Green Living

Climbing from Puddles of Life

In vernal pools, renewal is under way

Lindsay D.F. Hollister

This time of year, marbled salamander tadpoles are already swimming through the shallow waters of vernal pools. Vernal pools are temporary wetland habitats in our forests. They hold water long enough during spring to attract special animals that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else. Then the pools dry up, so fish and other large predators can’t live there. What is that? visitors want to know of the oddities they see when exploring a vernal pool at Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary.

article – Green Living

– by Lindsay D.F. Hollister – 2/28/13

Money Down the Well

By the glass, water’s cheap. Not so when you have to drill 260 feet for it

Michelle Steel

Water is pretty cheap in the United States: 61 cents a day supplies each of us with our daily ration of 123 gallons of water. Cheap enough that we take it for granted, until the well runs dry. That’s the day dreaded by every well owner, and there are lots of us. Public water is a blessing of urban and suburban communities. Rural communities still use wells. In Calvert County, where I live, approximately 15,400 out of roughly 34,150 households draw their water from wells.

article – Green Living

– by Michelle Steel – 1/10/13

50 Shades of Green

Composting is only one way creative people are avoiding waste. From art to ecology, the alternatives are as wide as your imgination.

Ashley Brotherton

Rethink Recycling Sculpture High-schoolers were up to the challenge of Maryland Department for the Environment’s 11th annual Rethink Recycling sculpture contest. Students in 22 high schools from across Maryland imagined new uses for everyday waste, from rusted machines to aluminum foil to water bottles.

article – Green Living

– by Ashley Brotherton – 11/29/12

The Composting Bandwagon

Composting is fermenting innovation. Here are some of the new thinkers leading the way.

Ashley Brotherton

Honey’s Harvest Market & Deli, Rose Haven Anna Chaney’s family has been composting since she was a kid, so when she started her businesses, composting came naturally. At Herrington on the Bay — Chaney’s wedding, special event site and catering company — and Honey’s Harvest Deli and Market, 10 to 15 tons of food scraps are composted each year at Chaney’s farm in Harwood.

article – Green Living

– by Ashley Brotherton – 11/29/12

Planting Strong Roots

With trial and error, we’ve found what trees thrive — and which die — in Chesapeake Country’s dense soil

Barclay Walsh

My husband and I have planted more than our share of trees in the soil of Chesapeake Country. We are not arborists by any means, but we have always wanted to plant trees. A cottage in Shady Side gave us opportunity, inspiration and a flat former cornfield, altitude eight feet, just a few hundred feet from the West River. Over the past 12 years, we have dug wide holes in the yellow clay and put in probably 120 trees. At least half have died, due to drought, deer damage or our irrational optimism.

article – Green Living

– by Barclay Walsh – 11/8/12

Get Your Free Lunch

Spa Creek Conservancy treats to get your business

Sandra Olivetti Martin

Water running off your roof, downspouts and parking lots into the roadways and storm drains is bad for the Bay. So bad that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks urban runoff and storm-sewer discharges as Public Enemy Number Two for America’s estuaries. Stormwater runoff could be bad for your business, too.

article – Green Living

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 10/18/12

Red, Right, Recycle

Green Annapolis collects at Boat Show

Ashley Brotherton

Annapolis looks less like a circus now that the U.S. Boat Shows — and their tons of waste — are packed up. This year was the first time that recycling routed waste. At 25 ecostations across City Dock, visitors found greener choices for recycling. At each station, a green 50-gallon bin collected paper, plastic, metal and glass while a red bin collected trash for the landfill.

article – Green Living

– by Ashley Brotherton – 10/18/12

One in a Thousand Ways to Save Our Bay

Homestead Gardens gets its stormwater under control

Sandra Olivetti Martin

A new river runs through Homestead Gardens. It’s a little out of the way, off to the side of the garden center with its plants, trees and shrubberies. But this river, which only runs when it rains, is at the center of making Homestead’s 12 acres a zero contributor to the pollution of Beard’s Creek, the South River and Chesapeake Bay.

article – Green Living

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 9/27/12

Saving the Bay Foot by Foot

Grants to restore shorelines multiply dollars and deeds

Sandra Olivetti Martin

Restoring the Bay is like cleaning house: We do it chore by chore. Fortunately, the Bay multiplies much of the effort we put into it. Put water in motion and it keeps moving. Put $800,000 into shoreline restorations, and the grants multiply dollars and deeds. The dozen new shoreline restoration grants in Maryland and four in Virginia are putting that money to work, multiplying the momentum.

article – Green Living

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 9/6/12

Anne Arundel County Farmers Market

More than 50 farmers sell at the county’s oldest market

Barbara Holcomb

At 31 years old, the Saturday Anne Arundel County Farmers Market is Anne Arundel’s oldest and largest. Over 50 farmers and producers sell not only fresh fruits, vegetables and meat but also a diversity of homemade goods, like soaps, pies, jams, ceramics, cards and beeswax items.

article – Green Living

– by Barbara Holcomb – 7/26/12

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