Green Living

The Chesapeake Waterkeepers

The Bay’s 19 riverkeepers are part of a worldwide force of 275

Mitchelle Stephenson

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not. –Dr. Seuss: The Lorax 

article – Green Living

News

– by Mitchelle Stephenson – 3/10/16

The 100-Year Forest Experiment

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in for the long haul

Kristen Minogue

If you’ve ever planted a tree in your back yard, you’ve experienced the thrill of watching it grow from a knobby sapling into a towering oak or weeping willow. Multiply that by 20,000, and you’ll have some idea what Smithsonian ecologist John Parker is doing in his experimental forest in Edgewater. It’s called BiodiversiTree, and the project is designed to last a century. On March 15, Parker explains the project in a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center evening lecture.

article – Green Living

News

– by Kristen Minogue – 3/10/16

Lunch to Go

Is there a smarter way to package our takeout?

Kathy Knotts

Let’s talk lunch. As a child, each day I carried to school a packed lunch in a metal Holly Hobbie lunch box, later replaced by Wonder Woman. As an adult, I sometimes remember to pack a lunch from home. But more often than not, lunch is carryout. Bay Weekly prides itself on running an eco-friendly office, and we try to recycle the majority of our waste. Yet the sheer volume of take-out packaging that ends up in the garbage is disturbing.

article – Green Living

News

– by Kathy Knotts – 1/28/16

Fresh-Cut and -Broken Greens

From boxwood to white pine, you have many evergreen choices

Dr. Francis Gouin

Here in Bay Country, we have an abundance of evergreen plants to choose from. Many — but not all — narrowleaf greens will hold their needles if you treat them right, while adding beauty and aroma to your home. For long-lasting holiday greens, gather arborvitae, Canaan fir, Douglas fir, junipers, Nordman red cedar, red pine, Scots pine and white pine.

article – The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin

Gardening

Green Living

– by Dr. Francis Gouin – 12/10/15

The Bay We Deserve

Celebrated Chesapeake writer and advocate Tom Horton on the state of our beloved estuary

Excerpted from a talk at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s 50th anniversary lecture series (Editor’s note: Horton’s words have been rearranged in the shape of this story)

article – Green Living

News

– by – 10/29/15

Sandy Point State Park Goes Green

Solar, wind and energy-efficient upgrades on the way

Kathy Knotts

Sandy Point State Park is a fine place to soak up the sun. Soon those rays will be turning into energy. The Board of Public Works approved a $535,870 contract with Baltimore-based Bithenergy to evaluate, design and install park upgrades, reducing total energy consumption by an estimated 45 percent. “Once installation is complete, Sandy Point will be the first state park to host alternative energy projects of this size and scale,” says parks superintendent Nita Settina.

article – Green Living

News

– by Kathy Knotts – 8/27/15

Making a Buzz over Pollinators

Latest push to save honeybees

Theodore H. Mattheiss III

Plants pretreated for insect resistance with neonicotinoids will no longer be on the shelves at Ace Hardware. That’s good news for any bees in the area. A relatively new class of pesticides, neonicotinoids have come under scrutiny as a possible cause of the collapse of honeybee colonies. The chemical pesticide targets an insect’s nervous system, causing paralysis. Bees are apparently as susceptible as pesky bugs.

article – Green Living

News

– by Theodore H. Mattheiss III – 6/11/15

48 Days of Blue

Big strides toward a healthier planet

Theodore H. Mattheiss III

48 Days of Blue made waves. By the time the National Aquarium campaign to protect the environment (started on Earth Day) concluded on June 8, World Oceans Day, it had proved that small changes can help to protect the oceans that cover 71 percent of the earth’s surface.

article – Green Living

News

– by Theodore H. Mattheiss III – 6/11/15

Save a Threatened Species

Citizen scientists can reverse the decline

Elmer M. Dengler

Too many species to count are losing their habitat as native plant communities disappear because of human land management changes and occupation by invasive species. Hundreds of native insects, including many solitary native bees and other critical pollinators, have already vanished.

article – Green Living

– by Elmer M. Dengler – 6/11/15

The Ripple Effect

On water and land, our wakes stretch farther than we can see

Leigh Glenn

In Edgewater, at Camp Letts, on a tiny peninsula that juts into the Rhode River, erosion could down a might oak. The tree has done yeoman’s work by keeping the soil in place. But even now, as a living shoreline restoration project undertaken by the West/Rhode Riverkeeper seeks to halt the degradation, the soil is sinking between the roots and falling into the river. Erosion of this kind repeats throughout Chesapeake Country, where there are 11,684 miles of shoreline and over 100,000 waterways.

article – Green Living

News

– by Leigh Glenn – 6/4/15