Testimony about the Tree Budget

Last week, Montgomery county council members sat through four straight days of testimony about the proposed budget for the coming year. Mostly, the focus was upon the nightmarish cuts we are all about to experience.

We are not a county used to cuts. We are used to words like excellence, expenditures, and growth.

As soon as I heard about the budget hearings, I knew I had to testify about the tree budget.

While I sat there with my pal Ed and waited my turn to talk, I realized one thing. It would be very tiring to be a council member. Funny, but most of the time they actually seemed to really be paying attention to what was being discussed. I'm not sure why that exactly surprised me.

But picture it: I was third to the last on the list of four days worth of testimony. *I* got tired listening. I had only been there a couple of hours. Kudos to the council members for hanging in there. Its not like this is what they had in mind when they ran for council, I'm sure.

The hours were tiring, boring and sometimes really quite heart-wrenching. There are a lot of great programs being cut.

In light of all that, I still figured I had to go. I had to speak. Feeling very much like a lorax, I had to go and say something. The tree budget is tiny. Zeroing it out at this point won't gain much for the greater budget but will cost us all in the long run. We'll pay for increased stormwater problems. We'll pay for higher energy bills, and we'll pay with higher asthma rates.

My biggest concern is that the wealthy neighborhoods will continue to get trees with private funds while the neighborhoods already suffering from urban blight will nothing.

If I had to choose some areas to cut, I'd rather see some of the extraneous top executives that sit at the highest offices over at MC Public Schools get cut than see the trees go. (MCPS seems mighty top heavy to me. Mighty top heavy. What is the deal with that PR and Communication office that costs us millions, by the way? Do they really need that much money to keep the spin going? If the schools are doing well, shouldn't that simply be enough? Why do we have to have a multi-million dollar office to promote it? But alas, this is no education blog... and the Parents' Coalition does a much better job of ranting about that than I ever could...)

Beyond the tree planting budget there have been rumors floating around that the street tree trimming budget might also get -- well -- trimmed. I'm not sure about the truth of that, but I would really urge the council to reconsider that if it should come about.... putting off maintenance is really a risky idea. Dangerous and potentially expensive. But I detail that below.

Here's the testimony I read to the council on April 8. (And thanks once again to Ed for sitting through all that with me. )

****

Good evening, members of the council. I’m a resident of Silver Spring and tonight I’ve come to ask that you fully fund the street tree planting budget for FY 2011 to at least the level which was originally proposed for FY 2010: that is, $247,000. I’m also asking that you please make every effort to avoid cutting funds to tree maintenance programs throughout the county.

Trees play an integral role in our county’s efforts to fight environmental ills.

They can:

- beautify our neighborhoods and raise property values
- cleanse the air of pollution

- lower our energy costs, and
- provide habitat for wildlife.

But at a time when our county and state are facing tough stormwater problems, trees can also provide an inexpensive solution to creek flooding by soaking up hundreds of gallons of rain water. According to some recent federal studies, a medium-sized tree can filter as much as 2,380 gallons of water a year. Controlling stormwater has become a priority of our entire state as we all seek ways to restore health to our streams, rivers and the Chesapeake.

Cutting the street tree program will place a particularly hard burden upon the older, more urbanized neighborhoods of our county. In those areas, mature street trees are dying in large numbers and need to be replaced. Legally, homeowners cannot plant trees in a Right-of-Way. Only state and county arborists can do that. Without funding, those replacements will not be made.

In the past, the street tree program also offered a way that homeowners of modest means could contribute to neighborhood beautification and environmental protection efforts. And in some dense, urban places, the Right-of-Ways where street trees are planted offer some of the only space where a tree can be placed. Without the street tree planting program, some of those same areas will become urban heat islands.

The budget for the street tree program was already very lean before the most recent cuts took place. Thousands of trees along our streets demand care. It seems that the proposed cuts may eliminate or substantially reduce pruning operations. This would be both wasteful and dangerous. Wasteful, because without regular attention and pruning, small problems on existing trees can turn into large problems very quickly. By investing in the health of these trees now, we will avoid more expensive problems in the future.

The money needed for the street tree program and arboriculture programs through out the county is relatively small, but can have a big long-term impact. Our governor, Martin O’Malley, has implored us all to plant a million trees this year. I hope that we in Montgomery County will do our part to fund the public side of this challenge. Trees are an important investment for our county, and benefit us all. Investing in the health and safety of trees is a civic duty which we should not ignore.

Thank you very much for your time and attention.

****

More on Stormwater... I can't let it go...

I can't seem to let the stormwater thing go. I know it is time to move on, but I'm still incredibly irked that the stormwater story in Annapolis this spring ended the way it did.


A few days ago I explained why I was so passionate about a topic that seems pretty boring and unrelated to gardening and wildlife. I was sent an email that was pretty interesting last week regarding the same topic. That email, which I partly reprint below with permission, explains why some other people are so passionate about it, too.

For you to see, I forward this from the AWCAC:

"Testimony on Emergency Stormwater Regulations

Position: Against


The Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee exists to provide citizen input into the multi-jurisdictional effort to restore the Anacostia River. This effort is known as the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership (http://www.anacostia.net/) and is coordinated by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

On April 19th, the Partnership is scheduled to release an Anacostia Restoration Plan which includes numerous policy recommendations which are necessary to be followed for the Anacostia River to be restored. The Plan directly states, “The Maryland Stormwater Act of 2007 focus on using smaller ESD practices, which in many cases are practicable as a means of retrofitting to tight spaces, is very significant for the Anacostia.”

Uncontrolled stormwater from Maryland has done massive damage to Anacostia Watershed streams, resulting in spiralling costs to the State. Unless the Maryland begins strict control of stormwater volume as soon as possible, the damage and costs to the State will continue to increase. These emergency regulations will delay efforts to restore the Anacostia. "

Native Plant Sale in Takoma Park this Saturday

I've been told that there will be a native plant sale this weekend in Takoma Park.

What: Native Plant Sale When: April 17, 2010

Rain Date: April 24, 2010

Where: 7125 Willow Ave. Takoma Park, MD 20912

Time: 1 pm - 4 pm

Sounds fun!

A Real Loss for the Bay: Stormwater Emergency Regs Become a Reality

So the "emergency" stormwater regs went through. Ugh. So much for fighting the Holmes Bill.

Here's the news wrap up:

WYPR in Baltimore gave this summary

Senate Panel Approves Controversial Storm Water Regulations

The Baltimore Sun

House-Senate panel OKs easing pollution curbs
Developers of projects under way get more leeway on limiting runoff

A few friends who follow my blog via Facebook have asked why someone that gardens cares so passionately about stormwater.

I'd answer this way: for years and years people like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the state of Maryland and the EPA have been asking us to please garden responsibly. I fully embraced the notion of conservation gardening from the start. We should all try to go organic, plant trees, remove invasives exotics, plant native plants and reduce our yard's run-off.

But why, I wonder, are we constantly holding homeowners to this high standard but letting developers get away with continued pollution?

There is nothing more frustrating than spending your own, cold, hard, cash AND TIME to implement things like raingardens and rainbarrels in your own yard only to walk down the street and see that some major new building is do far more harm in run-off than your little garden could possibly counterbalance.

It is like pushing a rock up hill. Repeatedly.

And it is unfair, I think, to ask homeowners and farmers to bear the brunt of these burdens while developers get away with doing far, far less. Especially since development in the state of Maryland has sprawled out across our watershed exponentially for decades.

I watch the creeks near my urban home get blasted after each storm and see how that can set off a chain of pollution events and ruin the potential recovery of that the Bay. I can't help that collectively we are doing too little, too late for the Chesapeake.

That's why.

Vernal Pool Parties

I was at a professional meeting in January when someone asked this very interesting question: If you had one chance to show someone what you treasure about the Chesapeake watershed, where would you take them?

Here was my answer:

I’d take my kids out on a warm evening in early April, when the woods come alive with panoramic activity. Get your boots, kids. Tonight we will go exploring.

And as the sun began to make its descent, we’d drive off to find a great spot near a creek. Maybe a spot with wet, muddy areas full of frogs who are laying eggs. A spot where some salamanders might linger in the warm night air. A spot where we can shine a flash light and listen for owls once it turns dark, or hopefully be exposed to the deafening chorus that spring peepers like to make when they start mating.

That’s the part of the Chesapeake I treasure the most: the streams and their valleys.

Sure, I love the harbor fronts of Annapolis and Baltimore. I like eating crabs, and I could spend endless days exploring the Eastern Shore. But despite growing up in Maryland, I’ve never been sailing out there myself. Mostly I’ve only watched the boats cross under the Bay Bridge on my way to the beach.

I was a suburban kid, who grew up in a bland little housing development that bordered the woods and fields of the uplands. We were not a sailing family. Our piece of the watershed, the place where we first shook hands with the Bay, was up in the creeks.

Those little muddy waterways were the most interesting thing that rather generic, cookie-cutter housing development had to offer. I remember finding crayfish and hunting for cool rocks. I remember sledding down hill and falling in and laughing till I cried. I remember the sound of the water burbling. That was where I wanted to be all the time: at the creek which flowed behind my friends' houses.

There used to be a lot more spots like that around. It is hard now to find places to enjoy the creeks the way that I enjoyed them back then. Sadly, I also know just how bad the water quality in many of the most accessible creeks has become. The numbers on fecal contamination aren’t good, and there are more toxins in some creeks than I’d like to consider. (The water quality wasn’t even great when I was a kid. One of my earliest “environmental awareness moments” was being furious that someone had poured something mysterious and bright green… maybe antifreeze?... into our neighborhood creek one afternoon.)

But some sweet spots still do exist, and as the spring unfurls like a warm lovely banner you can get out there and be a part of it all. You go in winter-weary, and you come out having experienced the wonderment of warmth as it wakes up the earth. With any luck you are muddy, a bit cold and smiling. You are invigorated and strangely humbled.

There is no better time than April for this kind of adventure. Even if you haven’t ever explored this watershed’s woods ever before, I guarantee you will find something incredible.

I can’t wait to get out there, myself because I’m hoping that all of the snow we got this winter will add up to some great vernal pool activity this spring.

Vernal pools are those little pockets of water that pop up only in the spring time. They fill up with water and become temporary wildlife hotspots, but by mid summer they dry out and disappear. Because they are not permanent they do not contain fish, making them ideal breeding areas for several amazing kinds of amphibians. The frogs and toads lay eggs without fear of becoming a fish’s dinner.

Rock Creek and the Northwest Branch both have incredible pockets of biodiversity in and around their deeper stream valleys, farther away from urban encroachment. Look carefully as you hike and you can find some wonderful vernal pools to view during the soggy spring season. Peer over the edge of the water in those little pond-like areas and you just might see clumps of frog eggs or even tadpoles swimming around. You might find a salamander or two, as well. On a really lucky day you might also bump into a box turtle along the trail, or hear the flute like call of a migrating warbler making its way north.

If you have trouble locating vernal pool areas on your own, you can sign up for a walk with the MNCPPC naturalists who work at any one of the local nature centers. Some of their walks specifically feature vernal pool explorations. Farther south in DC, the National Park Service also offers a full spectrum of interesting hikes in the lower regions of the park. And even farther afield, the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Lothian offers some incredible opportunities to learn about vernal pools and their residents this spring.

Many of the same areas of these parks that host vernal pools are also home to colorful native wildflowers. In April, you can find an amazing array of plants which are only here in spring. Known as ephemerals, these plants emerge quickly at the end of winter, bloom and sometimes set seed in the matter of just a few short weeks. Then they wither and disappear, going completely underground again until the next year. These include Spring Beauties, Virginia Bluebells, Trout Lilies and Mayapples.

Again, the same parks listed above offer ample opportunities to join naturalists for wildflower walks. The non-profit Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase also offers some fantastic walks, including a few that are led by Cris Fleming, the author of a well-loved local guidebook, Finding Wildflowers in the Washington-Baltimore Area.

(If you find that all of the naturalist-led field trips are full you can always buy Cris’ excellent book and head out on your own this spring. She really gives you detailed information and makes it easy.)

No matter whether you go out -- in the daytime or the evening, whether alone or with a naturalist -- please remember to respect the specialness of the vernal pools and wildflowers. That corny, old expression that has long been posted at park entrances still rings true: take only memories, leave only footprints. Don’t pick the flowers or harass the animals. Don’t try to take any home any frogs as science experiments or turtles as potential pets. All of those actions can cause real and lasting damage and ruin the park for everyone else --including the animals. And neither the animals or the wildflowers will give you any pleasure once they’ve died at your house.

Instead, consider yourself a guest at their posh woodland party and enjoy their insanely good music from a polite distance. That party only lasts for a few short weeks and is worth attending.

(This posting originally appeared in the April 2010 edition of the Voice newspapers, which prints my column entitled "The Sligo Naturalist" each month.)

Save the Forest for the Trees: Join the Garlic Mustard Challenge

Save the forest for the trees, help pull the invasive exotic plant known as Garlic Mustard out of the parks April 18-25 during Montgomery County's Garlic Mustard Challenge.

Garlic mustard looks pretty, smells bad, and can inhibit the growth of many of the beneficial fungi that live in the root zones of healthy, mature trees. The plant can carpet the forest floor in early April, outcompeting other plants, including many native wildflowers. The native wildflowers are beautiful, but also provide many important food sources to native animals that co-evolved with the flowers for thousands of years.

Pulling is easy, and if done correctly can eradicate, at least temporarily, the plant from the forest.

For more info on how to participate in Montgomery County's event, go to:

http://www.montgomeryparks.org/PPSD/Natural_Resources_Stewardship/Veg_Management/weed_warriors/2010_garlic_mustard_contest.shtm

Photo courtesy of Lynette Scaffidi

Eric Hartley: Compromise slowly killing Chesapeake • Top Stories (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)

Eric Hartley: Compromise slowly killing Chesapeake • Top Stories (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)

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