recycled materials

2015/8.2, August 19 — Savvy Recycling, Natural Wandering, Budget-Suited Design and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS August 19, 2015 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
Improving Your Moves
It comes up almost every time:  Our clients tell us they want to increase the energy efficiency and overall environmental friendliness of almost everything they plan to do with their homes, landscapes and watershapes.  It truly is a “green revolution,” and, as is true of most clients, they’re looking to us for guidance in what can be accomplished. From out perspective at Rosebrook Pools in Libertyville Ill., this trend kicked into high gear about three years ago – not surprising at a point when gas and other fuel prices started to soar.  We’re proud of the fact that we saw this coming and had, for about five years already, been considering and implementing eco-considerate features into our watershaping and landscape work. In doing so, we took many of our cues from the
Standing Tall
The fire came swiftly, sweeping through the dry, late-summer undergrowth, and the land was quickly blackened and denuded.  A month later, the rains came, hard and lashing, and rivulets of water ran down the hillside.  Torrents of mud and stone ground away the soil and washed out the base of a tree that happened to be in the way. The tree fell.  Branches became splinters on the ground.  The noise the tree had made as it fell was intense:  a cracking and groaning sound followed by crackles as limbs snapped against still-standing trees.  Now it lay there, its roots all but pulled from the ground.Ten years passed, and as the tree's bark rotted, small saplings had begun to grow from its base.  The creek ran close by, gurgling and never-ending, its water wending its way among the rocks and other fallen trees toward the ocean just half a mile away.  This tree would serve a purpose in its death:  In my work as a sculptor, I seek out