Monthly Feature Hosted By:
	Anthony L. Williams, CGCS at Marriott’s Stone Mountain Golf Club in Georgia

There are many diverse and innovative projects that have been featured on Green Links, but this month’s case study is truly unique. Green Roofs are not new, but they are making a comeback and with this case study there is some great data on the benefits and specifications required for successful green roof projects. This case study is also an example of the synergy of cooperation between the Bonita Bay Group, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Johnson Engineering, Inc. combining their resources to reach a shared goal.

The first challenge with this project was one familiar to all of us who have installed plant material. What type of plants can be successfully grown under these conditions? In this case the conditions are on a green roof in Florida’s subtropical climate! The choices and results are very interesting and there is also a plant list covering all 1,433 plants that were installed complete with candid discussion about which plants thrived and which plants did not.

Be sure to read through the sampling and sensor instrumentation section to get a good feel for how information was gathered for each aspect of the case study. Florida’s extreme weather tested the green roof extensively in 2004 with near misses from four hurricanes (Charlie, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan). Even after high winds and heavy rains the roof showed no noticeable damage to plants or soil media. Pretty impressive! There are also five photos of various parts of the green roof project to help novices like me see the details of this innovative project a bit clearer. This case study takes the old saying, “I am doing a little work on the roof” to a whole new level.

July's Guest:
	Kim Fikoski, Senior Environmental Affairs Manager at Bonita Bay Group in Bonita Springs, Fla.

A building roof may seem a peculiar place to grow plants, but for Bonita Bay Group, the 2,400-square-foot green roof atop the golf course storage building at its Shadow Wood Preserve master-planned community is all about water quality, the environment, and finding new ways to protect the fragile ecosystem. Bonita Bay Group has a history of environmental stewardship, and the company’s golf courses, like their communities, are designed with these concepts in mind.

The experimental green roof was installed in 2003 to evaluate which plants can reduce the volume and increase the quality of storm water runoff. The project, one of several in an ongoing partnership between Bonita Bay Group, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), and Johnson Engineering was the first unirrigated experimental green roof in Florida and is now in its second phase with more than 1,200 new plants.

Most of the original plants have been replaced. “First, we learned that a green roof in Florida must have irrigation which creates a need for a cistern, and second, we know what plants don’t work and which ones to use on greenroofs in South Florida,” said Eric Livingston, chief, bureau of watershed restoration for FDEP. As a result of phase one of the study, a cistern has been installed and is now the source of irrigation water for the roof, using runoff that would have made its way to the waterways. The cistern increases the effectiveness of the green roof by reducing runoff by as much as 80 percent.