HABITAT RESTORATION
Riverside Park, Ukiah
The project is a 3.2 -acre planned park and riparian edge restoration project adjacent to the Russian River in downtown Ukiah, CA.
The project goals included the following:
- Restore dump site to create seasonal wetlands and habitat with vegetation restoration.
- Restoration of transition and upland habitat.
- Public open, social space.
- Removal of dump material, invasive plants and weeds.
- Multi-Use Site
- New Habitat
- Pedestrian walking trails
- Wildlife blinds and wetland overlooks.
- Stormwater river overflow capture, storage, and percolation to the aquifer.
- Greenhouse benefits – Air, habitat and water quality.
WATER SAVINGS
City of Davis and Woodland Conservation Plan
MDG worked with the City of Davis and Woodland staff analyzing their schools and parks for water savings and water use reduction. The key for reduction was to eliminate turf watering in non-functional turf areas, highlighting the drought tolerate plantings. Educating our youth was also a key component to our conservation plan.
BIOCHAR
Feather River Soccer Complex, Oroville
Our goal when preparing the design for the soccer complex was to create a low maintenance and low water use fields. The Biochar used in the soil profile came from repurposing pine trees. Biochar will last a long time in the soil holding large amounts of water in the soil profile for the roots to use.
Additionally, the compartmentalized structure of the biochar serves as home for the microbes to interact with soil and build a healthy profile
STORMWATER CAPTURE
Chapter House Parking, Vina
The Abbey of New Clairvaux renovation follows an agricultural theme that the Cistercian Monks live by. The simple life of the Monks will be represented by the simple design of the site. The re-purposing of 12th century limestone from Spain combined with simple local gravels created a good combination of natural materials that also allowed the storm water to permeate into the Vina loam soil of our region.
Stormwater capture and cleansing has been accomplished in many ways and with our west in a drought it is crucial that we replenish our aquifers as much as possible. For this project, we decided to do it the old fashioned way and allow water to infiltrate naturally into the soil instead of creating a concrete or oil based parking area and then piping the dirty water into our creeks.
The cleaning of the water and the preservation of our creeks and waterways is key to our future. This design and project is just a small example of what is necessary for us to change design to make a better tomorrow.