It’s been awhile since we last met, and I’m organizing a meeting for early May.

Mark Symborski of the Montgomery Planning Dept. will brief us on the Environmental Site Design (ESD) aspects of the Zoning Code revision.  

The event will be held at ANS-Woodend on the evening of

Tuesday, May 8., from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. (Meeting starts at 7:30 pm)  

The address:  8940 Jones Mill Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Agenda:  We will have our traditional potluck social hour from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, the meeting will start at 7:30 pm with announcements; then we will have Mark’s presentation and discussion from 7:45 to 9:00 pm.

Please RSVP to let me know you will be there, and what you will bring (beverages; main dishes; side dishes/ chips; and desserts are all welcome.)  And please forward this invitation to your list servs and active members.

Thanks,

Diane

Conservation Montgomery is hosting a dance party at Pathways Offices, 9339 Fraser Avenue, Silver Spring, MD  20910 on April 28th to raise money for tree planting in Montgomery County.
See http://www.conservationmontgomery.org/pdf/DANCE%20FOR%20THE%20TREES.pdf for information about it.  The flyer can also be found here.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This Thursday, February 16, the Montgomery County Stormwater Partners Network are meeting with DEP - including DEP Director Bob Hoyt and Watershed Division Chief Steve Shofar — at DEP’s large meeting room, from 7 pm to 9 pm (see location information and agenda below.)

I hope that you can join us for this meeting - we have a full agenda that will cover the waterfront on stormwater permit, funding, stream protection and related issues.

Please join us if you can, and RSVP to me (if you haven’t already) at dianecameron60@gmail.com.

Thanks very much,

Diane

Agenda for the Joint Stormwater Partners - DEP meeting on Feb. 16, 2012
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Location:  DEP’s “Ozone” meeting room, 255 Rockville Pike, Rockville MD 20850.

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In today’s New York Times, there is a terrific article titled Harnessing Local Pride for Global Conservation which describes how an organization called Rare has used social communication technologies to achieve environmental successes at various places around the world.

In St. Lucia, a trained advocate “believed that the government needed to establish a sanctuary for the parrot and institute tough penalties — but there was not enough public support to make it happen. He got the idea to launch a campaign, with government support, to tap the islanders’ sense of pride. He created a parrot mascot — Jacquot — and got volunteers to dress up in colorful costumes and visit schools. He printed T-shirts, created puppet shows, commissioned children’s magazines, encouraged hotels to print bumper stickers, convinced a popular band to record a song about the parrot, and asked ministers to quote Bible verses about good stewardship. The campaign took off, the government passed the laws, and the parrot was saved.”

It seems to me this approach could be used in the Anacostia and other local watersheds.   Last year in response to Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee requests, a MD DNR staff person floated the above image of “Annie” a female belted kingfisher as a possible mascot for the Anacostia.

The NY Times article concludes with this quote by the advocate who came up with the parrot idea: “And let’s not forget the power that emotions have in driving behavior.”

The presentation made by the WSSC can be found here.  A preliminary qualitative observation is that 80-100% of the bacteria sources in area streams has been found to be pets, wildlife, and agriculture.  This highlights the need for continued introduction of stormwater reducing technologies to reduce this pollution in our waterways.

Note: The comment in slide 4 “Suggestions from AWS considered: Reduce sampling points outside Anacostia watershed.”  Emphasis on the word points.  The complete suggestion was to reduce the sampling points and double the monitoring frequency at those stations, leaving the actual number of times monitoring was done unchanged at those stations.

Dear Stormwater Partners and Friends,We have a short window of time to save the last remaining forested area in the Wheaton Sector Plan.
This green forested buffer contains remnant streams and headwater catchments that drain to Sligo Creek (of Northwest
Branch of the Anacostia) and to Lower Rock Creek.  Mapping, protecting, and expanding existing green
forest buffers is one of the most important first steps we can take in any watershed restoration program.

Please see the attached graphic map that shows the location of this green forested buffer, the Costco project,
and the surrounding residential communities near the Westfield-Wheaton Mall.  (Thanks to Dolores Milmoe
of Audubon Naturalist Society for the map.)

Your emails and calls to the Montgomery County Council are needed now,

before Close of Business, Monday, November 21.

Sample letter below, but adding a personal note is most powerful.    Let’s save and expand this green buffer!

Thank you for helping to protect our green forested buffers,

Diane Cameron

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In a recent article How Germany Became Europe’s Green Leader: A Look at Four Decades of Sustainable Policymaking, there is a discussion on how that country became a leader in sustainable infrastructure and environmental site design.   The article states that:

“the majority of German households are charged for stormwater services based on an estimate of the stormwater burden generated from their properties. This approach of individual parcel assessments (IPAs) differs from the approach used in the United States, where the same charges are levied on all parcels or all parcels of the same class (such as residential). Since IPAs in Germany are used to assess fees that relate directly to conditions present on specific parcels, and because land-use decisions (like paving a driveway or installing a green roof) have major impacts on the amount of stormwater leaving a property, this approach creates incentives for individuals to incorporate green infrastructure on their properties.”

This approach has several benefits: it is useful in increasing public awareness of the impact of their personal land use decisions on water quality; the detailed data gathered is helpful for government planning; and, the data can be used to design new fee structures that promote on-site stormwater management.

Don’t forget to put December 9th on your calendar for a dance party ($15 for adults; $5 for kids) to support Stormwater Partners (as part of a series of Dance Parties that raise money for local environmental efforts; last time, we supported Nick’s Organic Farm).

The dance party will be held Friday, December 9, from 7:30 till 11:30.
Beer, wine, juice and munchies and crunchies will be available.

What: Dance Party to support Stormwater Partners Network

When: Friday, December 9th from 7:30 - 11:30 PM

Where: The Silver Spring Office of Pathways near the old Forest Glen
Seminary, 9339 Fraser Ave, Silver Spring MD 20910

–Joseph

*The Majestic Plastic Bag: A Mockumentary*

This Chesapeake Bay inhabitant is something that almost every citizen in the watershed has seen in the wild. They have watched it swing in the breeze from trees, float slowly toward sewer drains during rain storms, and tumble playfully across roads in their communities. Although they may seem harmless, plastic bags in “the wild” can actually hurt local
ecosystems and animals. Watch this great‘mockumetary’ on the life of a plastic bag.

With the crucial partnership of a community group, Washington, D.C., is having initial success with pilot neighborhood programs aimed at reducing stormwater runoff.

Steve Saari, watershed management specialist for the district’s Department of the Environment, described the high rate of participation and commitment in the two neighborhoods, one in Petworth and one in Chevy Chase (D.C.). He made the comments at a Friends of Sligo Creek/Neighbors of the Northwest Branch Stormwater Committee meeting September 12.

RiverSmart Homes

RiverSmart Homes is a District-wide program offers incentives to homeowners interested in reducing stormwater runoff from their properties. Homeowners receive up to $1,200 to adopt one or more of the following landscape enhancements: shade trees, rain barrels, pervious pavers, rain gardens, and BayScaping. In return for the improvement of their home landscape, the homeowners – about 1,500 so far – commit to perform maintenance such as weeding and emptying rain barrels. They must allow DDOE to conduct inspections and conduct tours of the properties. Saari estimated that 80-90 percent of the participants are in fact performing the required maintenance so far. (See http://ddoe.dc.gov/ddoe/cwp/view,a,1209,q,497794.asp for more information.)

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