A New Tool for our Bioretention Planter

If you happen to be in the Brookland neighborhood, cruise over to our headquarters on12^th and Irving Streets to see our bioretention planter and our new interpretive panel now stationed at the entrance.

The interpretive panel is an informative introduction to the planning and design that has made Casey Trees headquarters an example of how a small building can help slow and filter stormwater, reduce energy consumption and provide several other environmental benefits. 

If you stop to read the panel, you will learn how bioretention planters work, how Silva Cells help trees reach their full growth potential and what trees are included. We've also included details and photos of our cool roof and three green roofs. From spring through fall, you will be able to catch a glimpse of the green roofs from the location of the panel.

Our bioretention planter is charming and changing all year long, so stop by and take a look the next time you’re in the neighborhood.

Welcoming Tour des Trees to D.C. on Saturday

Casey Trees is excited to welcome the riders of the 20th annual STIHL® Tour des Trees! Nearly 60 cyclists will ride into the District this Saturday for the second to last leg of the week-long, 485-mile cycling tour which benefits the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE Fund). On Saturday, October 8, The Tour des Trees riders will visit the Casey Trees headquarters for lunch and tours of our bioretention planters and green roofs. They will also participate in a tree planting at the U.S. National Arboretum.

The seven day bicycle tour originates in Virginia Beach and stops in Wililamsburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Front Royal, and Reston before concluding in D.C. Cyclists participate in tree planting and public awareness events at each stop. Casey Trees is a co-sponsor of this year's tour.

"Casey Trees is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the 2011 STIHL® Tour des Trees," Executive Director Mark Buscaino said. "By supporting the Tour des Trees we are investing in urban forestry research that will significantly benefit the District's urban forest and its neighborhoods for generations to come."

After their visit to Casey Trees, the riders will finish the week-long tour at the American University Woods-Brown Amphitheater at 2:00 p.m. Closing ceremonies will immediately follow. Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones, will serve as keynote speaker and join the Tom Principato Band to entertain the crowds.

For more information, visit the Tour des Trees website.

Headquarters Profile: Green Features at 3030 12th Street NE

This is the third of three posts about our new headquarters at 3030 12th Street NE and our tree yard at 3015 12th Street NE in the Brookland neighborhood. We are excited about our new home, and we wanted to share with you some of the green features we have implemented.

As well as planting a rain garden for the 3015 12th Street NE property that houses our tree planting operation, we also have a plan to implement a comprehensive system for stormwater management at our main office. The nearly completed design implements a 1,700 square foot bio-retention planter rain garden that will capture up to two inches of rain in a storm, a planted strip of street trees, a specially designed sidewalk that supports the street trees and a cistern that collects rain water.

View the full-size draft plan for the rain garden site. Some details may change.

In a rain event, ground level stormwater flows from the green roof surfaces and parking lot into the rain garden. Additional rain water is captured by a cistern stored in the building's garage. When a rain event overfills the capacity of the cistern, water spills directly into the bio-retention rain garden. During most rainy conditions, virtually no rainwater will flow into the city's storm sewer system. The rain garden will feature a lot of great trees: black gum, Jefferson American Elm, river birch, sycamore, sweetbay magnolia and baldcypress. These trees soak up immense amounts of water and greet visitors to the building.

Silva Cells being planted underneath the sidewalk in August 2010.

Underneath the 12th Street sidewalk, we constructed a Silva Cell sidewalk, which allows for tree roots to expand underneath the solid ground, using an underground frame and deck support system. It looks like a normal sidewalk above ground and supports foot traffic, but tree roots are growing in the 90% void space filled with soil, expanding far further than a conventional boxed planting would permit. Sweetgum trees will be planted along the road.

Casey Trees staff were responsible for much of the planning and design process behind the green construction at our headquarters. As with our green roof design, we could not have accomplished our goals without generous help from our partners. A grant from the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) paid for the cost of installing the the infiltration planters on the 12th Street NE and the Silva Cells supporting the adjacent sidewalk. The District Department of the Environment (DDOE) funded the bio-retention planter and the cistern (as well as the green roofs).

The site where the rain garden will be planted, with the newly constructed Silva Cell sidewalk on the other side of the fence.

Read the media release about the move to our new headquarters, and check out our website for more photos and information.

Headquarters Profile: Green Roof

This is the second of three posts about our new headquarters at 3030 12th Street NE and our tree yard at 3015 12th Street NE in the Brookland neighborhood. We are excited about our new home, and we wanted to share with you some of the green features we have implemented.

Close-up of a green roof at the new Casey Trees HQ.

The 10,000 square foot Casey Trees administrative building is a half new, half renovated office building on the 12th Street NE corridor in Brookland. The key feature of the building is a green roof system that covers just over 25% of the roof area. There are three green roof sections covering part of the first floor and garage, and the upper story roof is covered by a white "cool roof" which reflects sun off the building and keeps the interior cool. Part of the reason for constructing the green roofs on top of the first floor was to ensure the visibility of the roof for staff and visitors. We planted three different types of green roofs, each with more than half a dozen varieties of herbaceous flowering plants (primarily the sedum genus). The design of the green roof maximizes water absorption, while keeping the building much cooler than a conventional roof would in summer months.

If you haven't seen a green roof up close before, you may be surprised to find that they are not simply elevated grass lawns. In fact, they aren't made of grass and you actually shouldn't walk or sit on top of a green roof unless you are maintaining it. It is built only for the purpose of gathering as much rainwater as possible. If there is excess water, it filters through pebbles surrounding the platform and flows to storm gutters. The storm gutters at the Casey Trees site empty into our rain garden and bio-retention site. Even though these roofs are utilitarian and efficient in nature, they are beautiful to behold.

A section of green roof is unrolled like a carpet.

Non-profit green roof advocates DC Greenworks and Level Green Landscaping worked together to get our green roofs constructed and planted in a matter of days. This project would not have been possible without funding from the District Department of the Environment (DDOE). We hope to use our green roof design as a model for sustainable development in DC, as part of our participation in the Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES) Pilot Program.

More pictures of the new green roofs.

Read the media release about the move to our new headquarters, and stay tuned for more blog posts about the eco-friendly features of the site.

Headquarters Profile: Tree Yard Rain Garden

This is the first of three posts about our new headquarters at 3030 12th Street NE and our tree yard at 3015 12th Street NE in the Brookland neighborhood. We are excited about our new home, and we wanted to share with you some of the green features we have implemented.

The Casey Trees rain garden on the day of planting.

On a rainy day like today, one realizes that the District gets a huge amount of rain water. Where does that water go? In areas that are completely forested, like Rock Creek Park, stormwater gets absorbed into the ground, as a part of a natural process that supports life and filters pollutants from the water. But in the rest of the city, where buildings, sidewalks and roads take the place of water-absorbing trees and plants, it's a different story. Those millions of gallons of water need to flow somewhere, and the water that isn't absorbed by street trees and gardens goes to our sewer system as runoff. On average, even a half of an inch of water in a storm can cause excess water (and all of the pollutants carried with it) to overflow from the sewer system, directly into our waterways.

That is why we have installed a rain garden at our tree yard at 3015 12th Street NE across the street from our new office headquarters, transforming an abandoned gas station into an attractive staging area for our tree planting activities. Stormwater drains from the impervious paved area of the property to the rain garden, where the water is filtered in a simulated natural process, infiltrating into the ground instead of being directed to the sewer system. 

The goal is to intercept the "first flush," the runoff water containing the greatest concentration of pollutants. The rain garden spans the length of the 12th Street side of the property and features a wide diversity of plants and trees, including red osier dogwood, bald cypress, river birch, New England aster, sweetbay magnolia and switchgrass. The site hosts our tree planting crew's tools and equipment, and we keep up to 225 trees ready for planting on location.

We are making this effort and other similar efforts to reduce our environmental impact, showing what is possible with a small property in an urban environment.

The Casey Trees tree planting crew in action, next to the newly planted rain garden.

Read the media release about the move to our new headquarters, and stay tuned for more blog posts about the eco-friendly features of the site.