Earth Day Park
During this lunchtime bike ride, I discovered a very small park wedged into a narrow strip of land along 9th Street, stretching from Independence Avenue to C Street (MAP), and situated between the Federal Aviation Administration Building and the U.S. Department of Energy Building. The land also serves as the roof of the Interstate-395 Tunnel. A small sign at the northern end identified it as Earth Day Park. Having passed by it many times without ever noticing or hearing about it, I decided I needed to find out more.
It turns out that the park was a combined effort of several government agencies, including the U.S. Energy Department, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the General Services Administration, and the D.C. Department of Transportation. Apparently enough employees from the adjacent government buildings, including Department of Energy Secretary Hazel R. O’Leary, had gotten tired of seeing the neglect of this weedy, trash-strewn piece of land located adjacent to their buildings. So contact was made with the General Services Administration, which manages and supports the land and buildings and basic functioning of federal agency facilities, who then coordinated the building of the park with the D.C. Department of Transportation, who owned the land.
Earth Day Park has a number of unusual aspects to it. As part of the celebration of Earth Day 1994 President Bill Clinton outlined a series of recommendations for Federal agencies to increase “Environmentally and economically beneficial policies on Federal landscaped grounds.” Earth Day Park embodies these “greening” principles.
The park utilizes solar energy, including an array of photovoltaic cells on top of the sign at the front of the park, to provide electricity for the lamp posts and lighting. The park also incorporates the use of different plants. For example, it uses dwarf ornamental grass instead of lawn perennials and annuals, reducing the need for gasoline powered mowers, edgers and trimmers along with fertilizers and pesticides. The park’s use of mulch and drought tolerant plant species, as well as the raised beds, allows for moisture to be retained by the soil, thus conserving water. And the use of regional plant material, adapted to local climate and biological conditions, provides a unique ecosystem that increases the rate of success of the plants.
And because of the incorporation of these principles, Earth Day Park requires far less maintenance than that of a traditionally developed park, making it a truly “green” park.
[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]
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