admin, Author at Center for Watershed Protection

Planting and Maintaining Trees in Urban Areas

Approximately 80% of the U.S. population lives in cities. As a result, more and more people are disconnected from natural areas such as forests and are unable to reap the daily benefits they provide. This makes urban trees extremely important for providing shade, removing air pollutants, reducing stormwater runoff, and providing recreational and aesthetic benefits. If you don’t think urban trees are important, consider this: Properly placed trees can reduce heating and cooling costs by 10-20% on average within 10-15 years after planting (Heat Island Group 1996). Sales prices of homes with trees increased by 3.5% to 4.5% over similar [...]

admin2019-06-24T15:39:15-04:00August 6th, 2015|

Forest-Friendly Development

What is Forest Friendly Development? Each year, over 1.5 million acres of land in the U.S. is developed. Conversion of rural land to urban and suburban uses often results in significant forest loss, particularly where mass clearing is a standard practice at construction sites. The Forest Service estimates that nearly 1 million acres of forest were converted to developed uses each year in the 1990s, and projects that by 2050, an additional 23 million acres of forests may be lost due to development. Municipalities and developers in urbanizing areas can take steps to protect existing forest resources and prevent forest loss [...]

admin2022-03-01T08:24:57-05:00August 6th, 2015|

Forests and Drinking Water

Forests capture rainfall and replenish and cleanse our water supply. Although these ecological services provided by forests are widely accepted in the scientific community, they have not really been translated into the language that most often drives planning and land use decisions at the local level: dollars. Local government officials often make tough decisions about growth at the expense of natural resource conservation, and they must make these decisions without the benefit of economic data that measures the true costs of development and values of natural resources. For decades, technology has replaced, to some extent, the services provided by forests [...]

admin2020-03-19T09:58:45-04:00August 6th, 2015|

Urban Watershed Forestry

What is Urban Watershed Forestry? Urban watershed forestry is an integration of the fields of urban and community forestry and watershed planning. Urban and community forestry is the management of the urban forest for environmental, community, and economic benefits, while watershed planning promotes sound land use and resource management to improve water resources within a watershed. This integration of urban forestry techniques into urban watershed planning acknowledges the importance of trees and forests in protecting water resources. The urban watershed forestry approach sets watershed-based goals for managing the urban forest as a whole rather than managing forest resources on a [...]

admin2020-02-10T10:02:26-05:00August 6th, 2015|

Urban Tree Canopy

What is Urban Tree Canopy? Urban tree canopy (UTC) is the layer of leaves, branches, and stems of trees that cover the ground when viewed from above. In urban areas, the UTC provides an important stormwater management function by intercepting rainfall that would otherwise run off of paved surfaces and be transported into local waters though the storm drainage system, picking up various pollutants along the way. UTC also reduces the urban heat island effect, reduces heating/cooling costs, lowers air temperatures, reduces air pollution, increases property values, provides wildlife habitat, and provides aesthetic and community benefits such as improved quality [...]

admin2021-02-04T12:44:38-05:00July 31st, 2015|

Forest Planning and Assessment

Why Plan for Forest Management? Human activities have dramatically altered the landscape of the U.S over the past 400 years. While conversion of forest land for agricultural use was a primary cause of forest loss over this time period, the rate of forest conversion for urban uses has greatly increased more recently, reinforcing the need for greater integration of forest and land use planning. American Forests estimates that tree cover in urban areas east of the Mississippi has declined by about 30% over the last 20 years, while the footprint of urban areas has increased by 20%. In fact, tree [...]

admin2017-09-22T11:55:09-04:00July 31st, 2015|

The Mysterious Silt Influx of Hawkins Cove

Hawkins Cove is a small inlet along Spa Creek in Annapolis, MD. The entire watershed is only 93 acres, and even though a portion of the upstream area is forested, the Cove is heavily silted. What’s causing this influx of silt in the Cove? As with most cases in urban areas, large impervious areas from residential development create lots of stormwater runoff (with its dirty water) while also contributing to erosion along the banks of the headwater stream. So much silt has accumulated in the Cove that the public dock sits among mud flats and has lost its recreational purpose. [...]

admin2020-12-16T08:35:38-05:00July 27th, 2015|

Center Awarded an Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grant

The Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently awarded the Center for Watershed Protection a $344,000 grant to develop a body of evidence and recommendations for the application of alternative media to boost the performance of existing Best Management Practices (BMPs). The project will provide a comprehensive approach to evaluate and implement emerging technologies to enhance BMP performance and make Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) strategies more cost-effective. The project will add to the existing limited data pool and optimistically support a higher pollution reduction credit for practices using enhanced media. “We call it BMPs on steroids,” [...]

admin2021-02-04T12:34:33-05:00June 1st, 2015|

ZOMBIE INVASION!

They don’t have a heartbeat, they don’t speak, they have no mercy toward their victims, they multiply into swarms of them, and worse, they are hard to kill. No, I’m not talking about the Zombie’s in the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, I’m talking about the Japanese Knotweed invasion that is here and now in the friendly Village of Downers Grove, Illinois, located about 22 miles west of Chicago. Japanese Knotweed is a fast-growing invasive plant that is native to Asia. Unfortunately knotweed has infested stream and creek banks, floodplain forests, road sides, and other areas with moist soil. [...]

admin2021-11-05T11:31:50-04:00March 24th, 2015|

Retrofitting into the New Year

After working with the Center for Watershed Protection (the Center) for almost eight years, I recently took a position back in June as a program manager for Anne Arundel County’s Watershed Protection and Restoration Program (WPRP). I really enjoyed my time at the Center, and after working with many local governments on watershed and stormwater projects, I wanted to experience local government life first-hand. What better a place than the County I have lived in most of my life! At the Center, I wore many hats, one of which was helping to conduct stormwater retrofit assessments. Retrofits help restore watersheds [...]

admin2017-09-18T06:12:43-04:00January 5th, 2015|

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