Watershed

Man guilty of false advertising A Cecil County man pleaded guilty in Harford District Court on Tuesday to charges of false advertising and soliciting for an unlicensed tree expert business. Charles David Blanford, 26, of Colora was sentenced to the maximum $1,000 fine and one year in jail. His sentence was suspended and he was placed on three years' probation. Blanford circulated business cards for Blanford's Tree Removal, Blanford's Tree Specialist and Blanford's Tree & Landscape at a restaurant in Bel Air, Maryland Natural Resources Police said.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to announce today that the city is giving $100,000 to the Herring Run Watershed Association for its new environmental center on Belair Road. The center, which is scheduled to open in the fall, will be one of the greenest buildings in Baltimore - complete with composting toilets, a tankless hot water heater and a roof that recycles storm water. The city's grant marks the end of Herring Run's two-year drive to raise the $600,000 needed for the building, which they hope will brighten up Belair Road and be an inspiration for those seeking to improve the neighborhood.

A group of Pinewood Elementary School students descended on the stream next to their school yesterday afternoon. They dug holes, planted trees, and caught and released crawfish, all in an effort to learn about the environment by cleaning up the water near the Timonium school. They worked - but no one seemed to notice the heat. "We've been out in the sun for a while," 7-year-old Morgan McCanie said, "so I'm used to it now." The project was paid for through a Baltimore County school system program designed to promote environmental education.

THE PERSISTENT battle over land use on the border between Carroll and Baltimore counties has taken another turn, this time with Baltimore City entering the fray.The city has, in effect, declared a moratorium on development in the 160 square miles of Liberty Reservoir watershed it owns, most of which lies in Carroll County. But Carroll has designated areas around the sprawling watershed for rezoning as commercial-industrial sites, in particular 600 acres of "conservation" zoned land.The result is that Carroll refuses to reaffirm the 20-year-old Watershed Management Agreement between the city and four metro counties.

Jasper Chisolm, 6 1/2, sat with his bicycle on a curb of West Cold Spring Lane yesterday morning, waiting to take to the highway.Peering down the off-ramp from the northbound Jones Falls Expressway, he watched a steady flow of bicyclists, in-line skaters and walkers whizzing by him -- and wondered when it would be his turn."

IN RESTORING environmental quality, there's an understandable tendency to focus on reducing pollutants that directly degrade water and air quality.Equally important, however, is improving what one might call environmental "resilience" -- the systems that help nature help itself to reduce pollution.With oysters, dredging long ago leveled the reef structures in which shellfish grew best. Draining wetlands removed an important filtering system. The vast meadows of submerged grasses driven from the bay by pollution absorbed huge quantities of pollutants.

ON JULY 4 of next year, if all goes as federal wildlife officials plan, the bald eagle will be celebrated as officially "recovered," a triumph for the Endangered Species Act that protected it for 33 years.So why won't Virginia ornithologist Mitchell A. Byrd, dean of the Chesapeake's eagle researchers, be cheering?His reasons are caution about eagles, but also about assuming too readily what a sustainable balance between people and the rest of nature truly requires.Byrd and his colleagues at the Center for Conservation Biology, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, agree that the bald eagle has made an inspiring comeback.

Local landscaping firm wins national safety awardsAspen Grove Landscape of Millersville has been awarded two national safety awards -- the "No Lost Time Accidents" and "No Vehicle Accidents" awards -- in the Associated Landscape Contractors of America Safety Contest.The contest is divided into categories according to the total number of hours worked during the contest period. The Fleet Contest recognizes firms with good vehicle safety records.The Associated Landscape Contractors of America is a national trade association serving professional interior and exterior landscape contracting firms throughout the United States.

TREES ARE an economic miracle. They filter pollutants from air and water, provide cooling and shade in summer, protection from winter cold, wildlife habitat and storm-water control against erosion and pollution runoff, absorb carbon dioxide and retard global warming.Yet tree cover in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is rapidly disappearing, with development the prime cause. Nonurban areas are losing trees at the same rate as the highly developed Baltimore-Washington corridor.Between 1973 and 1997, high-canopy tree cover in the heart of the watershed plummeted from 55 percent to 38 percent, according to satellite maps analyzed by American Forests, a nonprofit conservation group.

THE RESIDENTS OF A tony enclave, whose fine lawns slope to a pretty little cove off Norfolk's Lafayette River, were outraged one recent summer when a fish kill befouled their waterfront.With marine terminals, chemical plants, urban malls and the Navy's Atlantic Fleet all located nearby, potential causes of the kill were not lacking.The homeowners, influential around Tidewater Virginia, demanded action. But they did not much like it when the probable culprit was identified.It seemed decaying lawn clippings dumped into the cove, rather than left to recycle their nutrients into the lawns, had depleted oxygen and killed the fish, water quality experts said.

You won't find Harris Creek on modern maps of Baltimore. For more than a century, it's been filled in and paved over and channeled into underground pipes. But before the industrialization of the Canton waterfront, it was a large body of water - wide enough to be navigable as far north as what is now Patterson Park and deep enough to play host to the boatyard that built the frigate Constellation. The watershed Harris Creek drains is still there in more than 50 miles of underground pipes - along with a small visible vestige of the original creek where a large storm drain spews a mixture of water, runoff and trash into Baltimore Harbor across from the Safeway on Boston Street.

David MacIntosh Evans A graveside memorial service is planned for Summer of 2010 in Lovell. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the following organizations: Kezar Lake Watershed Assoc., P.O. Box 88, Lovell, ME 04051 or National Rifle Assoc., 11250 Waples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030 (www.nrafoundation.org). Online condolences may be placed at www.directcremationofmaine.com

A Charles County creek regarded as one of the Chesapeake Bay's best remaining fish spawning areas has been ranked among the nation's most endangered rivers because of plans for a highway and development across the creek's watershed. Mattawoman Creek, a mostly forested Potomac River tributary that also harbors rare plants, abundant waterfowl and bald eagles, made the list published Tuesday by the environmental group American Rivers. "The river's really at a turning point," said Katherine Baer, a top official with the group, which annually puts out a list of the 10 most endangered waterways.

Even in sparse January garb, the river is lovely - ebbing, flooding, meandering between shores of unbroken pine and hardwood, splashed by mistletoe and holly in full berry. But the real show is about to begin. As the sun lowers into the wooded swamps on the far bank, there comes a far-off hallooing, yodeling, piping, closing fast, the purest, wildest music of the winter Chesapeake. Flight after flight of tundra swans are on the move, seeking refuge here for their nightly rest. One of the world's largest waterfowl, weighing up to 20 pounds, some 20,000 of the swans migrate to the Chesapeake each autumn from as far off as Alaska's North Slope and the Yukon Territories.

Maryland will spend nearly $2 million to preserve 615 acres of environmentally sensitive land on the Eastern Shore. The Board of Public Works agreed yesterday to pay private landowners for easements to protect tracts in Wicomico, Dorchester and Cecil counties. The state will pay nearly $710,000 to preserve 292 acres about 10 miles south of Vienna, in Wicomico County. The tract, near the mouth of Quantico Creek, includes about 150 acres of woods that provide habitat for certain songbirds and other animals that live only in deep forest.

The Jones Falls Expressway is a partially elevated, high-speed swath of pavement dominated by fossil fuel-burning urban commuters - not Baltimore's earthiest element. But Sunday, thousands of outdoor enthusiasts will park their cars and traverse the exhaust-free interstate on foot. It will be closed for part of the day so area residents and visitors can walk, bike, run or just enjoy the view from the highway that cuts through the city. People can also boat and take in the Jones Falls, which runs under the JFX. Organizers say the Rally on the River, formerly known as the Jones Falls Valley Celebration, is supposed to be fun. But, more important, it also aims to serve as a lesson in volunteering, and to teach people to protect the region's water sources and their dependent life.

Talk to focus on energy conservation The Green Building Institute will offer a talk by Thomas H. Marston of Energy Services Group on "Evaluating Your Family's Energy Profile" from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the institute's Enviro-Center, 7761 Waterloo Road, Jessup. He will review the audit process developed by the Building Performance Institute and speak about typical energy defects and ways to improve air quality and make a home more cost-efficient and comfortable. Admission is free but reservations are requested.

Near the Interstate 95 on-ramp just beneath the intersection of Bush and Russell streets in Baltimore, the outfall of Pipe 263 inspires little optimism. Trash bobs in sickly green water. Plastic bags hang from drooping trees on the riverbank. Here, stormwater flows untreated from a 72-block underground watershed, a network of storm drains that channels water beneath the streets of West Baltimore into the Patapsco River and into Baltimore Harbor beyond. Ultimately, this dirty water ---- laden with organic matter, toxics, nitrogen and phosphorus ---- heads for the Chesapeake Bay. Aboveground feels pretty bleak too. Abandoned houses checkerboard the 12 neighborhoods that make up Watershed 263, defined by the hydrology of underground pipes.

For the past eight months, Luke Brackett has been part administrator, part lone ranger. Hired by Baltimore City in November to spearhead the creation of a new police force to protect the three city-owned reservoirs in Baltimore and Carroll counties, Brackett spends part of his days patrolling the watersheds and part interviewing applicants interested in joining his force. "I'm tasked with bringing the department to life," Brackett said. "We're still getting our feet wet, no pun intended."

Hospice holding a raffle Tickets are available for a raffle sponsored by Gilchrist Hospice Care (formerly Hospice of Baltimore and Howard County) to win an Escape Hybrid, a Bullitt or a Mustang. Proceeds will help fund Howard County hospice programs. Tickets, which cost $25 or five for $100, are available online at www.Gilchristhospice.org or by calling 410-730-5072. The winning tickets will be drawn at the 23rd annual Taste & Auction event, to be held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oct. 19 at Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City.