Utility Bills Getting You Down? Plant Stuff On The Roof
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Gardeners are always
looking for new planting sites,
but a research team in Penn
State’s College of Agricultural
Sciences is aiming higher by de
veloping a system that would re
place the tar-and-gravel materi
als used on flat roofs with a
surface covered by living plants
a green roof.
“Europeans have been culti
vating vegetation on rooftops for
decades,” says David Beattie, as
sociate professor of ornamental
horticulture. “The roofs of large
buildings flat roofs in particu
lar are subjected to large
swings in temperatures that
cause cracking and eventually
leakage into the floors below.”
Beattie and Robert Berghage,
associate professor of ornamental
horticulture, are working with
JSP International Inc., a Mal
vern manufacturer of plastics
used in automotive bumpers, to
create a plastic-based roofing
The STREAM MAP OF PENN
SYLVANIA was completed in 1965
after a thirty-year effort by Howard
Higbee, a former Penn State
Professor.
The map is also known as the
LOST STREAM MAP to some
anglers.
Professor Higbee succeeded in
creating a map of the highest
detail possible...a map that shows
every stream and lake. He
painstakingly plotted by hand, the
location of 45,000 miles of
streams onto a 3 x 5 foot map.
The map sold extremely well -
until n was lost several years later.
Incredibly, the printer entrusted
with the original drawing and
printing plates declared bank
ruptcy, then carelessly hauled
Higbee's 30 years of work to a
landfill.
The few remaining dog-eared
copies became a prized fisher
man's possession. Professor
Higbee was offered $4OO for one
of his last maps. And state
agencies were forced to keep their
copies under lock and key.
Experts told Professor Higbee
that reprints were impossible,
because the maps were printed in
non-photographic blue.
Then, in 1991, at the age of 91,
Howard Higbee's dream came
true. Computers made it possible
to reprint the map. Holding an
updated map, Howard said, "I
never thought I'd live to see this
day."
system that can be used as a
planting site for vegetation.
The company uses PEPP, po
rous expanded polypropylene,
which is a compressed plastic
mat that can be used as a growth
matrix or surface insulator for
the vegetation layer.
For the past six months. Beat
tie and Berghage have tested
prototypes planted with sedum, a
drought-tolerant succulent plant
variety that is related to cactus,
and hard fescue, a grass. “We
think sedum will be effective be
cause some varieties stay short,
don’t shed a lot of dead plant
material as winter sets in, and
are easy to propagate,” Berghage
says. “The temperatures and
winds on top of a building can be
brutal, so the best plant material
to use should be low-lying and
need minimal maintenance.”
In a series of tests this sum
mer, the researchers measured
temperatures on a gravel roof, on
a plastic-sheet roof and on a
I that 10% of all th«‘ fishermen cateh *)()% of the
fish. Regardless of w hieh "roup you fall into... there's a sure \\a\ to
up your odds... simplx try new fishing waters. I’ish where few
fishermen ever fish.
Pennsylvania is loaded with great fishing waters...many of (hem
overlooked. From the Lake 1 l>ie tributaries to the Delaware
Riven..thousands of miles of streams, lakes and rivers are now easv
to- locate on one map.
Professor I ligliee's Stream Map of Pennsylvania is the first ami
only highly detailed map of its kind.
This 3-foot-hy-5-foo( color map shows /jQf
virtually all of the 45.(MM) miles of Pennsylvania @
streams phis lakes.
RAVE
REVIEWS
"It is amazingly detailed and
names some creeks in the
Mohawk Valley that can't even
be found on topographic
maps "
John Pitarres
OBSERVER-DISPATCH-Utica
“If you're looking for the most
definitive maps ever created
depicting every single creek,
river, stream, pond and lake
then "Professor Higbee's
Stream Maps" are without
question the finest
Howard Brant
THE NEWARK STAR-LEDGER
"It is in showing where to find
out-of-the-way trout streams
that makes the map such a
treasure to the fisherman
Joe Gorden
TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT
Johnstown
planted roof prototype. The tem
peratures on a sunny day with
ambient temperatures around 88
degrees Fahrenheit measured
140 degrees F on the plastic
sheeting, 118 degrees F on the
gravel roof, and 82 degrees F on
the planted roof prototype.
Beattie sees several advantages
to installing a green roof.
—Aesthetics; “A green expanse
of lush vegetation looks great,”
Beattie says. “Even in winter,
brown plants and soils will look a
lot better than a grimy gravel
roof.”
—Durability: Using a vegetat
ed roof eliminates the large tem
perature extremes and fluctua
tions that cause cracking and
failure in flat roofs. “Europeans
estimate that roof life can be
doubled by using green roofs,”
Berghage says.
—Energy Savings: The insula
tion provided by an expanse of
plants across a roof can reduce
the energy load required to heat
Great Gift!
Stream®
MAP
of Pennsylvania
very fisherman needs this map
with this valuable guide Easily locate over 900 productive trout
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!' ORDER YOUR COLOR STREAM MAPS "
1 Available rolled or foided ALSO AVAILABLE in heavy gauge LIFE-
I TIME GUARANTEED, glass-like dear-lamination, wnte-on wipe-oil
I surface, with brass eyelettes for easy hanging
I Send me 3FTby 5 FT ROLLED map(s) postage paid al $23 75 ea
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I Check or money order enclosed $ TSHIPPED PRIORITY MAIL
I I IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
I Name
I Address
I City
Stale Zip
LANCASTER FARMING
Dept. Map
1 East Main St., P.O. Box 609, Ephrata, PA 17522
I Payable □ Check Enclosed D Visa D Mastercard ~J Discover
Card #-
1 Exp Date
Signature
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 4, 2000-815
or cool the building.
‘Vegetation is a natural tem
perature moderator,” Beattie
says. “That’s why it feels cooler
in the middle of your lawn than
it does in the middle of your
driveway.”
According to Berghage, green
roofs also can alleviate the tem
perature rise associated with
large metropolitan areas. “In big
cities such as Washington, D.C.,
and Philadelphia, where asphalt,
concrete and building materials
absorb and radiate heat, the tem
perature can be 10 to 15 degrees
higher than nearby suburban
areas,” he says. “The loss of
green space in cities can be re
duced by using green roofs.”
Beattie says green roofs re
quire more structural support
than a conventional flat roof, but
enough support for a vegetative
roofing system can easily be built
into new construction projects or
an extensive re-roofing project.
“You have to provide an irriga-
Museum Hours Change
• Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Closed Nov. 25 and 26 and Dec. 24.
• Ski trails will open for the season, weather
permitting, Saturday, Dec. 16.
Beginning Jan. 1. 2001, hours at the Nature
Center are:
Special programming will be presented Dec.
1-3, 8-10 and 15-17 for Yuletide in the Country:
Tours Through Holidays Past (reservations re
quired).
Genesee Country Village and Museum is the
largest living history museum in New York
State and the largest collection of buildings in
the East. The museum is open from mid-May
through mid-October. Villagers in period dress
interpret 1800 s Genesee Country life for visitors.
The museum also includes the John L. Wehle
Gallery of Wildlife and Sporting Art and
Genesee Country Nature Center, with five miles
of hiking trails through woodlands, wetlands
and meadows. The museum is located in Mum
ford, New York, 20 miles southwest of Roches
ter and 45 miles east of Buffalo. Visit the muse
um on the web at www.gcv.org.
tion and drainage system, which
requires additional support,”
Beattie explains. “Also rain and
snow would add weight to the
soil.”
This winter, Beattie and Berg
hage will test different plant ma
terials and explore how Pennsyl
vania’s winter conditions affect
green roofs. In addition, they will
track how, and if, heat is re
tained within a building outfitted
with a green roof. Eventually, the
research team hopes to get per
mission to install a green roof
system on an existing Penn State
building.
‘Using these systems doesn’t
mean you won’t have to pull a
few weeds or irrigate occasional
ly, but that can be handled on a
contract basis with the mainte
nance organization doing the
building landscaping,” Beattie
says. “This isn’t zero mainte
nance, but it is minimum mainte-
nance.”
Gennessee County
MUMFORD, N.Y. Genesee Country Vil
lage and Museum’s Historic Village and John L.
Wehle Gallery of Wildlife and Sporting Art will
be open only for special programs until they re
open May 12 for the 2001 season. The Genesee
Country Nature Center will remain open on a
limited schedule for the remainder of the year.
Genesee Country Nature Center is open in
November and December as follows:
• Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m
Freight, Farming, Family
(Continued from Page B 14)
on the racetrack scene. The owners of Jiffy
peanut butter, Mr. Coffee, a Lear jet producer,
and the developer of Barney have used Brook
Ledge hauling for their horses.
In addition to spending approximately 90
days a year on the road with the trucks, Bill,
68, also helps take care of the farm’s resident
dairy with the help of a farm manager and her
two daughters.
The morning milking starts at 4:45, when
more than 100 cows are milked. In addition
Bill takes care of the 400 tillable acres of the
farm, which yield com, wheat, alfalfa, and the
straw used to bed the trailers. The remaining
100 acres serves as pasture for the dairy.
“I’ve been involved on a dairy farm since I
was 13, off and on,” said Bill. He started dairy
farming immediately after high school and
bought the home farm in 1957.
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