Features (Environment)

Article - Environment; by Margaret Tearman - 1/5/12

7 Easy Steps to Energy Efficiency

Simple steps to lower your utility bills and ease the pressure on Mother Earth.

Upgrade to a Programmable Thermostat Keeping your home warm in the winter, or cool in the summer, requires a lot of energy. Control these costs with an energy-saving programmable thermostat. This thermostat is programmed by time and temp so that your heating or central air-conditioning is on when you want it to be and at the temperature you choose. About $65 at local home improvement centers, it will pay for itself in heating and cooling savings in a year...

Article - Environment; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/29/11

Sharing the Load

We’ll all have to do our part in managing our Total Maximum Daily Load if we’re going to piece together a healthier Bay

It won’t happen without you. The actions of federal, state and local governments are just the beginning of revitalizing the Bay. We are also counting on the partnership of millions of people who live in this region to join in protecting the waters that support their health, their environment and their economy. So said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this summer, speaking in her new role as this year’s president of the Chesapeake Bay Executive...

Article - Environment; 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 - Environment; 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 - Environment; 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 - Environment; 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 - Environment; 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 - Environment; 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 - Environment; by Diana Beechener - 4/29/10

The Potomac Gives up Its Trash

There’s a lot of weird stuff in 117.65 tons of waste

Over 7,055 volunteers waded into the murky depths of the Potomac River and its tributaries at the 22nd annual Potomac River Watershed Clean-Up. They emerged with over 117.65 tons of waste and litter. Those numbers are still climbing: The cleanup continues thru May 1. After all these years, there’s still plenty to clean up, according to Potomac River Watershed Cleanup Coordinator Becky Horner of the Alice Ferguson Foundation. The environmental education non-profit, based in Accokeek...