Tours

We are available to provide custom, in-person sessions for a variety of agencies, facilities and organizations. These trainings may include presentations or hands-on installation and maintenance trainings for management, staff or the general public.

Topics may include:

• The landscape design process
• Graphic communication and presentation styles
• Low maintenance-based design
• Native plant community restoration
• Green roofs and walls
• Local food systems
• Post-industrial landscapes
• Sustainable forestry as related to energy, economy , and ecology

Kent Hospital Campus

Tom has conducted numerous walking tours of the innovative Kent Hospital campus landscape for varied groups. His participants have included New England Healthcare Engineers Society (NEHES) conference attendees, RI Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM), RI Coastal Resources Management Council (RI CRMC), University of Rhode Island (URI), Healthy Hospital Environments in Rhode Island (H2ERI), and local officials, religious, gardening and cancer survivor support groups.

The focus of the tours has included design of green infrastructure, rain and healing gardens, productive staff gardens, creating on site nurseries and composting opportunities, wellness trail development, cost-effective maintenance practices, and the role of sustainable landscape in inspiring the medical center’s larger sustainability program.

Fresh Pond Reservation Projects

Tom has conducted numerous walking tours of Fresh Pond Reservation’s extensive watershed land restoration projects in Cambridge. His tours have been independent and collaborative in nature and sponsored by the Ecological Landscape Alliance (ELA) and the New England Wildflower Society (NEWFS).

The focus of the tours has included bioengineered slope restoration, stormwater treatment wetland design, reuse of local materials (e.g. cut logs and brush, boulders), diverse planting and seeding strategies for habitat enhancement, integration of passive and active recreation uses in restored natural area context, design within a robust public process, and cost-effective maintenance regimes. His participants have included architects, engineers and other design professionals, educators, public officials and the general public.