I am working on a project on an urban brownfield site, so we will be restoring habitat. We have designed a large, biologically diverse meadow on the site, but we are short on our required square footage because our green roof was VE'd out. I am trying to find potential additional square footage that might count toward our habitat and have a couple of questions:
1) Would the square footage of a native/adapted hedge count toward this credit? Yes, a hedge is a monoculture, but they also provide lots of habitat for various critters including birds and small mammals. Does it make a difference if the hedge is wildgrown or clipped?
2) We are planting a large number of native/adapted trees on a lawn. I know that the turf lawn does not count, but what about the trees? Is it possible to count the square footage of the trees' crowns as habitat?
Thanks!
April Brown
Sustainable Building ConsultantGreen Bridge Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
41 thumbs up
April 25, 2014 - 12:08 pm
This is getting tricky for you! In my experience, any vegetation that is native/adapted would count - including hedges and trees - the main point being that it does not have to be a contiguous swath of land. Clipping or wildgrown is a non-issue to the reviewers.