In 2010, youarethecity created the Field Guide to Phytoremediation, a DIY handbook to cleaning up toxic soils in your own backyard, neighborhood vacant lot, or other urban space. We created a kickstarter campaign to expand and share our research on phytoremediation. Working with soil scientists, urban farming activists, community groups, and others interested on (and in) the ground, we are working on a two part project: the FIELD GUIDE and the FIELD LAB to make this process more visible and accessible to anyone.

FIELD GUIDE

We created a Field Guide to Phytoremediation to illustrate how property owners can  initiate a slow but cost-effective clean-up process using nature as their ally to add 11,000 acres of productive, usable land to the City‘s healthy environment.

The Field Guide is a citizens guidebook with step-by-step instructions for testing, planting, monitoring, and harvesting. It gives recommendations of plants that have successfully removed contaminants and informs you about the levels of contamination in your soil that are safe to play, build housing, or grow food in.

FIELD LAB

At La Finca del Sur, a community farm in the South Bronx, we are creating FIELD LAB, where we plant, monitor, and harvest several varieties of plants known for their qualities to remove toxins from the soil.

We want to print 2,000 copies of the FIELD GUIDE, to distribute for free, and create on-site installations that illustrates and explains the process of phytoremediation at field lab sites throughout New York City. thanks to the atlas lab seed funding, we are on our way designing and building the FIELD LAB, but we need your help to print the FIELD GUIDE. Please check out kickstarter for this and other cool projects.