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Working to keep a green roof healthy has a number of benefits beyond aesthetic appeal, but do you know what they are? Here’s why green roof stewardship matters.

If the phrase “green roof stewardship” sounds far less interesting than “three-day weekend” or “mocha latte stat,” then you’re not alone.

You’re busy, and you’re not looking for yet another chore. Can’t a person catch a break once in a while??

Well, we have good news: investing in ongoing and intelligent green roof stewardship may actually provide more of a break than you think, especially if you already have a green roof. Plus, it offers tons of other benefits as well.

Shall we take a look at some of them? Of course we shall.

Feel free to grab that mocha first, though.

While honeybees are in trouble, so are the rest of the pollinator set. That means bugs, beetles, flies, moths and even bats … and they need our help too.

Next time you walk past the bat house at the zoo, take a close look at those furry little snouts and wicked little claws.

Guess what? Those are intimately involved in the pollination of several species of plant, including cacao and agave.

So if you like your chocolate and tequila, thank the bats. Oh, and the other pollinators, of course … which includes thousands of species beyond the honeybee.

While these yellow-and-black-striped favorites are certainly critical to our planet and food system, the laser focus on this singular species often obscures the fact that there are plenty of others that need our help as well.

Today let’s take a quick look at the issue with honeybees, who else represents the pollinator crowd, and what we can do to help both.

Many people assume that green roofs are self-sustaining systems, but in fact they need continuous care to remain healthy and efficient.

It takes more than rainfall and prayers to ensure green roof health.

Unfortunately, while our sense of environmentalism develops by the day – and we’re seeing an explosion of green roofs as a result – too few people are talking about what it takes to keep a roof green after it’s built.

As in, once we implement a living system, how can we ensure that it remains balanced over time?

The overarching answer is stewardship: routine check-ins that ensure a green roof is performing as expected, that plants are safe and protected, and that animal communities are flourishing. Do this, and you’ll see major benefits from green roof health.

Without further ado, here are five benefits of regular stewardship:

When the Village of Orland Park decided to install a new green roof on a municipal building, we broke the mold and took a new approach.

Recently we had the extreme pleasure of working with Orland Park on a new green roof for their village hall.

Today, we have the even greater pleasure of watching our newly planted natives start to grow, seeing people enjoy the space, and watching those nesting birds and pollinators show up.

Seriously, we saw them out there with their tape measures. We assume they’re off buying drapes right now.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s back up.

While good stewardship helps keep a green roof sound throughout the decades of its life, you’re fighting a losing battle without good design.

On the surface, green roof design and stewardship might seem like two wholly different aspects of the green roofing process.

Design and installation are completely done by the time stewardship takes over, after all. They exist in two distinctly separate phases, leading some to believe that the one doesn’t impact the other. Design is one-and-done. Stewardship comes on later, and if it’s good, can keep a green roof healthy no matter what.

… Right?

Not necessarily.

Truth is, design and stewardship are inextricably intertwined. Yes, good design – based on sound scientific concepts and artful creativity – should set a roof up for life. And yes, excellent stewardship does help any green system weather the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

But without good design, stewardship is set up for a fall. Let’s talk about why the right approach is so important from the very beginning.

Keeping your green roof in great shape is the best way to reap maximum stormwater benefits.

Forget Snuggies, fast food and terrible teen pop.

Stormwater is the real crime of this century.

Combined sewer overflows, the result of rainwater overloading the sewers and spitting filth into the streets, carry disease into our cities and waterways. It sheets over asphalt and concrete, sweeping pollutants right along with it.

Rural areas suffer from stormwater troubles as well, but it’s really the cities that desperately need better methods of keeping rain and snowmelt out of the sewers.

That’s where green roofs come in, trapping and detaining stormwater during rain events. They keep water there for hours or days, relieving the sewers of undue pressures resulting from all that water entering all at once.

Of course, they only provide those benefits if stewarded well.

These jewel-bright birds do more than dress up your bird feeder in the winter months. They also perform valuable pollinating services, so we would do well to help them out.

Toss off the word “pollinators,” and almost anyone will conjure up the image of a bee.

Usually a honeybee.

Probably fuzzy with yellow pollen and sitting on, like, a sunflower or something.

That’s not to say bees aren’t important pollinators. We merely mean to point out that this is a limited conception that fails to do justice to pollinators as a group.

Exhibit A: hummingbirds.

These flying gems gather pollen on their heads as they flit from flower to flower, helping fertilize them and propagating new generations of the plants on which we depend. Birds as a whole represent 2,000 species of pollinators, with hummingbirds making up a sizable percentage of those.

While putting nectar out for hummingbirds is a wonderful winter tradition, and can do much to keep them strong and well, we must do more. It’s time to give these tiny birdies habitat, shelter and real flowers on which to feed.

And that means using horizontal space more effectively in our cities.

Building a green roof is all very well, but what happens next? If the answer isn’t “amazeballs stewardship,” then you’re doing something wrong.

Much of our collective cultural focus on green roofs has to do with “getting one.” As though simply installing a roof is enough to win you the Medal of Ongoing Environmental Awesomeness for All Time.

No, that’s not a real thing.

Yes, some people act like it is.

Truthfully, though, while it’s fantastic to build green roofs, it’s not enough to simply do so, dust off your hands and walk away.

The same goes for any other type of green infrastructure: bioswale, rain collection system, low-water landscape, rooftop garden, or what have you. These systems are tightly structured to achieve specific goals, and they often exist in harsh environments. They need careful stewarding, or they won’t achieve those goals and they will suffer.

Careful stewardship of your green roof means frequent site inspections to ensure its health and stability, but how often should they occur?

If you build it … they will come. “They” being the birds, butterflies, insects and other fauna that inhabit green roofs across our fair cities.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Green roofs need careful balancing. A green roof's purpose is to mimic nature in a very condensed profile. You have deep soil profiles in nature, around 2 feet on average, but we’re asking the same type of natural habitat to perform in only 6 inches, and often less. That's a big ask.

In other words, they need our help maintaining balance. While an established green roof does settle into a low-maintenance equilibrium, there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance system, no matter what some green roofers will tell you beforehand.

Just ask anyone who’s ever dropped tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a project, then let it “take care of itself” for a few years.

Spoiler alert: It won’t. Which is where green roof site inspections come in.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last decade – and a very remote rock at that – you’ve heard the word pollinator.

Most likely you even know that the term extends far beyond bees, encompassing birds, bats, moths, beetles and tons of other insects. Nevertheless, bees make up a huge portion of the pollinating pie, and since they fly, they are frequent visitors of green roofs and roof top gardens.

Where, can we just say, they do a lot of kickass work. But what type of work, exactly? And how do those green roofs help them back?

That’s what we’re here to talk about today. Get ready for the greatest romance of all time: pollinators and the green roofs that love them.