Bard College
OP-10: Landscape Management

Use Plant Health Care (PHC) whenever possible. The objective of PHC is to maintain or improve the landscape’s appearance, vitality and—in the case of trees—safety, using the most cost-effective and environmental sensitive practices and treatments available use monitoring and preventive treatments.

XI. SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPING PRINCIPLES

1. We are in a temperate region of the US with hot, humid, summers (greater than 68 F)
and cold winters (less than 32 F) and all site planning and design should seek to control winter winds, and promote solar gain and storage. Structures should be sited on southerly slopes for solar gain in winter. Avoid northern entrances to buildings.

2. Plant deciduous trees for afternoon shade. Site structure on middle to upper slope for access to light
winds, but protection from high winds.

3. Solar Power: Plant trees to the east and west of the building, rather than to the south to cool the building
in the summer and warm the building in the winter.

4. Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning compressor units – it can increase cooling efficiency as
much as 10%.

5. Slowing the wind: For an average frame house, air infiltration from wind can cause
about 1/3 of the winter heat loss. Heat loss can be significantly reduced by planting a windbreak in the
direction from which prevailing winds blow. Plant evergreen trees close together to create a complete
wall against the wind. Choose trees adapted to this region with branches close to the ground. Maximum
protection from wind occurs when the windbreak is no more than the distance of one or two tree heights
from the building.

6. Landforms, plants, and structures can be used to divert northerly winter winds while
allowing cooling summer breezes. Windbreaks prevent or greatly reduce snow drifting around buildings,
on walkways, and roadways. Windbreaks lower the costs of a home heating bill (up to 30%).(National
Arbor Day Foundation – Conservation Trees).

7. Use of retention/detention ponds for storm water provides for evaporative/cooling of the site.
Foundations for structures and pavement must drain well to prevent damage from frost/thaw action.

8. Riparian buffers slow water flow, reducing the likelihood of downstream flooding. They also filter and
spread water, and help hold stream bank soil during flooding. Grasses, trees and shrubs in the strip catch
and hold sediments and attached pollutantsform adjacent fields before they can wash into the stream.

9. Riparian forests trap and retain significant amounts of nutrients in runoff form agricultural fields. More
than 80 % of nitrogen and phosphorus can be kept from entering the stream.

10. Use native or regional plants whenever possible to reduce the need for irrigation, pesticides and
fertilizers.

11. Naturalistic design should include plants that produce fruits, nuts or berries that are wildlife friendly.

12. Design should avoid products that require frequent replacement or regular maintenance (to reduce
future waste).

13. Right place, right plant.

14. Plant for long term, by selecting healthy and long-lived plant varieties.

15. Strive for diversity and biomass by establishing and protecting areas of biological
richness.

16. Use plants to capture airborne pollutants.

17. Design plantings and irrigation for efficient water use.

18. Design should lessen soil compaction while construction is on-going.

19. Use mulch to conserve water on garden beds and around trees.

20. Consider using storm water, grey water and /or condensate water for irrigation.

21. Irrigate early in the day.

22. Use of micro-irrigation is preferred whenever possible. Micro-irrigation (also known
as drip, trickle, or dribble irrigation), rather than overhead sprinklers is a method of irrigation in
which water is applied directly to the root zone of the plant in a small but frequent quantity in such a
way at to maintain the most active part of the soil at an optimum moisture.

23. Refer to the latest version of the Sustainable Sites Initiative—Guidelines for Performance
Benchmarks.

24. Strive for green infrastructure technologies (bioretention, bioswales, buffers, porous asphalt, porous
Pavers, green roofs) whenever possible.

Three general categories of plants: Preferred, Acceptable, and Prohibited
a. Preferred/Recommended plants are essentially the most suited to the actual site conditions.
However, there are innumerable combination of factors affecting the selection of appropriate
plants. Water conservation, low maintenance, and regionally native plants are preferable.
Plants that are salt tolerant, deer resistant, and ice damage-resistant are also preferred where
deemed necessary. US Arboretum Gold Metal trees, Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial
Plants of the Year and Philadelphia Horticultural Society’s Gold Metal Winners that are suited
for Bard’s hardiness zone are also highly recommended. Good deer resistance and multiple
season’s of interest is also preferred. Preferred plants are also dictated by the predetermined
Bard Arboretum collection’s policy and campus mapped layout for collections. See
Addendum.
b. Acceptable plants are those that satisfy minimum performance standards for the site area and
are easily maintained.
c. Prohibited plants are those, which do not satisfy the minimum performance standards for the
site area. In addition there are a number of invasive species that are not allowed in any
landscaped or natural area. Where existing these plants shall be eradicated using the IPM best management practices strategy.

The college strategy for food composting is to create a usable product from food waste which would otherwise be thrown away and increase our solid waste removal fees. Compost is picked up at the food service loading dock every week day. It is then transported to our recycling facilities where it is spread out in thin layers on a concrete slab, bulking agent (wood chips) is added. This process is duplicated till all food waste is used up. The entire pile is then mixed and pushed in a pile where it is left to begin the composting process. This process is repeated each time the food waste is picked up. Each time the pile is pushed in the larger pile the entire pile is mixed and re stacked. This process is referred to as mixing and helps to increase the amount of oxygen is in the pile, the more oxygen the hotter you can get the compost which helps in the breaking down of the food waste.

The College also composts leaves that are collected from lawn and garden bed areas. These leaves are piled and turned and spread out back onto garden bed areas as leaf mold after 1 year of decomposing.

The College also turns felled trees, branches and debris into wood chips which are spread on wood chip paths. Additionally, it is made into double ground shredded mulch for garden beds and tree mulch rings.

Finished food compost is mixed into topsoil to create a richer product for planting. Also, once screened, it is used as a topdressing for lawn areas. All turf areas that are dug up are piled and allowed to break down, creating an organic soil that is reused in the plant nursery area and in campus plantings. Organic compost from a local source is used for container plantings and local manure is used on select plantings.

All landscape materials, such as stone, soil, plants trees, mulch, etc. are purchased within a 250 mile radius. Turf soil, felled trees, collected leaves and food compost are all reused in the landscape once broken down. Any historic landscape materials, such as stones or bricks are reused whenever possible. All boulders found in the College underground are reused as traffic control along the roadside.

All trees and new plantings are irrigated using water pumped directly out of our Sawkill Creek (untreated water).

Depending on the severity and the type of the winter precipitation plays a huge role in how we attack it. As a rule we do not pretreat before a storm, we do however treat shortly after the storm starts to get a brine going to lessen the possibility of the snow and or ice from sticking to the surface. If the weather event is primarily snow we do continue to remove snow as it accumulates and re apply sand and salt mixture as needed. If the precipitation is mostly freezing rain we continually apply sand and salt mixture. The sand and salt mixture we use is mixed at a ratio of 3 buckets of sand to one bucket of salt. The amount of salt added can be adjusted according to the type of weather. The salt product used is a basic deicing salt sold on state contract by New York State. We generally use in the neighborhood of 150 tons per season but this amount can fluctuate depending on the severity or the lack of.
Three are several ways to attack a storm and one would be stay on as needed to keep the walkways and roads as open as possible. The other possibility would be to start at 4 am and have the campus roads and walkways open by 9 am. Again it depends on what type of storm we are having in order to come up with a working strategy.

Walkways are treated with environmentally friendly products such as Magnesium to limit the negative impact to vegetation and also concrete surfaces. In some areas the a salt and magnesium mixture is used, mostly on paved areas.

There are not any specifically "certified" areas on campus, however there are several prehistoric and historic archaeological sites which are considered "protected areas". There is also a wetland area (over 12 acres) that feeds into the SawKill Creek.

See Landscape and Tree Care Manual (Plant Health Care and Integrated Pest Management, page 37)