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News Advisory
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
FOR AP AND METRO NEWS DAYBOOKS:
Date: Monday, September 11, 2006

Time:

 11 a.m.
Location: Lonsdale Drive-In Environmental Restoration Project
Intersection of Route 123 East and Route 122 in Lincoln
Event: Team Members to Receive National Award from Coastal America for Partnership Efforts in $2.6 Million Environmental Restoration Project

For Release:

 September 7, 2006
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402
Stephanie Powell 222-4700 ext. 4418

DEM, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, EPA, AND OTHER PARTNERS IN LONSDALE DRIVE-IN RESTORATION PROJECT TO BE RECOGNIZED BY COASTAL AMERICA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESSES

PROVIDENCE - Department of Environmental Management Director W. Michael Sullivan, Ph.D., and John Paul Woodley, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, will join state, federal, and local officials at an awards ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday, September 11, at the Lonsdale Drive-in Environmental Restoration project. Partners in the $2.6 million restoration effort will be presented with a national Coastal America partnership award in recognition of the successful completion of the project. The Lonsdale team is one of six projects nationwide to receive the 2005 partnership award.

Located along the Blackstone River in Lincoln, the site of the former Lonsdale drive-in movie theatre was restored into a wetland and wildlife habitat area in 2003. Twenty-three acres of asphalt were removed, two movie screens, speaker stands and other equipment were demolished, and about 60,000 cubic yards of material were excavated from the site. Once the land was cleared, a seven-acre wetland area consisting of 3.6 acres of emergent and open water habitat and 3.4 acres of scrub/shrub and forested wetlands was constructed, and 13 acres of upland riparian habitat were restored.

Also participating in the event will be Senator Jack Reed; Congressman Patrick Kennedy; Robert Varney, EPA Regional Administrator; Michael Tikoian, RI Coastal Resources Management Council Chairman; Donna Williams, Commissioner, John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor; Virginia Tippie, Director, Coastal America Federal Partnership; Michael Bartlett, Supervisor of the New England Field Office, US Fish & Wildlife Service; and Charles Natale, RI Corporate Wetland Restoration Partnership.

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Directions from Providence: Take Rt. 146 North Rt. 123 East (Breakneck Hill Road). Follow Rt. 123 East until you reach the intersection of Rt. 122. The entrance to the site is on the left just after the Rt. 123 & Rt. 122 intersection, before the Blackstone River Bridge.
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