In my recent blog about pruning I discussed why we prune trees and the best time to prune them. This week, we will provide you with four easy-to-follow steps on how to prune young trees as well as tips to make the pruning process as painless as possible for you and your trees. Step 1: Assess…
To help you learn how to care for the trees at your home or on your street, we are announcing a series of all-new tree pruning workshops. These free events will teach you what you need to know, and enable you to help Blue Water Baltimore maintain some of the several thousand trees we have planted over the last…
If you are as excited about getting outdoors as I am, I encourage you to check out the many ways you can volunteer with us this March. Everything we do at Blue Water Baltimore is designed to result in better streams and healthier communities. We are offering volunteer trainings in FOUR different programs this month!…
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the 2013 Environmental Legislative Summit in Annapolis, hosted by the Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment. Halle, our executive director,had asked me to represent Blue Water Baltimore at the Summit, and I happily agreed. To be honest, though, I always feel hesitant about going to Annapolis. And…
From the desk of Halle Van der Gaag, Executive Director The 2013 Maryland General Assembly is here! This is a preview of the legislative issues on which Blue Water Baltimore will be focused this year. Check out our blog and our website often–more specific details, actions steps and bill numbers will be updated on our…
The past two years, the bands, roadies, and event staff of the Vans Warped Tour have taken a day off from head-banging and face-melting to help Blue Water Baltimore in our efforts to save our streams. It was hard to top 2011’s project, where we converted more than 30,000 square feet of asphalt in Hampden into an outdoor…
Here’s an alarming statistic: the trash interceptor where Watershed 246 empties into the Baltimore Harbor (near Canton) receives between three to five tons of trash MONTHLY. That’s 6,000 to 10,000 pounds of refuse getting carried by stormwater from the city’s streets, to the storm drains, and then directly to the Harbor–in the time it takes…
[NOTE: Debra Lenik is the staff Volunteer Coordinator at Blue Water Baltimore, and first joined us in 2010 as part of the AmeriCorps Volunteer Maryland program.] A colleague recently asked me where I saw myself in ten years. Holy mackerel, I thought. Ten years?! I’m 23 years old now and of course, that’s as far…
This post is a joint entry by Debra Lenik, Volunteer Coordinator, and David Flores, Program Manager for Water Quality and Pollution Monitoring. Debra: I may complain about long hours in the field during the spring and fall, but by the time January comes around, I’m definitely itching to be outside again. So when I received…
Now that winter is almost upon us, we have a chance to take a breather and look back on what we’ve done this year. And what a year it was! From Blue Water Baltimore’s official launch in January to Operation Nursery Blanket this coming Saturday, 2011 has been full of fun events and fresh faces,…