greenkitty, May 10, 2017

Thanks Mike Stubblefield of Sierra Club CA Sustainable Ag Committee, Laura Maher of Eco Action Cooperative, and Dietrick Instittue for Applied Insect Ecology, for creating the opportunity to learn from a four-day visit by Dr. Michal Kravcik. He is a Goldman Environmental Prize winner for his work in Slovakia and other parts of the world restoring small water cycles by measures that slow, spread, sink and hold rain water. That might seem not so new–it’s what “permies” and Ocean Friendly Gardeners do.

But watching Michal recon the environs pointing left, right, center and back where an unbelievable amount of rain still escapes to rivers and the ocean, he trained our eyes to see the lost opportunities. He had logical suggestions to improve every design. We want to learn more because he calculates that if we do these small rain captures into the soil and revegetation widely and effectively, we can reverse climate change. Here is an overview of this perspective of a New Water Paradign, called “Water: The Missing Link for Solving ClimateChange”, by Monika Berghoff.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monika-berghoff-/water-climate-change_b_8689890.html

Here is Michal at the Ventura River. He took hundreds of pictures of erosion. It seems that Michal gives very little attention to stream bed restoration that is what is generally being done. He explained that stopping erosion on the slopes that feed the streams, the streambed restores naturally, effortlessly with the return of the steelhead.

Here is Michal presenting to the Dietrick Institute team his vision of opportunities to create 75 rain gardens for a “Blue-Green Bike Corridor” along the bike trail. Overnight he photoshopped the placement of the gardens into his photos to give us a proposal that we can take to neighborhood stakeholders.