Coastal Blog — HOW
February 16 2015
The Peninsula Elementary School Rain Garden shows the importance of patience, utilizing Surfrider chapter resources, and developing partnerships. The project team had to solve problems: flooding problems in a school courtyard, clogged storm drain piping, and a small budget.
February 16 2015
A private water retailer approached the Surfrider-San Diego Chapter about helping turn a water guzzling area of a park and its runoff producing parking lot into an example of an Ocean Friendly Garden. The Chapter jumped at the chance to do a project at such a high profile, public space.
December 05 2014
A beautiful Ocean Friendly Garden now sits in what used to be an unused grassy area in front of a highly utilized city community center. It's a model for directing rainwater into the landscape for irrigation, preventing runoff, and creating wildlife habitat.
September 20 2013
Creating an Ocean Friendly Garden at a high profile community center means lots of people will see it. Get the approval, support and funding can be a little more challenging than a private-owned site. Maintenance is also a factor.
September 06 2013
Five Surfrider chapters from four Hawaiian islands gathered for their annual conference, and learned about Surfrider's Ocean Friendly Gardens Program. A pre-conference meeting with a sister non-profit, and a tour by them after the conference, showed partnership potential on one island. Now, several island chapters are kicking off an OFG…
July 26 2013
The Surfrider chapters, volunteers, students and advisors that make up the Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) Program undertook an awesome effort to both educate the public about OFG and conduct hands-on trainings to build OFGs in their communities during 2012. We are thankful to our funders: Aveda, California Coastal Commission, West…
May 21 2013
Temperatures are warming and people are thinking about garden plans. Interest among property owners and water agencies is growing for an approach like OFG that combines water quality, water supply and other issues. 6 OFG events, sponsored by Surfrider chapters or private- and public-sector partners, took place in just one…
November 15 2012
On a rainy afternoon in late October, 32 participants attended the Florence Rain Garden Workshop to learn about ways to reduce non-point source pollutants flowing off their property as part of the Siuslaw Chapter’s Ocean Friendly Gardens Program. Green Girl Land Development Solutions showed how it can be fun and…
October 11 2012
After creating an Ocean Friendly Garden on this property, the owner went after street runoff. In water quality circles, it's referred to as LID, or Low Impact Development. But for the most part, it's removing asphalt and concrete barriers to landscape-based solutions.
July 20 2012
Like the Newport, OR Chapter, the Portland, OR Chapter teamed up with a Soil and Water Conservation District to host a sustainable landscaping class. Surfrider staff, Pete Stauffer, volunteered his landscape to be the site to apply this new knowledge. Step 1: Site Evaluation.
July 19 2012
After testifying at a hearing about a proposed Los Angeles County stormwater fee for all property owners, West LA/Malibu OFG Sub-Committee members wanted to know more about what resources the County was already offering to reduce polluted runoff, what gaps existed, and how to collaborate. So they set up a…
January 26 2012
Surfrider chapters in Oregon and Washington are working with watershed restoration agencies, expanding on the traditional "rain garden" design model and putting on hands-on trainings.
November 09 2011
The Jersey Shore Chapter hosted a build-a-rain-barrel workshop on a rainy October night in the coastal town of Brielle, NJ. Over 25 enthusiastic people turned out from the community to build and take home their very own rain barrel and learn about what they can do to protect the water…
October 27 2011
Through a state grant, the Santa Barbara,CA Chapter sponsored a "Core Concepts Workshop," Ocean Friendly Gardens training geared toward professionals. It attracted reps from government agencies, landscape pros, non-profits and academia interested in grasping the fundamental calculations and communication techniques for sustainable landscaping.The Workshop was developed and is lead by…
September 20 2011
Evaluating a landscape is the first step in creating an Ocean Friendly Garden. We check the existing irrigation, vegetation, soil health and degree of runoff, then calculate rainwater harvesting potential and and a landscape "water budget." This information gives us the data and ideas to build into the redesign of…
August 16 2011
After a successful Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) Basics Class in Santa Barbara, we return there for the next steps in the Whale Tail License Plate grant-funded OFG Series: a Hands-On Workshop on Site Evaluation on September 11 and a training for professionals on October 25.
July 12 2011
With a great OFG Basics Class in the books, Class attendees will use the (new) knowledge to evaluate a site for how well it "applies CPR - Conservation, Permeability and Retention" - the principles behind Ocean Friendly Gardening. Everyone is welcome to attend the Hands-On Workshop, not just Class attendees.