IN Ross Township Spring 2019 | Page 62

IT’S TIME TO COMPOST! Not sure what to do with your kitchen scraps, leaves, and lawn and garden debris? Would you like natural, home-made compost for your lawns and garden beds? Expand your recycling efforts to include kitchen scraps and yard debris. You will receive a composting bin at class! This workshop thoroughly covers the importance and benefits of composting, the process, setting up a compost pile, proper maintenance, and ways of using finished compost. Participants will receive a FreeGarden EARTH compost bin with attendance. This bin, ideal for urban and suburban areas, has an eighty-two- gallon capacity. When: May 18, 2019 Where; Ross Twp. Community Center Cost: $70/individual or $75/couple including one compost bin. For more info or to register go to: http://prc.org/programs/conservation-workshops/backyard/ Or call 412.488.7490 X 226 Pre-registration is required. WATERSHED AWARENESS AND ACTION WORKSHOP AT THE ROSS TWP COMMUNITY CENTER Sunday, April 28th at 12:30 – 2:00 PM Practice watershed protection and conservation in your own backyard. It’s easier than you think! The Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC), through a grant from Patagonia Pittsburgh is offering Ross Twp. residents living in the Girty’s Run Watershed its Watershed Awareness and Action Workshop. Patagonia Pittsburgh funding will provide participants with an attractive 55-gallon FreeGarden rain barrel which, when installed correctly, is perfect for urban and suburban areas. Green stormwater infrastructure such as rain barrels, rain gardens, swales, permeable pavement, and green roofs are a long-term, decentralized component to a regional plan designed to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSO), flooding, streambank destabilization, and Nonpoint Source (NPS) pollution. These catchment systems benefit the ecosystem by recharging groundwater supplies, reducing runoff, erosion, flooding, the frequency and severity of CSOs, and by filtering pollutants before they enter the combined sewer system and/or waterways. Twenty-five workshop participants will receive a 55-gallon rain barrel which, based on an average-sized house with a 1000 sq. ft. base, will remove over 24,000 gallons of water each from the combined sewer system annually. Rainwater harvesting is one way that we can take action to reduce our contribution to impaired water quality, flooding, and to the frequency of CSOs by reducing stormwater runoff while at the same time increasing on-site absorption. It isn’t enough to install a rain barrel. PRC’s Watershed Awareness and Action Rain Barrel Workshop will address the causes and impacts of polluted stormwater runoff on water quality. Home and yard activities such as car care, pet care, the use of pesticide and fertilizers, and the use and disposal of household chemicals can be performed in ways that are not degrading to the environment. Learn more! Pre-registration is required Registration fee - $40. To register to attend a workshop and receive a 55-gallon FreeGarden rain barrel email [email protected] or call 412.488.7490 X 247 60 ROSS TOWNSHIP