to complete it and return it to the Green Neighborhood Council by June 30. The scorecard results will help the council identify neighborhood groups interested in improving their green status but who need assistance in achieving this goal, Wade said.

A recognition of neighborhood groups with a high green rating will be held in conjunction with a regional neighborhood summit set for this September in Omaha.

The Green Neighborhood Scorecard will be available for download online at www.greenomahacoalition.org starting April 15. For more information or to request a hard copy of the scorecard, contact Wade at 402.551.3887.

For more information about the Green Neighborhood Council, visit www.omahagreenneighborhoods.wetpaint.com.

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Mayor’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant Applications Due April 18

Omaha’s neighborhoods are becoming better places, thanks in part to Mayor Mike Fahey’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program. During its first six years, the program has awarded 124 grants totaling $421,992.

The application deadline for the 2008 program is Friday, April 18, at 4 p.m. A total of $80,000 is available to fund grants in two categories: neighborhood improvement and neighborhood crime prevention. Neighborhood improvement grants focus on public space improvement and innovative programming that strengthens neighborhood involvement and quality of life. Neighborhood crime prevention grants focus on community involvement to reduce crime and improve public safety.

Priority funding will be given to neighborhood groups that have participated in a Place Game workshop led by Omaha by Design. The Place Game is an organized way of planning improvements to any neighborhood by listening to the people who use its public spaces. Omaha by Design conducts Place Game workshops from March through October. There is no charge for the service. The host organization is responsible for securing a location for the workshop and recruiting participants. For more information or to schedule a workshop in 2008, contact Teresa Gleason at 402.342.3458 or teresa@omahabydesign.org.

Associations can apply for a maximum of $5,000. If they apply for both grants, the combined total cannot exceed $5,000. An association applying for both grants should submit two applications.

Grant awardees will be announced the week of May 5. For more information, call Silas Clarke at 444.5211, or visit www.ci.omaha.ne.us/departments/mayor.

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Omaha is home to 1,800 acres of highway landscape that greet out-of-state visitors and local residents each day. The Urban Design Element recommends improving this important component of the city’s green space.
Support Sought for Highway Landscaping Project

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth in a continuing series of entries from the first Omaha Catalogue of Urban Design Philanthropy, a compendium of strategic giving opportunities that focus on the city’s natural and built environments. The Omaha Catalogue was published in December 2007 by Omaha by Design and the Omaha Community Foundation. It has attracted donations from Omaha’s philanthropic community at both the foundation and individual level, including a $10,000 gift to the Big Garden and a $25,000 gift to the South 24th Street Tree of Life Project. For more information on how to donate to a project, contact Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design, or Sara Boyd, vice president of the Omaha Community Foundation, at 402.342.3458.

Omaha is home to 1,800 acres of highway landscape that greet out-of-state visitors and local residents each day. These embankments, edges and land area within cloverleafs are the ideal setting for showcasing the unique textures and colors of Nebraska’s native grasses and wildflowers.

The Urban Design Element recommends improving this important component of the city’s green space. With the appropriate design, long stretches of freeway could be transformed into landscapes. Separate species of wildflower could be planted to bloom at the same time featuring different colors during different seasons. Native grasses could provide visual interest during Nebraska’s cooler months. In addition to softening the coldness of the highway concrete, wildflowers and native grasses – once planted – are an economic asset, requiring less maintenance and water.

Unfortunately, landscaping – although the incremental cost is not high – is often cut from both capital and maintenance budgets for highway design.

Keep Omaha Beautiful Inc., a major force in the maintenance of Omaha’s public spaces, has begun a project to address the issue of highway landscaping. The project’s first phase, located on the northwest corner of 72nd and Center streets, has been completed.

The project’s second phase focuses on the I-680/Center Street interchange. In conjunction with Lanoha Nursery, Keep Omaha Beautiful Inc. will transform 196,000 square feet of unused land on the northeast corner into a haven for wild prairie grasses.

Once completed, the project will serve as a cost-effective yet beautiful approach to highway landscaping, one that could be duplicated at other Omaha interchanges and could lead to the development of a master landscape plan for the city and state.

The estimated cost for phase two of the project is $160,000. In the future, Keep Omaha Beautiful will look at landscaping other Omaha interchanges based upon donor support. 

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ObD to Participate in Omaha Health Expo

More than 250 exhibitors will set up shop at the 2008 Omaha Health, Wellness and Fitness Expo April 26-27. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in the Mancuso Convention Center and Exhibition Hall.

Billed as the largest health expo in the Midwest, it will include more than 50 seminars and demonstrations over two days as well as walking and biking activities. The Omaha by Design booth will feature information on its free Place Game services and other projects.

The expo will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 27. Click here for more information.

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Thom Mayne to Speak April 17

A renowned Los Angeles-based architect will appear in Omaha Thursday, April 17, in conjunction with Design Alliance Omaha’s speaker series.

“The Morphosis of Thom Mayne” is set for 7 p.m. in Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Concert Hall. Tickets are $15 per person, and $10 for Joslyn members and students. The event is free to Design Alliance Omaha members.

Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC) in 1972. Since then, he has held teaching positions at both SCI-ARC and UCLA. He and Michael Rotondi founded Morphosis, a renowned architectural office in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1972 to develop an architecture that would eschew the normal bounds of traditional forms. Mayne received the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, in March 2005.  

Design Alliance Omaha is a forum that provides opportunities for exchange and experience - the true constants of progressive design. For more information, visit daOMA.ORG.

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GOC Council Gathering May 4

The Green Omaha Coalition (GOC) will hold a gathering for its five councils Sunday, May 4. The event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Pavilion in Elmwood Park, 802 S. 60th St.

The GOC is dedicated to promoting a healthy, sustainable community through partnerships, policy and smart solutions. A discussion forum will begin at 2 p.m. Following an introduction from the GOC board, each of the five councils - the Green Neighborhood Council, the Green Education Council, the Green Business Council, the Public Agency Council, and the Design and Construction Council - will give an update on its focus and activities. The discussion will be followed by a social hour.

The gathering is hosted by the GOC Public Agency Council. Interested members of the public are also invited to attend. R.S.V.P. to Barbie Hayes at bahayes@msn.com.

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Green Homes: How to Green Your Trash

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a continuing series of articles provided by the Green Omaha Coalition’s Green Neighborhood Council. The Green Omaha Coalition is dedicated to promoting a healthy, sustainable community through partnerships, policy and smart solutions. Omaha by Design is a founding partner of the Green Omaha Coalition. This month’s author is Trilety Wade, environmental consultant with Hayes Environmental LLC.

By Trilety Wade
What’s considered one of the least favorite chores of homeowners, apartment dwellers and college students? That’s right - taking out the trash. It happens once a week, community-wide, people dragging out bags and cans of garbage and bins of recyclables. After a night out at the curb, the cans and bags wait patiently to be picked up by dump trucks and driven to the local landfill.

If you are a resident of Douglas County, your trash likely ends its journey at the Pheasant Point Landfill near Elk City, Neb. During 2007, the Douglas County landfill received a total of 615,000 tons of garbage. Think about it. That’s equal to 1,683 Honda hybrids being dumped at the landfill every single day. And it is we, the citizens of Douglas County, generating that amount of trash. Results for surrounding communities are similar. It’s estimated that the average person generates five pounds of garbage every day.

Being an advocate of waste reduction in the home, I have recently begun weighing my garbage. In one week I generate approximately 2.5 pounds of garbage. Compare 2.5 pounds of garbage in a week to 5 pounds of garbage in a day. 

It’s not only possible to reduce your waste, but it can be easy and fun, too. And, it’s pretty popular as well. Take, for instance, the recently launched Waste Diet web site. Go to www.thewastediet.com, take the waste diet challenge and figure out 1) how much waste you generate in a month and 2) how to challenge yourself and your family to reduce your waste. 

To get started, here are a few tips for reducing waste around your home. 

 For more information on how to green your home, please join us for the Green Neighborhood Council’s monthly green living workshop, titled “Reduce Your Household Waste.” Rick Yoder, director of Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center P2RIC (located on the campus of University of Nebraska at Omaha), and Trilety Wade, local waste reducer, will help you learn how to reduce your waste and green your garbage.

The workshop will be held Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Neighborhood Center for Greater Omaha, 115 S. 49th Ave. Learn the story of your trash, and sign up for a chance to win waste reduction tools. The event is free and open to the public. Those who plan to attend should R.S.V.P. to Daniel Lawse at livesimply93@gmail.com.  

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