Features (Green Living)

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 4/21/11

The Carnivore’s Conundrum

Locally grown and ethically treated livestock brings meat you can trust to your table

Growing your own veggies is one thing; raising your own livestock is entirely another. That’s the lesson of my friends’ rabbits. Back when Earth Day was a bright new idea, green pioneers Janice and Phil turned their mildly urban garage into a high-rise rabbit warren. Chemical-intensive factory farming had scared the health-minded couple away from grocery meat. Home-raised rabbit seemed the sustainable solution. ...

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 4/14/11

SLAMMED by Mother Nature

New website gives an eye-opening look at the effects of sea-level rise

Dobbins Island in the Magothy River is a summertime attraction for boaters. On a warm summer weekend, the sandy north-facing beach becomes crowded with enthusiasts dropping anchor and floating languidly in the gentle current. Sooner rather than later, though, Dobbins Island will be reduced to a skeleton by rising sea levels. Water will cover the sandy shores, and the beach will turn into an obstacle course of submerged trees. This scenario will happen to most of the islands...

Article - Green Living; by Diana Beechener - 3/17/11

Is Bigger Better?

Anne Arundel County hopes larger containers amount to a greater recycling haul

The bigger, the better. That seems to be the theory behind Anne Arundel County’s push to distribute 65-gallon recycling containers throughout the county. “Recycling is a budgetary priority of this administration,” says County Executive John R. Leopold. “I’m always looking for ways to enhance the convenience of our recycling plan.” Our recycling habits now fall 10 percent short of the county goal of 50 percent recycling...

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 3/17/11

Joining Hands to Fill The Breach

An army of volunteers give a rare Chesapeake marsh a second life

A boardwalk leads through pinewoods to the water. From its beginning, you see a sliver of shining Bay. As you walk along the worn planks raised over marshland, the Dominion Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas facility — the industrial campus, the seven vast blinding-white storage tanks — disappear. At the end, the marsh and the tall reeds give way to the low dunes of Cove Point Beach. From the beach, you can see across the Bay to Taylors Island. But the view is not...

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 2/17/11

Beat Back the Bag Monster

We’d get two sticks under Maryland’s Clean the Streams and Beautify the Bay Act

This is how you’d look if all you had to wear were the plastic bags you toted home all year long. You’d look like a plastic imitation of New Orleans’ legendary Mardi Gras Indian tribes. But you’d be warm. That’s the overheated conclusion of Bag Monster Rick Rogner of Silver Spring. Rogner donned the borrowed costume to help Del. Al Carr, of Kensington, convince Maryland to learn to follow the District of Columbia’s...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman - 11/18/10

Heroes of Sustainable Agriculture

Meet the Farmer, Green Grocer and Buy-Local Restaurant of the Year

Wilderness, farmland, paved land: That’s the trajectory Maryland has followed since its founding as Lord Baltimore’s colony 376 years ago. So a county that can keep its farm traditions alive does so with pride. Thus Calvert County, where 55,000 acres of land are zoned as Farm and Forest Districts, made its First Annual Sustainable Agriculture Awards this year. Citizens voted awards in three categories: Sustainable Farmer, Green Grocer and Buy-Local Restaurant of the year....

Article - Green Living; by Amy Russell - 11/11/10

My Six-Month Vegetable Journey

While touch and go at first, I now know my veggies — and how to cook them

Remember me? And my journey? For the past six months I’ve navigated Solomon’s Island Road every Thursday to restock my kitchen with the week’s produce that came in my share of the Community-Supported Agriculture farm I joined in April. I have embarked on a great food experiment: I am teaching myself to cook, I wrote back then. I know nothing about vegetables beyond the traditional broccoli and carrots. Knowing that I will have to branch out of those comforts if I really want...

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman - 10/14/10

From Vine to Wine

2010 was a very good year for Maryland grapes

It’s been a wild weather year — record winter snowfall followed by record summer heat followed by record daily rainfall. Weather that’s been inconvenient for most us has been terrible for Maryland farmers who grow conventional crops like corn and soybeans. But for Maryland grape growers in all corners of the state, 2010 has been a very good year. “A good year is an understatement,” Rob Deford, president of Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, Maryland, told...

Article - Green Living; by Diana Beechener - 8/12/10

Do Your Part to Mow Down Air Pollution

Maryland Department of Environment makes it easier — and cheaper — to ditch your dirty old mower

Find a greener way to care for your lawn Saturday, August 14, at the Great Maryland Lawn Mower Event in Baltimore’s Camden Yards. The first 1,000 people who bring their gas guzzling power mowers to the event can exchange them for a discount in purchasing one of two environmentally friendly electrical Neuton mowers. “This is actually going to be the fourth lawn mower exchange that we’ve done in Maryland,” says Maryland Department of the Environment’s air quality regulation development division...

Article - Green Living; by Sandy Greenberg - 5/6/10

What To Do with All That Stuff?

14 stops on an avid recycler’s way to lighter living

In the April 29-May 5 issue, reader Farley Peters of Fairhaven, wrote, “What do we do with all this stuff?” I’m glad you asked. In 2006, I lived in a five-bedroom house. Now, in 2010, and two major moves later, I’m in a two-bedroom apartment. And I don’t rent a storage locker! Keeping stuff out of the landfill has been a big part of this transition. It can be a challenge, particularly if you are, as I am, the inheritor of a lot of pack-rat genes. However,...