Drumlin Community Garden

Here's a beautiful and timely letter from Rich Eggleston followed by several others on the same important topic. For more information about Drumlin Community Garden, check out their website here. -- Terry

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Date: November 3, 2008
To: Elected officials and planning staff
From: Rich Eggleston, Fitchburg

Much of Fitchburg's celebration of 25 years as a city has focused on our strong rural roots, and as we contemplate our next quarter century, it behooves us to consider how to combine the best of our urban future with the lessons of our rural past.

One way to do that is to bring agriculture, even on a small scale, to families that otherwise might not enjoy the rewards and frustrations that come with tilling the soil. And I can't think of any program that is better at that than Drumlin Community Garden.

The northeast corner of Fitchburg has been an issue since before we were a city, and maybe that's a good thing, because we know more about what we've gained -- and lost -- through development than we did in the 1980s.

Maybe we're learning that every spot that brings us closer to our rural past is special.

Drumlin Community Garden is one such place.

It comprises more than 40 families working together to provide roughly 1.5 acres divided into family-size garden plots rented out on a sliding-scale basis, and two acres of larger plots managed cooperatively where crops are grown for the South Madison Farmers Market and local restaurants, all of it managed in an environmentally responsible fashion that's about as organic as can be.

Besides hands-on experience in sustainable, small-scale urban agriculture, the garden partners with neighborhood organizations to educate families and youngsters in sustainable food production, and offers workshops in some of our rural traditions like composting, canning and making meals from scratch.

Drumlin Community Garden isn't just a "commercial zone" on a land-use map. It's a doorway to our rural past. It's a very special place.

Preserve Existing Gardens

Submitted by: John Fournelle and Judith Munaker, Fitchburg
November 3, 2008

Dear Planning Commission

We would urge you NOT to change the Southdale/Rimrock Neighborhood's zoning to "commercial" status.

In this time of growing difficult economic conditions, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we should not necessarily rely upon food coming from long distances -- which assumes low transportation costs. The day may not be far away when food grown locally will be considered absolutely essential, rather than an idiosyncrasy of a minority of citizens. Thus, zoning away a local community garden and replacing it with asphalt and luxury hotel rooms, is nuts.

Rather, if anything, you should instead insert language to "preserve existing gardens" with specific mention of Drumlin Community Garden located at 2849 Oregon Road. The decision to eliminate one of Wisconsin's first organic urban garden projects, now supplying healthy food to forty families, should not be made without exploring all the options available. We owe it to ourselves and our children to save all the urban farmland that we can.

Is Fitchburg Serious About Sustainability?

By Phyllis Hasbrouck

Once in a while we see flashes of brilliance among the alders of Fitchburg, and they must be acknowledged. Though I no longer haunt each and every Fitchburg Common Council and Plan Commission meeting, being too busy organizing and fundraising for Fitchburg Fields, I do catch up on what happened by reading that excellent publication, the Fitchburg Star. And I was delighted to read that on Aug. 5, Alder Jay Allen took a principled stand and voted against the Lacy Rd. interchange with Hwy. 14!

Why did Alder Allen do it? Because the interchange is integral to the current plan for Green Tech Village, and he wanted to get people's attention as to how far the city has strayed from its original conception of that development. He said that the city "lacked the political will to enforce the standards it had once deemed essential. He referred to the protracted discussions involving the development of Orchard Pointe, the failure of the [Green Tech] Sustainability Task Force to endorse standards, and continued pressure by developers to create just 'another run-of-the-mill development.'"

I admire someone who can admit that something that they have supported is turning out differently than they had hoped. Conditions change, commitments are not always kept, and a person with flexibility and intelligence can change their vote if they realize that a project is no longer in keeping with their values. I want to know what happened to the rest of the alders? Why didn't they vote with Alder Allen?

As we parents know, if there are no consequences for bad behavior, children will stop taking our pronouncements seriously. Likewise, if developers' initial statements about how "green" a development will be are discovered to be just window dressing, but no one says, "Meet our standards or go somewhere else" then developers will just learn to give lip service and then do what's best for their own bottom line.

Stopping that interchange would have gotten the attention of all those who aren't taking sustainability seriously. I hope that we'll continue to see such leadership from Alder Allen, and that the rest of the alders will follow suit.

Fitchburg is planning for the past

By RICH EGGLESTON

It's only coincidence that communities across Wisconsin are required to have their much vaunted comprehensive plans completed not long after the last SUV rolls off the General Motors assembly line in Janesville.

But it's no coincidence at all that our best efforts to map our future via comprehensive planning could end up just as ungainly a dinosaur tomorrow as the Chevy Suburbans that made big money for GM in the era of $1.15 a gallon gasoline.

That's because we're drafting plans for a future that threatens us with $4, $5 or $6 a gallon gasoline under parameters established by the state when gas was $1.15 a gallon.

By the time most communities even thought about comprehensive plans, gas was heading toward $2 a gallon and urban density was still the poor stepchild of development. It never got invited to the ball.

At $6 a gallon, density might be the life of the party. But government is a dinosaur all its own, and a lot of time and effort has been invested in planning for a future of $2 a gallon gas. We have to shift gears, and fast.

Written only 10 years ago, the comprehensive planning law uses terminology that today is outdated as a roadmap to the future. It tells us to plan for transportation and utilities but doesn't say a word about climate change, energy conservation or sustainability.

As a result, we're driving full speed ahead into the past, and our brakes are bad. Fitchburg approved marvelous developments that were well suited to $2 a gallon gasoline. But as the words "subprime mortgage" entered the vernacular, miniature mansions for the masses still rose on Fitchburg's skyline.

The surest way to ease the pinch of high energy prices is to reduce energy consumption. Make the kids walk or bike to soccer practice. Pick up the phone instead of the car keys. Take a train or bus. Let's design our community to make those things easy to do instead of almost impossible.

Around the country, transit saves 3.4 billion gallons of fuel each year, saves us 541 million hours that otherwise would be spent in traffic jams and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 26 million tons.

According to USA Today, Americans drove 22 billion fewer miles from November through April than during the same period in 2006-07. We are doing it.

And it's happening in a society that until yesterday was transit unfriendly. At $4 a gallon, it might be possible to get people out of their cars without prying their cold, dead hands off the steering wheels. At $6 a gallon, it's a sure thing.

As Fitchburg finalizes our comprehensive plan, we must plan to do more with less energy. If we don't, we'll have a community that is just as well suited to the future as a bunch of ungainly dinosaurs are suited to the 21st century.

And we're going to have to settle for a lot less in terms of quality of life and economic growth as a result.

Greener Homes & Gardens Feb. 27th

Greener Homes & Gardens Expo
Simple steps you can take now, for a cleaner & greener tomorrow

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 27th
Time: Come anytime between 6:30 and 9:00pm
Place: Ancora Coffee -2690 Research Park Dr., just across Lacy Rd. from Fitchburg City Hall

Visit booths, and talk with experts one-on-one, to learn more about:

*How to enhance the beauty of your yard while protecting our lakes, streams, and ground water with rain gardens, rain barrels, & natural yard care

*Simple, practical steps you can take now to reduce water use inside and outside your home

*How to maintain a greener home & cut your energy bill: lighting, conservation, and energy solutions you can use now

*Your solar energy options

*What a CSA farm is, and how you can enjoy healthy, affordable organic foods all year long

* How to sign up for free hands-on nature education opportunities for your child’s classroom or scout troop

*Homeowner grants for native prairie plants at half price

Register to win great green door prizes:
*Sustain Dane rain barrel, installation included
*Water conserving showerheads
*Energy efficient light bulbs
*Nature books for kids and adults
*Nature curriculum materials from National Audubon Society & Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Please call or email Nancy Hylbert for more information:
271-0956, Nancy.Hylbert@Fitchburg.WI.US

Effective Simplicity

I recently completed one of Sustain Dane's discussion groups on “Voluntary Simplicity.” This is the second course I've taken and I highly recommend them. The last week of the series, I had a chance to be the "opener" for our discussion about putting what we'd learned into practice. The poem below sums it up.

Effective Simplicity

If Ignorance is Bliss
Why are we stressed out by competing with the Joneses?
Why are we less satisfied than when we knew the shoemaker?
Why do people suffer and die supplying our American lifestyle?
Why do we miss the vanishing landscapes and dwindling diversity of wildlife?

If Knowledge is Power
How can we value possessions over people?
How can we underrate true community?
How can we ignore the global consequences of our actions?
How can we justify destruction of the natural world?

If Love is the Answer
When do we help our neighbors?
When do we support the larger community?
When do we care about people we don’t know?
When do we protect our planet?

If Seeing is Believing
Close your eyes and…
Imagine a world where everyone’s health and well-being matter.
Envision a society where “waste equals food.”
Picture a community with its own sustainable economy.
Visualize your neighbors working together in a “cradle to cradle” cycle powered by the sun.
Now, open your eyes and …
Look for ways to live as “effectively” as a tree.


Terry Carpenter
11/18/2007

Water, Water... Anywhere?

The word is out. Professor Cal DeWitt has sleuthed some amazing and disturbing facts out of the recesses of our aquifers. At Tuesday night’s Planning Commission meeting, he explained the relationship he discovered between Fitchburg’s deep-aquifer, high-capacity Well #10 (located on Granite Circle) and the 125-year-old, upper-aquifer, cased artesian Well #8 (located at Nevin Springs Fish Hatchery). It had been assumed that both wells were drawing from separate aquifers based on their depth profiles (800 feet or more for Well #10 and 180 feet for Well #8), and one mile distance from each other. However, Professor DeWitt found a significant correlation between them that changes the original assumptions.

Nevin Springs was producing 400 gallons of water per minute (gpm) for a number of years until late 2001 when it started dropping. It has since continued at a lower rate of 300-350 gpm. A mile away, Well #10 started pumping in 2001 and within a year was pumping around 600k gallons per day.

As shown in one of his graphs, a pattern appears when comparing the flow volume drawn by the new, municipal well and the decreased flow, about 12 months later, from the artesian well.

The bottom line? About 10% of the pumpage of Well #10 is equal to the losses at Well #8 that show up after a 12-month lag. So, there is a connection between these wells in the upper and lower aquifers and water is traveling at the rate of 14.5 feet per day from Nevin Springs in the direction of the Granite Circle well.

The fact that Professor DeWitt was able to find this relationship buried in the data from many area wells is surprising enough but I received another shock when he told us that we don’t really know how this happens. It appears that, at least sometimes, the upper and lower aquifers are indeed connected even though they separated by an aquitard (made of layers of sedimentary rock) which limits vertical waterflow except in cracks. To complicate matters, the horizontal flow between these two wells is 10s of thousands of times greater than the vertical rate of water flow through the aquitard, perhaps because of long horizontal pipes that formed over the years.

What does this mean? Professor DeWitt urges us to consider the entire groundwater hydrology system before we do something that would stop the flow of water to important springs and lakes in the area. For example, if we turn off Deep Spring and other groundwater resources that refresh Lake Waubesa, the entire southern boot (most of the lake) would die (eutrophy). And distance does indeed make a difference when dealing with solutions. The farther away we stay from precious water resources, the better chance we have to protect them. So, locating any new well in the vicinity of the NE Neighborhood is more of a threat to Lake Waubesa and the natural resources because of its impact on groundwater flow to the watershed.

Although this bombshell was dropped during the agenda item for the NE Neighborhood and Stormwater Plans, it also must be considered for all well drilling activity and increased water use (ie. development) in Fitchburg and beyond. If we fail to consider how new high-capacity wells will draw groundwater from the surrounding area, other springs or wells (including private wells) could dry up. This has happened with many of the famed springs of Waukesha and the Little Plover River in Stevens Point, among others.

[Side Track: According to Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (link here), one entrepreneur wanted to pipe water from a Waukesha spring on his property all the way to Chicago to supply the 1893 World’s Fair. But, Waukesha residents didn’t want the water to leave the city and they showed up with guns, knives and pitchforks to stop the pipeline workers, returning at 2 am with a cannon (!) to drive away them away again. For the rest of the story, see the Lake Lore article on page 4 of the Alliance for the Great Lakes newsletter here.]

Fast forward to Fitchburg 2007.

Professor DeWitt explained the concept and vital need for Groundwater and Watershed Budgets which he likened to other budgets. Simply put, we need to know how much we are depositing (infiltration) into each aquifer and withdrawing (wells and springs) from each aquifer to be sure that we don’t overdraw our account and live beyond our means. To protect against this, he suggests that the City of Fitchburg recommend to Dane County and CARPC (Capital Area Regional Planning Commission) that:

1. they place high priority on developing a policy for a Groundwater Budget for the region; and
2. they work with Fitchburg on procedures for monitoring and evaluating diminished well and spring flow to the city and region.

I am happy to report that, after the presentation, applause (normally against the rules at these meetings) was allowed to acknowledge Professor DeWitt’s efforts, and the Planning Commissioners wisely responded to these sobering data by asking for more information before making a decision about the NE Neighborhood. I’m not sure if they actually ordered a Groundwater Budget but I think that prospect is at least on the radar if not the table.

(NOTE: FACTv recorded the entire meeting including Professor DeWitt's presentation. So, you can contact them to have a DVD made of all or part of the meeting or to rebroadcast it during their Thursday morning request slot. If that doesn't work for you, drop me an email at fitchburgvoices@gmail.com to borrow my copy.)

Calling All Localvores

Localvore -- A person committed to eating foods grown within their local food shed. (No, not a building!)

In case you haven't already heard about this, here's an event to seriously consider that was sent to me by a Sustain Dane Board Member (http://www.sustaindane.org/). What better way to support your local producers/growers and reduce your carbon footprint to boot? --- Terry

Eat Local Challenge – a 10-day challenge for you – and your organization

Join us in the challenge of eating locally for 10 days in September.
Fresh, locally grown food doesn’t just taste delicious, it can be better for our health, for our communities, for the Earth. When we eat locally grown food we support local farmers and our own community. The challenge is to have at least 10% of our food be local during the 10 days September 14 - 23. Go to http://www.cias.wisc.edu/eatlocal to register or for more information.

The challenge is to spend 10% of your food budget on locally grown or produced food during the 10 days from Friday, September 14 through Sunday, September 23.

What is “local”?

Buy food that is grown or produced as close to your home as possible. It could be from your own garden. Or it could be from your local Farmer’s Market. For the purposes of this Eat Local Challenge we are counting any food from Wisconsin or within 100 miles of your home as local.

Local also includes foods prepared or processed by locally owned companies or restaurants, preferably from locally grown ingredients.

McIntosh Questions Indulgent Development

[The comments below (emphasis mine), and other public comments submitted to Ruekert-Mielke regarding the NE Neighborhood, can be found in 6 PDF files on the City's website here under "Comments from 7/12/07 Public Meeting."]

My name is Melanie McIntosh and I am a resident of Fitchburg's Hatchery Hill neighborhood. I have been following the issues involved in Fitchburg's urge to develop outwardly, especially in the eastern direction. Sprawl is a problem most everywhere and it is a problem here as well. Water resources are challenged by the pressures of development and other quality issues most everywhere and they are challenged here as well. Farmland is disappearing most everywhere and it is disappearing here as well.

What is wrong with city and land use planning processes that they don't favor the preservation of natural resources and farmland? Why won't we stand up and initiate new planning processes such as have been adapted in Ashland, Wisconsin and some other communities? Perhaps there isn't the knowledge level on Fitchburg's City Council to be able to move toward such planning processes?

It baffles me that the majority of Fitchburg officials seem to be able to place economic development as paramount over preservation of land to grow food and over water to fulfill basic needs. Even if the aesthetic and moral aspects of preserving nature are set aside, and it seems that they are frequently set aside in this land use planning process, then how do Fitchburg officials square with the idea of no holds barred development of farmland?

And how do Fitchburg officials stand up for a process that puts at risk one of the lakes and wetland areas that make Dane County such a great area to live in? Perhaps it is a problem of putting other community's resources at risk not our own? Hopefully not. Perhaps it is that developers make great neighbors and community leaders? Hopefully not. Or that they are men relating well to the men of the council? Let's hope that isn't the reason. As you can see, I don't understand the dynamics involved in such indulgent approaches to development and the conversion of farmland to more residential developments. It seems the mayor and a few other Council members are impatient when it comes to the discussions of land use and natural resources. I watched part of the testimony on local access television and I learned how impatient the council is with public testimony.

I was attracted to Fitchburg because of the leadership it showed in recycling. I thought it was a community committed to sustainability of natural resources. Was I mistaken?

Please register my view that residential developments should be limited to the areas nearer to Fish Hatchery Road. Please don’t allow unlimited development in the city's northeast area.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my opinion,

Melanie McIntosh
Fitchburg

Downshift Your Driving

According to the Carbon Conscious Consumer (C3), "It takes total carbon dioxide emissions from most countries worldwide combined to equal just vehicle emissions in the United States, and as we consume more and more gas, pressure builds to drill in fragile and conflict-ridden areas. Yet a quarter of the trips Americans make are within walking distance, and each American driver could keep nearly a thousand pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air by taking the Carbon Conscious Consumer pledge to find an alternative to driving only one day each week. With gas prices so high, now is a great time to start reducing our reliance on cars."

Gas prices. Carbon emissions. Traffic. Three good reasons to join in pledging to reduce our driving each month through December. If we keep the car in the driveway one day each week in August, each gallon of gas that goes unused keeps twenty pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

I work from home so it's not about commuting for me. But, there are plenty of times when I really don't need to run that errand or I could take my bike instead of the car. And with some common sense (and a pinch of planning) I can easily combine errands in one trip. In fairness, I'd have to leave my car home 3 days a week to be much of a challenge so I'll commit to that.



Like many of you, I don't live in the most walker/biker-friendly area. The closest business, about 1 mile away, is ...(drum roll)... a gas station. Sadly, when nothing else is within walking distance, gas stations emerge. You can assess your neighborhood's "greenness" with the online evaluation tool Hans Noeldner recommended at http://www.walkscore.com/. Although it is not as accurate in a place like the ever-changing Fitchburg, it does help us think about options within walking and biking distance.

Even though I'm not as comfortable as Hans is about riding my bike on some of the local roads without bike lanes (not to mention donning tight black and yellow bike gear--go Hans!), I still have low carbon choices. (Not to be confused with low carb choices but there's certainly a connection since emitting fewer carbons might mean you don't have to watch the carbs. Now there's a win-win solution!)

Instead of just hoping that the rest of the world won't pick up our bad habits (like hopping into cars when we could walk or wait), doesn't it make sense to set a better, more sustainable, example for the world?

We can all contribute in our own ways. Do you have any ideas to share?

What If The Experts Are Right?

[Originally published as Letter to Editor in the Fitchburg Star on November 30, 2006.]

What if the experts are right
That the earth is a closed loop system
With limits on many of its natural resources
And long term consequences for many of our actions?

What would you change if you knew
That our unsustainable lifestyle
Wastes precious and finite assets
Like oil, natural gas and water?

What would you want if you realized
That our excessive consumption
Lowers the future standard of living for our children
By producing mountains of junk destined for landfills?

What would you do if you believed
That our disregard for resource limits
Allows us to enjoy the luxuries of today
In exchange for the necessities of tomorrow?

What if the experts are right
That we must make changes to ensure that
Our children have the resources they need
To lead healthy, happy and productive lives?

Terry Carpenter