[Pollinator] Pollinator Garden included as part of USDA facilities People's Gardens

Thu Feb 12 17:00:42 PST 2009

VILSACK ESTABLISHES THE PEOPLE'S GARDEN PROJECT  ON BICENTENNIAL OF LINCOLN'S 
BIRTH
_http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/02/0042.xml_
 
(http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/02/0042.xml)    

                     
    VILSACK  ESTABLISHES THE PEOPLE'S GARDEN PROJECT ON  BICENTENNIAL OF 
LINCOLN'S BIRTH     Announces  goal of creating community gardens at each USDA  
facility worldwide      
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2009 -- Agriculture  Secretary Tom Vilsack today "broke 
pavement" on  the inaugural USDA The People's Garden during a  ceremony on the 
grounds of U.S. Department of  Agriculture (USDA) commemorating the 200th  
birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The Secretary  declared the stretch of pavement 
permanently  closed and returned back to green, and  encouraged other 
Administration officials and  the general public to join in to protect the  Chesapeake 
watershed.  
"It is essential for the federal government  to lead the way in enhancing and 
conserving our  land and water resources," said Vilsack.  "President Obama 
has expressed his commitment to  responsible stewardship of our land, water and  
other natural resources, and one way of  restoring the land to its natural 
condition is  what we are doing here today - "breaking  pavement" for The 
People's Garden."  
The dedication comes on the 200th anniversary  of the birth of the 16th 
President of the United  States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln founded the  Department 
of Agriculture in 1862 and referred  to it as "The People's Department" in his 
last  annual message to Congress.  
The commemoration of the Abraham Lincoln  Bicentennial is only the first step 
in the  Department of Agriculture's celebration of  President Lincoln's life. 
During today's  ceremony, Secretary Vilsack announced the goal  of creating a 
community garden at each USDA  facility worldwide. The USDA community garden  
project will include a wide variety of garden  activities including Embassy 
window boxes, tree  planting, and field office plots. The gardens  will be 
designed to promote "going green"  concepts, including landscaping and building  
design to retain water and reduce runoff; roof  gardens for energy efficiency; 
utilizing native  plantings and using sound conservation  practices.  
The USDA People's Garden announced today will  eliminate 1,250 square feet of 
unnecessary paved  surface at the USDA headquarters and return the  landscape 
to grass. The changes signal a removal  of impervious surfaces and 
improvement in water  management that is needed throughout the  Chesapeake Bay 
Watershed.  
The new garden will add 612 square feet of  planted space to an existing 
garden  traditionally planted with ornamentals. The  garden will showcase 
conservation practices that  all Americans can implement in their own  backyards and 
green spaces. As a component of  the garden, pollinator-friendly plantings will 
 not only provide important habitat for bees and  butterflies, but can serve 
as an educational  opportunity to help people understand the vital  role 
pollinators play in our food, forage and  all agriculture. The garden plot is 
adjacent to  the site of the USDA Farmer's Market.  
About 100,000 streams and rivers thread  through the Chesapeake's 
64,000-square-mile  watershed, which is home to almost 17 million  people in Virginia, 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, West  Virginia, Delaware, New York and the District of  
Columbia. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest  estuary in North America, with a 
length of 200  miles and 11,684 miles of tidal shoreline, more  than the 
entire U.S. West Coast. The Chesapeake  Bay supports more than 3,600 species of 
plants,  fish and animals.  
USDA leads efforts on public and private  lands to help reduce the impact of 
nutrient and  sediment pollution on wildlife habitat, forest  lands and water 
quality, as well as supporting  community involvement in managing natural  
resources, urban green space and land  stewardship. For more information about 
USDA,  the People's Garden, the Chesapeake Bay  Watershed and other conservation 
and agriculture  related programs available in local communities,  visit a 
USDA Service Center or go to the USDA  Web page at _www.usda.gov_ 
(http://www.usda.gov/) .  
Complementary education materials such as the  distance-learning project 
MonarchLIVE and  partnerships with schools and the North American  Pollinator 
Protection Campaign which will extend  the impact and reach of the USDA garden  
initiative are available at 
_http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/ce/content/special/links/index.cfm_ (http://na.fs.fed.us/spfo/ce/content/special/links/index.cfm) .  And 
backyard conservation and other materials  also can be obtained by dialing 
1-888-LANDCARE.     


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     Last Modified:  02/12/2009  


Laurie Davies Adams
Executive  Director
Pollinator Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th  floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org


_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_www.nappc.org_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. 
Beecome  involved at _www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
**************Nothing says I love you like flowers! Find a florist near you 
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