UDC’s College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) recently won an award for a green infrastructure project at the university’s Lamond-Riggs campus (formerly known as the Bertie Backus campus). The university is located at 5171 South Dakota Avenue NE. The award-winning green infrastructure replaces a patch of grass and a small part of the parking lot on the Hamilton Street side of the campus.

According to UDC CAUSES summer 2023 newsletter, the Bertie Backus Campus Infrastructure Treatment Train Project team won first place in the Best Ultra Urban Best Management Practice (BMP) category for the 2023 Best Urban BMP in the Bay Award (BUBBAs) contest on April 6, 2023. The project team consisted of a partnership of UDC CAUSES graduate students, NC State graduate students, and UDC’s National Green Infrastructure Certificate Program (NGCIP) participants.

From the newsletter:

The contest recognizes the best urban stormwater practices and programs in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The goal of the BUBBAs is to:

1.  Recognize innovators in the field who are using new and innovative techniques for facing the challenges of stormwater management;

2.  Provide an avenue for disseminating these techniques to other communities who could benefit from the lessons learned and innovative approaches;

3.  Engage the Chesapeake Stormwater Network’s 11,000-member network of stormwater professionals throughout the Bay watershed to choose our grand prize winner and promote interactivity among members

The Best Ultra-Urban Project BMP category recognizes the best application of green infrastructure (GI) practices that are built in highly urban areas to reduce flooding and pollutant delivery (more than 75% site impervious cover). 

More information about the project is available at https://chesapeakestormwater.net/awards/udc-bertie-backus-campus-green-infrastructure-treatment-train-project. The project will serve as a “learning laboratory for UDC graduate students, NGICP participants, and UDC’s Master Naturalist volunteers.”