Yesterday I attended the launch of the 2014 Healthy Harbor Report Card. Healthy Harbor is an initiative of the Waterfront Partnership that is supported by a coalition of public, private, NGO, and academic partners. The overall grade this year is an F. As can be seen below, there is a great deal of work to…
DetailsI’m pleased to be a member of the Chesapeake Bay Urban Tree Canopy Expert Panel. The Panel’s charge is to recommend credits to be assigned to urban tree canopy as a best management practice for Clean Water Act compliance in the Chesapeake Bay region. The panel met today to review the literature regarding the effects…
DetailsThe rains from last week have provided some relief for many drought-stressed turf, but the eastern edge of the region along the coast remains very dry. Many areas received slow-soaking rain events, but a few experienced some intense downpours that mostly ran off and was not available to replenish soil moisture. Consequently the Northeast US…
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Viburnum Leaf Beetle has now been found at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It’s also been found in other parts of the Chicago metro area including Cook and DuPage County since 2009. It seems like tree varieties such as Arrowwood, Possum-haw and Cranberrybush are becoming most susceptible to this threat. This pest overwinters as eggs…
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Many boxwoods are still hurting from the harsh winter, even though it is June. These boxwoods live in West Harrison, NY with their proud owners. They are receiving TLC from SavATree and should look better soon.”
DetailsToday I was proud to be part of the launch of the Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition. The Coalition is a voluntary alliance of agencies, NGOs, and professional associations supporting a vision for a connected green infrastructure network in the Greater Baltimore region. The Coalition will have four focus areas: resilience; biodiversity; equity; and, discovery. …
DetailsI had a great time Friday night at the 17th Annual Treasure the Chesapeake Celebration in Annapolis. The event is a fundraiser to support the work of the Chesapeake Bay Trust. The Chesapeake Bay Trust is a nonprofit grant-making organization dedicated to improving the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers through environmental education, community…
DetailsLast week the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) had its spring meeting. Discussion focused on the theory of urban heterogeneity. If that sounds like it may be confusing, we got a great example (shown below) of how the patchy distribution of ash trees in Baltimore and the patchy invasion of emerald ash borer may cause unequally…
DetailsThe Chesapeake Stormwater Network is a network of nearly 7,000 stormwater professionals, primarily, but not exclusively, within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. They do a lot of great things – one of them is helping to clean up urban stormwater with BUBBA. No, BUBBA is not my fun-loving uncle. It is an acronym for Best Urban BMP in…
DetailsThere are Urban Waters Federal Partnerships in 19 U.S. cities. These partnerships convene 14 agencies of the federal family and connect them to state, local, and NGO partners to develop place-based solutions to urban water quality problems. Last year the national network of partnerships reached out to a variety of NGOs to sign…
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