Natural habitats and vegetated ecosystems are vital to maintaining the health and quality of urban water resources. Environmental restoration and conservation practices such as reforestation, stream bank restoration, erosion control and agricultural best practices can go a long way towards improving water quality for millions living in urban areas. The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with…
Perhaps you have heard about point and nonpoint source water pollution, what is the difference and why is it important? Pollution from a point source is emanating from a source which can be identified, i.e. discharging pipes, construction etc., while nonpoint sources cannot be so specifically determined. Nonpoint source water contaminants can come from varied sources…
Trees and forests are critical for proper functioning of a watershed, and the quality and health of the watershed is critical for wildlife and humans who depend upon it. The proportion of forest within a watershed is a determining factor in water quality and the health of aquatic ecosystems. A watershed is the area that drains…
Baltimore City is in the process of conducting a series of public stakeholder meetings to support development of a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) to achieve targets under its MS4 permit related to the Chesapeake Bay TMDL (pollution diet). The Chesapeake Bay Program learned a long time ago that because of stormwater runoff, land cover has…
As part of the Healthy Harbor initiative, a plan to make Baltimore’s Inner Harbor swimmable and fishable by 2020, the Waterfront Partnership today launched a trash-intercepting water wheel. The wheel is powered by water currents and solar panels (!). It sits at the mouth of the Jones Falls where it empties into the Northwest Branch…
Today was a school days throwback – we went on a field trip. We took a tour of habitat creation projects on industrial sites around Baltimore’s “Second Harbor”. If you’re from out of town and have visited Baltimore to eat crabs, take in an Orioles game at Camden Yards, or visit the National Aquarium, you’ve…
I had a pretty exciting Earth Day. I spent the morning on assignment for the US Forest Service Northern Research Station documenting installation of a treatment device that uses filters filled with tree bark to clean urban stormwater. The filter boxes were installed by the Parks and People Foundation under the guidance of their Green Infrastructure…
