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American shad's decline a mystery
Back from the Brink
Action plan will coordinate; review Bay cleanup goals
Hoping to curb the amount of stormwater washing off streets, parking lots and lawns, officials in Baltimore County this spring are trying to get homeowners to plant a small forest of trees.
In a partnership with local businesses, its new Growing Home Campaign is distributing coupons that give homeowners $10 off the price of most trees purchased from nurseries in the county. The goal: plant 10,000 trees.
County officials don’t see the program as an expense, but rather as a big potential savings. Studies show trees can sharply reduce the amount of runoff, and therefore reduce the amount of costly stormwater improvements needed in older, developed areas.
Of all the actions needed to control nutrients and sediments to meet Bay cleanup goals, retrofitting stormwater control systems in previously developed areas is among the most expensive items identified in state tributary strategies that guide cleanup efforts. “This initiative was tied specifically to the recognition of the Bay problem and tributary strategies,” said Don Outen, of the county’s Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.
Installing Best Management Practices to control urban runoff—especially in areas developed before stormwater regulations were enacted—is hugely expensive. It can cost $150,000 to design and construct a single detention pond to retain runoff in an area that has already been developed, Outen said.
Planting trees has the potential to greatly reduce those costs. “This as an alternative to a structural stormwater BMP,” Outen said.
Trees intercept rainfall, slowing the rate at which it hits the ground. That gives rainwater a greater chance to soak into the soil, rather than run off the land. In addition, trees soak up large amounts of water—as well as nutrients and other pollutants.
American Forests, a conservation group, in 1999 estimated that the tree cover lost in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area from 1973 to 1997 resulted in an additional 540 million cubic feet of runoff annually, which would have taken more than $1 billion in stormwater control facilities to manage.
Restoring tree cover can help to reverse that impact. In fact, the Bay Program is encouraging urban areas to set tree canopy cover goals in part to help reduce urban runoff. Besides reducing stormwater costs, trees can help reduce air pollution, as well as reduce heating and cooling costs for homes.
About a third of Baltimore county, roughly 130,000 acres, falls below its Urban Rural Demarcation Line which effectively sets the limit for urban development. Ninety percent of the county’s more than 800,000 people live in that area. But that area has a huge “tree deficit”—with a tree canopy cover of only 16.9 percent, according to a 2002 study.
Studies suggest that urban areas should have between 25 percent and 40 percent tree canopy cover to maximize environmental benefits. Outen said it’s not clear exactly how many trees it would take to fill that gap. “I think we could comfortably absorb multiple years of Growing Home,” he said.
Baltimore County’s program seeks to boost the number of trees in its urban areas through a financial incentive and education program. The county is covering $5 for each coupon, while the retailer covers the other $5. On average, the homeowner will spend an additional $15 to purchase the tree. “Unlike any other capital investment you do, we are actually leveraging the public investment,” Outen said, “Our $5 is turning into at least a $20 private sector investment.”
County officials favored the coupon approach over traditional tree planting programs, which distribute low-cost seedlings for free, out of concern that many of those trees are never planted or didn’t survive. Also, trees planted as seedlings take longer to produce results.
“This isn’t a seedling, so it is likely to get planted,” Outen said. “In five years, it can be a pretty good size and making a difference.”
Further, the program builds partnerships with nurseries, instead of competition. The hope is that homeowners will get better information about what trees to get, and how to plant them—as well as the proper supplies—increasing the odds of tree survival.
“The customers are coming, coupon in hand, to not only buy a tree, but to buy peat moss, some mulch, a shovel if they need it,” said Diana Cohen, the county’s coordinator for the campaign.
Coupons are being distributed in brochures that provide information about how to plant trees, and how to plant the right trees in the right place—tall trees should not be planted near power lines, for instance. “Many people said the educational information was as important, or more important, that the $10 coupon.” Cohen said.
Initial indications are that the program is a hit. Brochures distributed to libraries and other public facilities were quickly snapped up in April, and hundreds of coupons were downloaded from the county’s web site in the program’s first week.
To be valid, purchasers have to fill out the coupon, which provides the county with information about where the tree will be planted. That will help officials to determine whether trees are getting planted in high-priority areas. If not, they may tweak the program in future years.
Further, data collected from nurseries will help officials determine whether the program resulted in additional plantings — or whether the coupons were used to purchase trees that homeowners would have bought anyway. The coupons expire June 30.
Most trees—but not shrubs—can be purchased with the coupon. While the program is not limited to native species, some exotics which are highly invasive, such as Norway maple, are excluded.
“Not all native trees do real well in urban conditions,” Cohen said. “We decided we would open up the definition of qualifying trees to include all natives, as well as many trees that were tolerant of urban conditions. As soon as we did that, the list expanded greatly.”
If the program—which is being supported by the U.S. Forest Service through a Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grant program—proves effective, Outen said other local governments may want to follow suit.
“I think this is something that communities can do,” he said. “This is also something that is good for the business sector. They are getting customers walking in the door.”
Information about the program, as well as a downloadable brochure and coupon, can be found at the Baltimore County website, http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov
