Ironwood Part of Regional Stormwater Effort to Better Water Quality in Exeter Pond
Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) has pulled together an innovative team approach to improve the functioning of a pond ecosystem for the beloved community Brickyard Pond in the Exeter Neighborhood of Marshall Farms. The effort includes the installation of rain gardens on residences near Brickyard Pond to help mitigate the deleterious effects of untreated stormwater currently reaching the pond. Ironwood is pleased to be the design consultant for the selection of rain garden sites on private residences with volunteer homeowners. Ironwood will then forge custom designs for the site and, with the coordination of Rye Beach Landscaping, complete the project with the installation of the rain gardens that will help infiltrate and remove undesirable nutrients from stormwater runoff. Please refer to the article below in PREP's latest newsletter:
Feature Story
Neighbors
Unite to Restore Local Pond in Exeter
Margaret Mead once wrote: "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Combine those committed citizens with progressive town leaders,
university researchers and community planners and you've got a recipe for
success.
Brickyard Pond, a 1.8 acre pond along Kingston Road in Exeter, has
long been a community icon. In the not so recent past, there were walking
trails around the pond, local Boy Scouts held fishing derbies and the pond and
adjacent park provided residents with recreation opportunities and a quiet spot
to enjoy the outdoors.Over the past several years the condition of the pond has
been on the decline, each summer the pond is covered in a green scum of algae
and it has a stinky odor.
Brickyard Pond in
2012, photo from Exeter Town Crier
|
In June 2012 the residents of the Marshall Farms Crossing
neighborhood approached the town about the pond's condition and wanted to know
what they could do to help improve their neighborhood jewel. Exeter's
Environmental Planner, Kristen Murphy, saw this as a great opportunity to
expand the already established Think Blue Exeter effort
and employ some of the techniques she'd learned through various workshops she'd
attended.
"Its super exciting to have the neighborhood initiate contact. I attribute a lot of my interest for the project to the Rain Garden Installation workshop that Candace Dolan [Hodgson Brook Restoration Project] put on. She just makes it seem so do-able!"
At the same time the Green Infrastructure for NH Coastal
Communities Project was looking for Phase 1 towns so
Kristen applied for the grant and got it! The Green Infrastructure Project Team
is made up of technical experts from University of New Hampshire
Stormwater Center, Geosyntec, staff from
the Southeast Watershed Alliance,
Rockingham Planning Commission,
Antioch University and
Great Bay NERR. The
project links experts with interested town leaders and citizens for education,
outreach and on the ground implementation. The town of Exeter's team includes
Kristen, Department of Public Works' Phyllis Duffy, Ginny Raub from the
Conservation Commission and Pete Richardson from the Conservation Commission
and the Exeter Squamscott River Local
Advisory Committee.
On August 18th, the project team hosted a Stormwater Clinic
&
in-situ water quality monitors work and what they detect,
explained some water friendly lawn care practices and how to install a rain
barrel. There were 5 homes that are interested in installing rain gardens so
Jeff Hyland, an engineer from Ironwood Design Group,
toured the property to prepare the plans for installation.
"This program was great because through the Green
Infrastructure Project we had access to these expert resources to deliver some
amazing products (watershed map/model, in-situ monitor, rain garden
installation info, etc.) and to help us build our confidence and have a nice
sturdy expert-backbone to support us," Kristen explained.
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