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Conservation Corner

May 30

[ARCHIVED] Pavement is Not Permanent

The original item was published from May 30, 2018 3:50 PM to May 31, 2018 2:50 PM

Depave is a regional movement that challenges us all to rethink our urban spaces and ask the question, “Does this space need to be paved?”. These spaces can be paved over planting spaces, oversized parking lots, paved over play areas for children, or any paved area that does not need to be paved and has the potential to become much more.

Last year we started our largest Depave project to date – a 15,000SF pavement removal project at Holy Rosary Church and School in Tacoma – and this summer we will be completing this massive undertaking.

We are looking for hearty volunteers to help us on June 23rd to Depave this site. If we get 100 volunteers each person will just need to remove a 10ft x 10ft section of the site – a simple task! RSVP Today!

Depave PhotoContractors will be preparing the site for us to Depave the remaining 10,000SF on June 23 starting at 9a.m. Activities for the Depave include moving the chunks of pavement from the site into recycling containers, to be recycled by the City of Tacoma. After our Depave, Snohomish ConservationDistrict’s Veterans Crew will help us recycle the compacted soil that was beneath the pavement, spread donated Tagro soil, and prepare a grass field for the school children to play on.

We get asked often, “Why don’t you have the contractor do the pavement removal?”. The answer is that it is much more expensive to pay a contractor to separate the pavement from the soil and recycle both products. If we use people power to separate the two products the entire projects is sustainable as everything is repurposed.