KENEY PARK SUSTAINABILITY

PROJECT (KPSP)

Mission

• Keney Park Sustainability Project (KPSP)

intends to create environmental stewards

and economic opportunities by integrating

best practices in sustainability with

education, biodynamic urban farming,

aquaponics and forest management.

Definitions

• Environmental Stewards: refers to responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices.

• Sustainability: a system over its lifetime that produces enough energy to maintain and duplicate itself in surplus.

• Biodynamics: the spiritual, ethical, ecological approach to agriculture, food production and nutrition.

Potential Partners

• Keney Park Sustainability Project (KPSP)

• The City of Hartford

• Connecticut Coalition of Environmental Justice (CCEJ)

• Hands on Hartford,

• Friends of Keney Park, Inc.,

• Knox parks,

• Green Cycle,

• Hartford Food Systems,

• Our Piece of the Pie,

• North End Senior Center,

• Husky Sports,

• UCONN School of Agriculture,

• Aquastone Graphics,

• Public Access Television

• Hartford Board of Education

• Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)

Project Summary

• In collaboration with community

stakeholders KPSP will facilitate the

delivery of a multi-phase project seeking to

educate youth and other community

members on the importance of

sustainability practices which includes

creating jobs and growing the next

generation of city workers and

environmental stewards.

Project Components

• Public education & promotions

• Landscaping & forest management

• Composting & waste stream reduction

• Designers & builders

• Aquaponics & Urban health.

Phase 1:

• The project will install an aquaponics greenhouse and 15 raised beds at the Keney Park house located at 183 Windsor Ave. This location will serve as an educational site where schools and community groups can experience hands on biodynamic farming, aquaculture, hydroponics, worm composting and organic composting. The Park House is also equipped with two full kitchens where participants will learn how to prepare healthy meals using fish, fruits and vegetables from the greenhouse and gardens.

The project will landscape and restore three sites in Keney Park:

(1)The Keney Park House property

(2) The Windsor entrance to the Keney Park

(3) The Tower Avenue entrance to the old composting yard.

Community volunteer organizations with the support of DPW and

Knox Parks will plant perennial and annual flowers to reduce the

amount of labor needed to beautify these areas each year.

Phase 2

Phase 3

• Organic leaf composting and worm composting.

• The composting yard will be landscaped to facilitate the installation of an outdoor waste stream reduction, education and processing site

• Other waste products will be included as Keney Park clean-up efforts increase.

• Products such as fallen trees and brush will be recycled and used to beautify the park as well as serve other functional purposes within the park.

• .

Phase 3

Educational Component

• As a part of math, science, agriculture and environmental curricula this site will provide students with opportunities to receive hands on experiential lessons in sustainability practices.

• These experiences will be facilitated by interns from the UCONN school of Agriculture and Trinity College Environmental Science students.

Public Education/ Promotions

Landscaping/ Forest

Management

Composting/Waste stream reduction

Designers/builders

Aquaponics / Urban health KPSP

Components

Public Education and

Promotions

• Goal: Educate the community on applicable sustainability practices

• Potential partners: FOKP, FDF, DEEP, H&HS, DPW, FCY&R, HBOE, OPP Aquastone Graphics, Public Access Television).

• Print Media Ads

• Television Commercials

• Flash Demonstrations

• Public Education Forums

• Electronic Media

Goal: Provide environmental job skills to community members while

simultaneously assisting DPW with park maintenance.

Potential Partners: DPW,FOPK, FOKP, FDF, HBOE, FCY&R, KNOX parks,

UCONN school of Agriculture, Hands on Hartford. • Green house utilization

• Raised bed utilization

• landscaping education/processing site

• Landscaping the park house. green house and Windsor entrance to Keney park

• Support and help maintain DPW’s forest management plan for Keney Park

Landscaping & Forest

Management

Composting &Waste

Stream Reduction

• Goal: remove organic and inorganic waste products from Keney

Park while teaching community members how to implement

sustainability practices in their homes and communities.

• Potential Partners:, DEEP, DPW, FCY&R, FOKP, FDF, Ebony

Horse Women, Green Cycle and HBOE • Educate the community on the importance of reducing product waste

• Teach household composting (leaf, organic food, worm)

• Teach household recycling

Designers & Builders

Goal: Design and build structures within the park using materials from the park while teaching community members employable skills.

Potential partners: DPW, DEEP, FCY&R, FOKP, FDF, OPP, DPW, Youth Build Hartford and HBOE

• Build flower beds

• Rebuild Pavilion and Guard shack at Tower Avenue Entrance

• Build barriers, Kiosks and signage utilizing deadfall or removed lumber from Keney Park

• Build additional required structures to increase the green infrastructure within the park

Goal: Increase access to healthy food options

Goal: Teach community members how to grow and prepare their own food

Goal: Reduce health disparities in the community (childhood obesity,

diabetes and heart disease)

Potential Partners: H&HS, KNOX Parks, HBOE, Hartford Food Systems,

DEEP, FOKP, FDF, Community Solutions

• Aquaponics green house

• Raised grow beds

• Community gardens

• Farmers markets

Aquaponics & Urban

Health

Fig 2: research completed by Community Solutions

Aquaponic Systems

• Aquaponic systems are recirculating aquaculture systems that incorporate the production of plants without soil.

• Recirculating systems are designed to raise large quantities of fish in relatively small volumes of water by treating the water to remove toxic waste products and then reusing it.

• Systems that grow additional crops by utilizing by-products from the production of the primary species are referred to as integrated systems. If the secondary crops are aquatic or terrestrial plants grown in conjunction with fish, this integrated system is referred to as an aquaponic system.

• Fish excrete waste nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, directly into the water through their gills. Bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are toxic to fish, but nitrate is relatively harmless and is the preferred form of nitrogen for growing higher plants such as fruiting vegetables.

Benefits of Aquaponics

• Dissolved waste nutrients are recovered by the plants, reducing dis- charge to the environment and

extending water use

• Minimizing water exchange reduces the costs of operating aquaponic systems in arid climates and heated

greenhouses where water or heated water is a significant expense.

• Having a secondary plant crop that receives most of its required nutrients at no cost improves a system’s

profit potential.

• The daily application of fish feed provides a steady supply of nutrients to plants and thereby eliminates the

need to discharge and replace depleted nutrient solutions or adjust nutrient solutions as in hydroponics.

• In addition, the intensive, integrated production of fish and plants requires less land than ponds and gardens.

Urban Health

FIGURE 3: BMI classification by ethnicity

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

underweight over weight normal obese

aa / black

latino

other

*Child Weight Surveillance in Preschool in Hartford, Connecticut Completed May, 2012 for the City of

Hartford, Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation by the University of Connecticut’s Center for

Public Health and Health Policy

Additional issues addressed

by the KPSP

• Safety

• Traffic Management

• Blight

• Dumping

• Illegal Activities

• Illegal Motorized Vehicles

• Vandalism

• Graffiti