Green Space and Good Health The connection between green space and community health has been discussed, researched and extensively studied for some time. The conclusion is that the amount of open, green space in the form agricultural, urban or natural green space definitely has an effect on the surrounding community. However, analysis shows that relationship varies based…
Lawn Lessons Soil temperature can be a determining factor in the health and wellbeing of your lawn. Intense summer heat creates stressful growing conditions for your grass season mixes. Cool season grass mixes, used a lot in the north and mid-atlantic regions, experience optimal growth conditions when soil temperatures are between 60 to 75 degrees,…
Summer Solstice Story At 6:51 a.m. eastern daylight saving time on June 21st, summer officially begins in the northern hemisphere! This is the moment of Summer Solstice, when the sun is shining directly down on the Tropic of Cancer, the latitudinal line north of the equator facing the sun during the summer due to the 23.5 degree…
National Pollinator Week, celebrated from June 16 through the 22 this year, was initiated by the Pollinator Partnership and unanimously approved by the Senate seven years ago. This marked an important step in addressing the desperate issue of pollinator population decline. This week has now grown to be an international celebration of the necessary role…
Yesterday we facilitated a meeting hosted by USGS on water quality monitoring in the Baltimore region. USGS is the leader in this activity. They realized that counties, the state, researchers, NGOs and federal agencies are all monitoring water quality at various locations and frequencies for various reasons. This led to the question: are there opportunities…
Posy Popularity Consumers in the United States spent over 27 billion dollars on fresh-cut flowers, cut cultivated greens, potted flowering plants, foliage plants and garden plants in 2012. Floriculture is the 3rd largest agricultural product in this country. The industry consists of more than 60,000 small businesses including wholesalers, retailers, growers, distributors and imported. Both women and men…
The Baltimore Ecosystem Study is part of the National Science Foundation‘s Long Term Ecological Research network. The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network was created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1980 to conduct research on ecological issues that can last decades and span huge geographical areas. In the 1990’s , NSF realized we…
Current Conditions The weather so far this month has actually been quite pleasant and mild, with some hot and humid days and some cool, breezy ones thrown in for good measure. Although the average rain amounts across the region have been moderate with a little less than an inch of accumulated precipitation, some areas experienced unsettled weather…
Today we attended the signing of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Agreement at City Dock in Annapolis, MD. Signatories included Chesapeake Executive Council Chair Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, along with governors of the other Bay states (PA, NY, DE, VA, WV) and the Mayor of Washington, DC. Gov O’Malley…
Current Conditions The past couple of weeks the weather has been a variable grab bag of weather extremes. While May ended dry and cool, much of the region experienced higher than normal seasonal temperatures and humidity over the past week. Daytime highs have ranged from the dry 50s along the coast to the 80s with 90%…
