Our Environment
Dog Waste | Rain Gardens | Be a Good Creek Neighbor | Bay Friendly Living
OHCA Green Committee Meeting
Thursday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m.
Boris Residence, 1262 Creek Drive
Info: Kim Boris
Green Oyster Harbor Environmental Committee Mission Statement: To create a more environmentally friendly community by providing education and local resources to Oyster Harbor residents. This will include working with residents to enhance community and personal property by using the best practices available for but not restricted to:
- Recycling
- Composting
- Conserving energy
- Mitigating stormwater run-off
Order Your Rain Barrel for Spring!
Did you know…
The first inch of run-off is the most toxic for the environment. Run-off is the rain water that runs off your roof and the pavement, which mixes with pollen, shingle particles, motor oil, debris, etc. This debris can be potentially harmful when it reaches our creeks and the Bay because the water carries sediment and chemicals.
-
One rain barrel can hold 55 gallons of run-off from your roof.
-
Attach one or multiple rain barrels to each downspout.
-
Use rain barrel water to water your lawn and garden as well as indoor plants!
-
You can even use the water to wash your car!
Rain barrels are $60 per barrel (regularly $80). To order your rain barrels in time for Earth Day (April 22nd), contact Norm MacLeod at nhmacleod@verizon.net.
Please include your name and how many rain barrels you are ordering. Checks can be made payable to Arlington Echo. The last day to order will be March 10th. You will be contacted via e-mail when they arrive!
TIP: Next spring, keep your lawn mowed to keep the tick population down
Celebrating the Environmental Holiday Spirit
Oyster Harbor Rain Garden Planting
A Watershed Stewards Academy Capstone Project
(Norm MacLeod – Oyster Harbor Project)
Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009, was planting day, and well, there was so much snow, the plants that were already in just couldn't be found! The faithful crew did their best on Friday, Dec. 18, to get as much in the ground until o’dark thirty in the evening. They had a fun, even if a strenuous day. Work will resume when the weather gets more reasonable. The plant material is fully acclimatized to the cold and they crew just need to get the plants in the ground before it freezes. The remaining plants have been put to bed for a while until work can resume. | Printer friendly flyer
Kim Boris reaching for just the right plants
Kim Boris with her "haul" of native "Christmas presents"
Santa's helpers
Thumbs up for Kim from husband John Boris while Kim gets stuck in the muck
John helping untangle Kim from the muck, or else
Extraction accomplished, while others stood around laughing out loud
Spa Creek Conservancy volunteers, Anne Gillette and Amy Clements, in fashionable muck attire, high style boots and basic English Wellies, respectively.
Back yard crew in full planting mode. Kim’s “island” will be a showcase feature in Macleod’s Blizzard Lake.
Looking down the swale at rain garden (wetland bog!). Phases 2 and 3 in the planning stage.
Kim with her handpicked “Caramel” Corel Bells, John digging the big hole for an 8-ft. Sweetbay Magnolia that will love the site, and neighbor Frank (?) standing behind a tied up Serviceberry he just planted.Next task is starting on a native fern garden around the Atlantic White Cedars for Arlington Echo. Dennis Skaggs of Severn Grove Environmental Design, a Watershed Academy Grad and landscape contractor showed up with two crew members about 4 p.m. on Saturday, after completing a job. They helped put in another 50+ plants in some hard places and moved the big B&B Magnolia into its hole. The remaining plants have been put to bed for a while until work can resume.
This project is Phase 1 of multiple phases to restore a wetland area and mitigate storm water runoff issues destroying Fishing Creek.
The project consists of constructing a major Bioretention Cell/Swale – Rain Garden system. There will be multiple phases to restore a wetland area and mitigate storm water runoff issues destroying Fishing Creek. The cell will infiltrate 1,495 cubic feet of runoff a day, and will deal with a 1.75-inch storm, giving an infiltration runoff volume reduction of over 38%.
TASKS:
- Move biosoil mix into excavated bioswale and biocell (didn’t have enough money for contractor to do it). Lots of wheel-barrowing!
- Plant of 700 native trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns, grasses.
- Compete biocell diaphragm, intakes, and overflow systems.
For more info: Contact Kim 410 280-0434, Norm 410 268-7911, or Mel 410 271-5546.
We’re Planting Oysters in Oyster Creek!
Thanks to the efforts of Dave LaChapelle, Ian MacKinnon and Dr. Norm MacLeod, we now have 300,000 happy new residents in Oyster Creek. They are of the bivalve variety, or at least they will be when they grow up. And as they grow they will do what they do best – clean up the waters of Oyster Creek
If you are interested in joining the Environmental Committee, contact Elvia Thompson: 410 990-9025, elvia@stellarpresentations.com. We will have a meeting in January.
Through a program initiated by the Governor, and the quick thinking of Norm, the community obtained 300,000 oyster spat (baby oysters), that were originally destined for another location on the Eastern Shore, ) from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge last weekend. The spat-on-shell – that is, they have already attached themselves to old oyster shells – are currently in 100 bags, suspended from several docks in Oyster Creek. This is a temporary situation because the bags will not last long in the water and the spat must have room to grow into mature oysters.
So, as the first event of the Oyster Harbor Environmental Committee, an oyster cage building day will be held in the next few weeks. The date and time will be posted on the community website and on a sign at the community entrance.
This will be a fun activity for families who will not only learn how to build the cages, but will learn about the life cycle of the oyster and the importance of these little critters in cleaning up our Creek, and, by extension, our Bay. The cages we will build will float so that the oysters will be suspended just a foot or so from the surface where they can benefit from sunlight and the type of algae they need to eat to survive.
We will post more information about this project and about oysters in general on the community website.
Did you know:
- A house on the northwest corner of Oyster Creek used to be an oyster house years ago.
- One large oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day during the warm months.
- Oysters grow three inches a year.
This is, indeed, an exciting project for Oyster Harbor. After all, with a name like ours, how could we not be an oyster haven?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We
are so lucky to live in a beautiful community, with its wooded
landscape right next to the Chesapeake Bay. Soon we'll post
information here on simple things you can do to keep our community
-- and our Bay -- clean and thriving.
There are many things we can do to keep our two creeks — Oyster and Fishing — in great shape. The Spa Creek Conservancy has published some guidelines to everyday activities that can be done with the good health of our waterways in mind. They call it being a "Good Creek Neighbor." Read these helpful hints and see how easy it is to be a Good Neighbor to Oyster Creek and Fishing Creek. Follow this link for information on:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Chesapeake Bay
Foundation has information on "Bay-Friendly Living." Follow
this link for information on these topics and more.
-
10 Steps to a Bay-Friendly Lawn
-
De-tox Your Home with these Easy Alternatives
-
Where is Your Home Located?
-
What to do About Soil Erosion
-
Bay Friendly Landscaping
-
How to Deal with Hazardous Waste
-
Recycling Oil
-
Recycling Computers and Electronics
-
Use Water Responsibly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have standing water on your property after heavy rainfall? Consider using Mother Nature to drain the water away in a manner that is friendly to our Creeks: build a rain garden!
A rain garden is an area in your garden that contains an indentation or dip to collect rain and melting snow allowing it to seek naturally into the ground. The garden collects not only the water but also any pollutants it carries such as oil from cars and lawnmowers and pesticides.
A well-designed rain garden will drain in a day, so mosquito larvae will not have a chance to hatch. Native plants are the best choice for rain gardens and local nurseries can help you get started.
Here are some informative web links:
Rain Garden Network | 10,000 Rain Gardens | Rainscapes | Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Bay-Friendly Landscaping
We can ALL do our part to keep this fella and his friends a vibrant part of our community.
Oyster Harbor Citizens Association