Thom Pepper of CGR claims, “We’ve been planting about 6,500 trees a year for the past two years. And we’re looking to do a rapid expansion of the bottomland hardwood program, and establish a really nice size fresh and saltwater marsh collection.”
Common Ground Relief also owns a community raised-bed garden near their base to help the locals get fresh food between trips to the nearest grocery which is miles away and to feed the volunteers often working in the lower 9th. They also have a larger garden at a nearby school to teach children about gardening.
Thom explains, “We have a food science and nutrition program over at Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, which has a large garden and wetlands area. That’s a part of our Garden of Eatin’ Project.”
They also test the soil on people’s land so they can make it healthy for growing food, and will plant a raised-bed garden and trees and landscape their yards. CGR recently partnered a with sustainable design consultancy FutureProof to build specialized rain drainage systems called raingardens.
“We’re redirecting the rain water so that we can reabsorb about 20,000 gallons of rainwater.” And CGR has a good stream of volunteers from around America to help with the planting and building. “Today we have a group from the University of Nebraska who are planting trees and doing wetlands resto ration,
and planting grasses at Bayou Bienvenue, as well as working at the Bonne Carre Spillway today.” You can learn more about Common Ground Relief at their web site www.commongroundrelief.org.
The Make It Right Program started by actor and resident Brad Pitt is building many ecofriendly homes complete with solar panels, rain water collectors and raingardens, and water-absorbing pervious concrete in the lower 9th Ward and selling them for good prices.
But modern homes aren’t the only projects that Make It Right is concerned about. One empty space built by Make It Right and then donated to the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development has been made into a very technological playground for the neighborhood. The materials used for the space-age looking jungle gyms were made using only sustainable materials. There are big flashing red buttons on the equipment that are a part of the solar-powered, vandalismresistant computer system where the kids can program games to play with the buttons. You can see Make It Right’s progress on their web site at www.makeitrightnola.org or by visiting the neighborhood in the lower 9th Ward just over the canal on the north side of Claiborne Avenue.
This is just the beginning of a new city where people can eat fresh, healthy fruit right off the tree and kids can play off the streets. As more condemned buildings are dismantled, more things are possible with the new space. There is a locally-grown produce and meat revolution around the country because people are asking for better quality food and wanting to spur the economies of their communities. This city and the surrounding areas where crops and livestock are raised are proving how effective the burgeoning farmer’s markets and fruit and vegetable stands can be in the modern day. We’re far way from living off the land, but with more access to local produce, backyard farming, and neighborhood gardens, we can reconnect to food production and have a more sustainable future.
