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Volume
4, Issue 8 |
September/October 2012 | |
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IN THE
ZONE is a service from
the
Maryland Department
of Natural Resources'
Chesapeake & Coastal Service
(CCS)
that delivers timely
information, tools, and resources to those who live,
work, and play in Maryland's coastal
zone. |
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| CCS
SPOTLIGHT: STREAM
RESTORATION CHALLENGE NOW ACCEPTING
PROPOSALS
Pre-proposal
assistance is available to applicants
There's one
month left to prepare and submit your proposals for
Governor O'Malley's Stream
Restoration Challenge. All proposals are due on
October 31, 2012.
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Click the image above to download
the Request for
Proposals. |
The
Stream Restoration Challenge is a competitive grant
program open to local governments and non-government
organizations to establish 1,000 acres of stream-side
forests by 2015. For this challenge, the State and its
partners will make available $6M to plant forested
stream buffers with the goals of improving Bay water
quality and creating opportunities for middle and high
school students to engage in service-learning and
environmental literacy activities.
Local
governments, school systems, watershed organizations,
land trusts, and community groups are getting excited
about the potential impact of these projects. Engaging
the community, namely middle and high school students,
in restorative practices will build their capacity,
appreciation, and stewardship of our natural environment
and local waterways - all leading to healthier
Chesapeake and Coastal Bays.
As
the deadline approaches, the State has made new
resources available to potential applicants. On the website, we have
links to Marylanders Plant Trees, where applicants
can find technical assistance, local nursery
information, and tree coupons. We have also posted Evaluation Guidelines, Application Components, and a Sample
Budget. Additionally, we have made the webinar presentation
and Q&A session available on the
site. If you are preparing a proposal and
need some assistance, contact Gabe Cohee at gcohee@dnr.state.md.us to
schedule an in-person meeting or conference call to
discuss your plan.
Don't miss the great educational
materials that the Bay
Backpack has put together for the Challenge
as
well. |
CHESAPEAKE
& ATLANTIC COASTAL BAYS TRUST FUND
CELEBRATES FIVE YEARS!
Check
out "We Did That," DNR's first video on the Trust
Fund
![We Did That [Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund]](https://thumbnail.constantcontact.com/remoting/v1/vthumb/YOUTUBE/4e85d66479d54e4f8d1235e17e88832b) |
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Video: We Did That [Chesapeake
and Atlantic
Coastal Bays Trust
Fund] |
This
year marks the fifth year that the Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust
Fund (Trust Fund) has been providing support towards
State and Local initiatives for the reduction of
nonpoint source pollution. In State Fiscal Year 2013,
the addition of $38M in General Obligation Bonds brings
the Trust Fund up to $63M, the same amount as the past
four years combined! The addition of the capital funds
has allowed the State to triple the amount of funding
for local stormwater projects and is estimated to
support 467 jobs.
In
order to better communicate and celebrate all the great
work that is going around the State, CCS will be
creating a series of videos as well as revamping the
Trust Fund webpage to allow the public to learn more
about the efforts going on in their area.
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LIZARD HILL BOG:
ESTABLISHING AN ACIDOPHILIC
WETLAND
Project
Restores Landscapes and Habitat in
Bishopville
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Video: Lizard Hill Wetland
Project |
Finding opportunities to build
large-scale wetland restoration projects that provide
exceptional water quality benefits and critical habitat
for rare, threatened and endangered species is a
difficult but essential task. This is why the State
Highway Administration decided to approve the funding of
DNR's idea back in the mid 1990's for an atlantic
white cedar bog wetland restoration project
at an old sand borrow pit just west of Ocean
City.
Bogs are exceptional at improving water
quality, and provide needed habitat for rare and
endangered species, which in turn provide food and cover
for other species that otherwise, would not be able to
survive. Since the first site visit
by DNR in 1995, with planning and design spanning many
years - the now complete 20-acre acidophilic
wetland ecosystem, "Lizard Hill Bog," is an excellent
example of an innovative wetland restoration.
So far, 6,000 Atlantic White Cedars and
a unique variety of pH tolerant plants that thrive in
bog ecosystems have been planted. This is significant
because the original Atlantic White Cedar vegetative
communities were extirpated from the Maryland Coastal
Bays around the turn of the last century. In fact,
Bishopville was once part of the Great Cypress Swamp
complex that covered the eastern edges of Maryland and
Delaware. That important ecosystem became fragmented
over the past hundred years, although small pieces still
exist in areas of the Pocomoke, Nanticoke and Coastal
Bay watersheds.
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Photo courtesy of Claudia
Donegan. |
Efforts from volunteers, State staff and
Maryland Coastal Bays employees are ongoing today at
Lizard Hill. Over the past month alone, they placed 24
cubic yards of live sphagnum moss - an essential
ingredient for creating a bog wetland system. This fall
work will continue, including invasive vegetation
management and planting a variety of hardwoods, which
will balance the edge habitat on the restoration
site.
Putting these rare ecosystems back where
they once thrived is a main objective of CCS's Habitat
Restoration and Conservation Division.
If you would like to know more about the project
or come lend a hand during our fall reforestation of
this unique habitat, please contact Claudia Donegan at
cdonegan@dnr.state.md.us. |
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2012
EXPLORE THE PATUXENT TEEN LEADERSHIP PADDLE
Navigating
the Waters of Youth Environmental
Leadership
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Photo courtesy of
CBNERR-MD. |
Environmental
work without stewardship is a losing
battle. Lacking the passion for and personal connection
to nature, it is next to impossible to increase support
for environmental issues. An effective avenue to develop
an environmental advocate is through issues
investigation combined with a venue where they can
become actively involved in the solutions.
Youth
advocates are valuable independently, but by pairing
their experiences with leadership training, the
individuals grow on two levels: they become more
connected to their environment while gaining important
leadership skills which have innumerable "real world"
applications.
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For
each of the past three summers, the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research
Reserve (CBNERR-MD), in partnership with Jug Bay
Wetlands Sanctuary and the Maryland National Capital
Parks and Planning Patuxent River Park, has hosted
a five-day intensive leadership program
during which teens are exposed to four key
elements: fostering personal connection and
environmental ethic development, building science
understanding, connection to heroes and mentors, and the
implementation and growth of leadership
skills.
Explore
the Patuxent: Teen Leadership Paddle is held
one week in July and again for one week in August. Teens
from Maryland and Northern Virginia high schools spend a
week learning leadership skills and estuarine science
while enjoying paddling and camping along the Patuxent
River. The "Teen Paddle"
provides
opportunities for the future leaders to improve their
coastal literacy by listening to speakers, sampling fish
and water quality, assisting in stewardship projects,
and participating in leadership training
exercises
during their five-day paddle. The teen
leaders become immersed in Patuxent River issues and
explore their role in solving them. The
week culminates with group presentations to community
leaders.
Building
on a nurtured enthusiasm for the Chesapeake Bay and
supporting their continued growth as leaders, the "Teen
Paddle" builds skills that young adults can draw upon to
champion environmental issues through leadership roles
in their households, schools, and
communities.
For
more information on the "Teen Paddle", e-mail
Trystan Sill at tsill@dnr.state.md.us.
"The
teens were exposed to such a wonderful variety of issues
and adventures that were educational, muscle building,
and fun." - Parent of a 2012
Paddler
"I
was so glad that I went, and can't wait till next
year!" - Noah
Zingler 2011 paddler
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MARYLAND
ENVIROTHON: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COMPETE FOR COVETED
STATE AWARD
Environmental
Literacy Is Alive And Well at Harford Christian
School
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CCS staffer Stacy Epperson with
Harford Christian School team winners. Photo by
Colin McAllister. |
This past June 19 and 20, 18
winning county teams comprised of 90 students converged
at St. James School in St. James, Maryland to compete in
the 22nd annual Maryland State Envirothon
Competition.
Maryland Envirothon, an environmental
education competition for high school student teams, is
hosted and supported by local Soil Conservation
Districts. CCS staff and others train the students and
write and administer the test. The students are tested
in four topics areas (soils, wildlife, forestry, aquatic
ecology) and a rotating fifth topic. This years' fifth
topic was Nonpoint Source
Pollution/Low Impact Development.
Harford
Christian School produced the winning team and as state
champions, moved onto the Canon Envirothon event held in
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania four weeks later. 54
teams from Canada and the United States competed at the
North American event. After a week of intensive study
culminating in written and oral testing on the last day,
Harford Christian School finished in 7th place! During
the past five years, Maryland teams have consistently
placed in the top 10 percent at the nationals. CCS
congratulates Harford Christian School on an outstanding
showing!
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CCS
AND PARTNERS HOST SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY RATING SYSTEM
(CRS) TRAINING
Participants learn
more about the voluntary program to prepare and protect
Maryland communities from flood risks
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Click on the thumbnail above to
download the CRS
brochure. |
On
September 20, 24 local government and state staff,
representing 14 different jurisdictions attended the
Maryland Community Rating System (CRS) training.
The training was held in partnership with CCS, Maryland
Department of the Environment (MDE) and Federal
Emergency Management Adminstration (FEMA) Region III.
CRS
is a voluntary program within the National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP) and by participating in CRS a
community can reduce their vulnerability to flooding.
CRS goes beyond the minimum requirements of the NFIP and
a benefit to the community is lower flood insurance
premiums. There are nine participating communities
in Maryland and 2 about to be accredited.
Additionally, through Maryland's CoastSmart Communities grant program, three
more communities will be preparing CRS applications as
part of their projects.
Through
this training communities were given more detailed
information on the CRS program and interact with and
learn from the experiences of communities already
participating in the program. If you would like more
information on CRS contact Kevin Wagner with MDE
at kwagner@mde.state.md.us. |
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MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL
COUNCIL ON THE OCEAN (MARCO) ANNOUNCES A NEW,
IMPROVED MAPPING PORTAL
Developing
Resources for Regional
Ocean Planning
The
State of Maryland, in collaboration with states that
form the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council for the Ocean
(MARCO), is announcing the launch of an upgraded ocean
data portal, at portal.midatlanticocean.org, to support
multi-use, ocean planning in the Mid-Atlantic. The MARCO
Portal contains the best-available, regionally-relevant
data and presents it in a user-friendly platform to
engage all stakeholders in ocean planning from the five
state Mid-Atlantic region.
Both
the data and the mapping tool, Marine Planner, are
organized around industry sectors and focus-area themes
highly relevant to planning in the Mid-Atlantic,
including: Fishing, Renewable Energy, Maritime, Marine
Life, Security, Recreation, and Administrative boundaries.
Over
the coming months, the MARCO Portal project team will be
conducting outreach to collect critical data and allow
key stakeholders in regional planning to develop the
Portal further. In the meantime, we hope that you will
take some time to test drive the new Portal and give us
your feedback. | |
CCS
WELCOMES NEW COASTSMART COMMUNITIES
PLANNER
Partnership
with UM Center for Environmental Science helps DNR
continue to deliver technical and financial
assistance to coastal
communities
CCS is pleased
to welcome Kate
Skaggs to our team as DNR's CoastSmart
Communities Planner. The duties of Kate's position -
made possible through a partnership with the University
of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) -
will be leading CCS's efforts to provide technical
assistance to local communities throughout the coastal
zone to incorporate coastal hazards and sea level rise
adaptation into local planning and management efforts.
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Kate Skaggs, somewhere NOT in
Maryland's
coastal
zone. |
Kate received
a BS in Environmental Science from Lynchburg College in
2006 and an MS in Environmental Studies, with a
Certificate in Urban and Regional Planning, from the
College of Charleston, SC in 2010. Her Masters thesis
focused on the privatization of natural resources in the
South Carolina Lowcountry. She looked at how the
governing bodies interacted and involved the local
community, what this interaction may mean for the future
of the local, minority communities, and how a rising
"Nature-class" may be shaping and gentrifying the
Lowcountry.
After
graduating, Kate accepted a two-year NOAA Coastal
Management fellowship in Olympia, WA with the Washington
State Department of Ecology Shorelands section. The
final deliverable for the fellowship was a guidebook for
local governments in WA to help plan for sea level rise
adaptation. This document primarily focuses on a broad
adaption process including five phases: scoping,
mapping, a vulnerability assessment, risk assessment,
and a final action plan. The goal of this process is to
help local governments who are currently in a wide
variety of adaptation stages, with varying degrees of
available resources and physical and political
geographies, address sea level rise within their
jurisdiction. Kate's fellowship concluded in mid-August
2012.
Communities
interested in learning more about CoastSmart Communities and steps
they can take to address vulnerability to climate change
impacts and resources available to help tackle climate
change related risks at the local level should
e-mail Kate at kskaggs@dnr.state.md.us
or call
410-260-8743. |
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MARYLAND
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ROLLS
OUT STRATEGIC DEMOLITION AND SMART GROWTH IMPACT
FUND
New
$2.5 million Fund now accepting
applications
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Hyattsville, Route 1 infrastructure
improvements.
Photo courtesy of
DHCD. |
The
new Strategic Demolition and Smart Growth Impact
Fund (SGIF) is seeking to catalyze activities that
accelerate economic development, job production and
smart growth in existing Maryland communities. The SGIF
aims to improve the economic viability of "grey field
development" which often faces more barriers than
sprawling "green field development." Since funds are
limited, awards will focus on those smart growth
projects that can have a high economic and
revitalization impact in their existing communities. In
FY13, up to $2.5 million will be made available in the
form of grants or loans. If you have a high
impact smart growth project that can benefit now from a
catalytic investment, now is the time to apply to the
new DHCD Strategic
Demolition and Smart Growth Impact Fund
(SGIF). Applications are due on Friday, October
12. | |
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Feel
free to contact us with any comments, questions or ideas for
future
IN
THE ZONE
e-mails. 
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A
publication of the Maryland Coastal Zone Management Program
pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Award No. NA11NOS4190151. This publication is funded (in part)
by a grant/cooperative agreement from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The views expressed herein
are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
views of NOAA or any of its
sub-agencies. | | |
