In mid-November, 260 volunteers joined staff from Blue Water Baltimore and Gunpowder Valley Conservancy to remove trash from local streams during the annual Better Waterways Fall Cleanup. At ten cleanup sites, seven in Baltimore City and three in Baltimore County, our amazing volunteers who cleaned up 10,000 pounds of trash! Together we also worked to…
Today, Blue Water Baltimore is proudly announcing a new faith-based initiative – fueled by a $250,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – to reduce polluted runoff in Baltimore’s watersheds. Uncontrolled, polluted runoff is the only source of water pollution still on the rise in the Chesapeake Bay. Stormwater running off hard surfaces…
Do rain gardens really work to protect aquatic wildlife? Researchers at Washington State University decided to find out for sure, and set up a pretty simple but clever test: salmon. They collected storm water from around the Seattle region and filtered some of it through soil similar to that in a typical rain garden. They…
Hi! My name is Erin McVey and I am the new Rain Barrel and Water Audit Program Coordinator at Blue Water Baltimore. Having just moved to Baltimore, it is great to be out and about getting to know the city and talking to residents about ways they can make a difference on their property by…
[Note: This week we are joining author Jennifer Chambers, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and the Alice Ferguson Foundation in a blog tour to celebrate children as watershed heroes, which is the subject of her new book aimed at young people.] At Blue Water Baltimore, we know that the health of our communities is inextricably linked…
[Note: Amy Dewan is the Americorps Storm Drain Arts Coordinator for Blue Water Baltimore. She is an environmental justice organizer, educator, and artist from Baltimore, MD.] With a mere week left in my AmeriCorps term here at Blue Water Baltimore, I feel as if my three-month term has flown by. We just launched the Storm…
This past Sunday was a beautiful day: great for playing (or watching) football, taking a nice fall walk or exploring Herring Run Park. Better yet, it was a great day for creating rain barrels. The Hall Springs section of Herring Run park is where we hold most of our rain barrel workshops. This Sunday we…
The Healthy Harbor initiative recently announced their vision for a fishable and swimmable harbor by 2020, and we are working hard to make that vision a reality. Baltimore neighborhoods play an essential role in accomplishing that goal because the health of our waterways and the health of our communities are directly connected. That is the motivation behind the…