Thanks to the support of long-time Austin TX philanthropist Gary Bradley, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has achieved an expansion of its borders and services to the public and the research community. His donation and sale of lands within the Circle C Ranch community have proven to be a vital resource for the center. Gary Bradley, known for the concern he devoted to environmentally sensitive land in his Rob Roy development in the 1970s, continues to play a major role in the Wildflower Center’s success.
The center’s mission, to promote the care and conservation of native plants and to offer information about their uses in medicine and technology, is highlighted in projects such as the one to help cool hot environments by installing green roofs. Recent research by the center’s Ecosystem Design Group focuses on expanding the knowledge of how green roofs can work outside the temperate regions in which they have mostly taken root.
In parts of the world that experience extreme climatic events such as soaring temperatures and associated flash flooding, green roof technology can provide cool oases for large metropolitan populations. They can also act as reducers of the urban heat-island effect, in which heat trapped in city centers spurs costly and often dangerous temperature rises in comparison with surrounding rural areas.
A well-planned green roof system can save energy costs and increase the useful lifetime of existing roof membranes.
