Dave Rickards

FOUNDER OF BIRDSONG GARDENS

 

DAVE RICKARDS

The research facility at Birdsong Gardens is a direct result of  Dave Rickards’s passion to preserve the eco-system of the Delaware Estuary.  A lifetime resident of Delaware, Dave Rickards saw the environmental changes caused by new fertilizing techniques and an influx of people.  He began to study the effects that non-point pollution had on the eco-systems of the Delaware Estuary and over decades of education and field experience became passionate about preserving the diversity of aquatic species held within it.

RICKARDS AND DUCKWEED

Rickards became fascinated with Duckweed, a small aquatic plant which has the ability to remove non-point pollution from water within a miraculously short period of time.  If Duckweed water treatment centers were established in the major drainage sites, the waters would be cleansed of the excess nitrates and phosphates without ever entering the estuary, thus allowing freshwater mussels to be re-introduced which would slowly allow other now endangered species to return to the waters and flourish. This has become the sole focus of Rickards’s research and gave birth to The Delaware Estuary Water Clarity Project.

 

THE EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION  OF DAVE RICKARDS:

  • Attends University of Oklahoma and majors in Chemical Engineering & Business Management
  • Drafted and joins United States Air Force completes Programming Specialist Course
  • Stationed at Bowling Air Force Base Headquarters Command Post Washington D.C., project leader for Command Level Systems
  • Worked for the State of Delaware as a programmer/analyst for three systems
  • Became a partner in UEK Delaware meeting with Government officials and private investors to create renewable energy projects.
  • 1998 takes course from Environmental Concerns to learn how to propagate native trees and seeds
  • Creates and plants cedar tree buffers around his and other neighboring farm lands in order to control farm run off and reduce non-point nutrient pollution
  • In 1999 Rickards became involved the Inland Bays tributary advisory group responsible in developing the pollution control strategy for improving water quality in Delaware’s Inland Bays.
  • He worked with Katherine Bunting-Howarth from Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control on Agriculture Pollution Control strategies. Projects focused on  the utilization of the drainage system for nutrient reduction by growing and harvesting duckweed.
  • In 2000 worked with LSU to find alternative use of poultry farm dead for commercial/recreational Fishing, and commercial conch and eel fisheries, this led to me acquiring my patent for using chicken as aquatic bait.
  • In 2001 Rickards worked with North East Eel Association to find bait alternative to horseshoe crabs. Both studies were successful, but he was unable to convince the poultry integrators to give him access to the raw material necessary to proceed.
  • In 2012 Rickards was a subcontractor for Elcriton LLC studying the bio-remediation ability of Duckweed through the NSF SBIR (grant number 1215076). He had proposed several duckweed projects prior to this but was unable to acquire any funding because Birdsong Gardens was a for-profit company. Rickards then contacted Dr. Bryan Tracy of the U. of D., the owner of Elcriton, in 2011 and he became interested in pursuing this 2012 study.
  • Birdsong Gardens received non-profit 501C(3) status in June of 2016 through the help of senator Christopher Coons.
  • Birdsong Gardens Inc. is ready to make a difference in pollution reduction and celebrates by donating 5 acres to the preservation of Monarch butterflies and plants fields of milkweed for them.
  • 2017 Rickards has been approved by the county to create duckweed testing sites. He appeals to local farmers to allow him to grant him access to the streams via their property.
  • 2017 Birdsong Gardens Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary becomes an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site with the National Wildlife Federation and Delaware Nature Society

  • Attends University of Oklahoma and majors in Chemical Engineering & Business Management
  • Drafted and joins United States Air Force completes Programming Specialist Course
  • Stationed at Bowling Air Force Base Headquarters Command Post Washington D.C., project leader for Command Level Systems
  • Worked for the State of Delaware as a programmer/analyst for three systems
  • Became a partner in UEK Delaware meeting with Government officials and private investors to create renewable energy projects.
  • 1998 takes course from Environmental Concerns to learn how to propagate native trees and seeds
  • Creates and plants cedar tree buffers around his and other neighboring farm lands in order to control farm run off and reduce non-point nutrient pollution
  • In 1999 Rickards became involved the Inland Bays tributary advisory group responsible in developing the pollution control strategy for improving water quality in Delaware’s Inland Bays.
  • He worked with Katherine Bunting-Howarth from Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control on Agriculture Pollution Control strategies. Projects focused on  the utilization of the drainage system for nutrient reduction by growing and harvesting duckweed.
  • In 2000 worked with LSU to find alternative use of poultry farm dead for commercial/recreational Fishing, and commercial conch and eel fisheries, this led to me acquiring my patent for using chicken as aquatic bait.
  • In 2001 Rickards worked with North East Eel Association to find bait alternative to horseshoe crabs. Both studies were successful, but he was unable to convince the poultry integrators to give him access to the raw material necessary to proceed.
  • In 2012 Rickards was a subcontractor for Elcriton LLC studying the bio-remediation ability of Duckweed through the NSF SBIR (grant number 1215076). He had proposed several duckweed projects prior to this but was unable to acquire any funding because Birdsong Gardens was a for-profit company. Rickards then contacted Dr. Bryan Tracy of the U. of D., the owner of Elcriton, in 2011 and he became interested in pursuing this 2012 study.
  • Birdsong Gardens received non-profit 501C(3) status in June of 2016 through the help of senator Christopher Coons.
  • Birdsong Gardens Inc. is ready to make a difference in pollution reduction and celebrates by donating 5 acres to the preservation of Monarch butterflies and plants fields of milkweed for them.
  • 2017 Rickards has been approved by the county to create duckweed testing sites. He appeals to local farmers to allow him to grant him access to the streams via their property.
  • 2017 Birdsong Gardens Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary becomes an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site with the National Wildlife Federation and Delaware Nature Society