Paul W. Gillespie - The CapitalDr. Kifle Workagegnehu, from Ethopia; Khalifa AlJahwari, from Oman; and John Zins,with the US State Department, taste fresh blueberries from a bush on the grounds of the Chesapeake Ecology Center.
Annapolis tour includes rain gardens, green roofs
By PAMELA WOOD, Staff Writer
Published 06/15/09
They came from all over the world - Mexico, India, Thailand, Serbia - to a quiet corner of Annapolis where purple coneflowers bloom and switch grass sways in the breeze.
For the second time in two weeks, the Chesapeake Ecology Center hosted an international delegation of environment officials who are touring America to gather and exchange ideas.
On June 4, visitors came from Latin America. On Thursday, a group of 19 officials from just as many countries toured the center's gardens and helped with some mulching.
The ecology center's Zora Lathan explained concepts such as rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels and native plants to the visitors. She talked about how the various gardens at the ecology center, located on the grounds of J. Albert Adams Academy, are designed in a manner that's natural to the landscape.
She talked about how humans tend to flatten the landscape when clearing trees and putting up buildings, removing hills and valleys that naturally control the flow of water.
"These gardens help re-establish the balance of nature. ... We're imitating nature by creating contours in the landscape," Lathan said.
Lathan also put them to work, taking a giant pile of mulch and spreading it across a wooded area to help suppress weeds and retain moisture.
The international visitors also planned to visit the town hall in Highland Beach, just south of Annapolis. The town hall is a "green" building that earned platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.
The visitors came from a variety of backgrounds, though all are connected to the environment. Some work for their country's government in wildlife conservation, environmental protection or parks. Others came from nongovernmental organizations.
They're spending 21 days in the United States as part of an international leadership program run by the U.S. Department of State.
They spent last week in the Washington, D.C., area, and then headed to Miami and the Florida Everglades. They then will split into groups to spend time in New Mexico, Texas or Rapid City, S.D., before rejoining in Colorado. The goal is to learn from American environmental programs as well as from one another.
Hiek Sopheap, executive director of the Association of Buddhists for the Environment in Cambodia, said he was impressed with the gardens and the idea of using them as a teaching tool.
"This garden is good and it can spread information to people," he said.
He said in Cambodia, residents don't always understand the implications of their actions, such as the harm done by cutting down trees.
"It's very interesting the people here know about environmental concerns," he said.
Likewise, Patricia Quintana, who works for the Ministry of Environment in El Salvador, also was impressed with Americans' environmental knowledge. Quintana said America seems to put much more money and government attention into the environment.
In El Salvador, she said, "the priority of the topic is not as much as it is in America."
Churchill Collyer, a wildlife officer in Botswana, a landlocked country in southern Africa, was looking forward to seeing some of America's more wild places.
He was a bit taken aback by all the hustle and bustle he saw in the government offices the group visited in the District. Collyer said things move at a much slower pace in Botswana.
He also passed along a compliment that few Americans hear: "Americans are very friendly."
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