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It’s hot, it’s dusty, it’s perfect weather to get out there and wash your car! But think about this before you suds up your lovely vehicle: where does all of the dirt, oil, and soap from your car go after you wash it? ….Are you stumped? It gets dumped down a storm drain. Why does that matter? Because, unlike the water that you flush down the toilet, water that’s swept into a storm drain isn’t treated before it empties into a local stream or river. Now, all of the things you didn’t want on your car are in a local water body. This often includes metals, nutrients, and hydrocarbons—all things that we shouldn’t be putting in our streams. So what

If you read the Howard County Commission report or, many of the pages on this site, you will have heard from us that we think planting a tree is probably the single greatest thing you could do to help our environment. Trees help us with clean air, clean water, shade trees in our yards help keep our energy use low and they provide us with higher aesthetic environment and better quality of life. This fact led us to create the 2,010 trees program. This program set up to give away native trees to residents so that they may plant them in their yards. As you are probably aware, this program was wildly successful and we gave away all 2,010 trees

As evidenced by the County’s recent give-away, 2010 Trees in 2010, planting trees is a high priority for the County. What is the return on investment for such a program? I’ll tell you…Trees: - Remove carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen; - Provide food and habitat for wildlife; - Intercept water, store some of it, and reduce storm runoff and the possibility of flooding; - Potentially reduce energy costs by providing shade during hot summer months (of timely importance) and/or acting as a windbreak during colder times; - Beautify a property; and - Provide privacy. The added bonus of trees when planted in a stream buffer, as is done through the Stream ReLeaf Program, is that streambanks can

This blog has been reposted from Deeproot by blogger Leda Marritz. To read more of their blog posts, click the link below: http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/the-effect-of-trees-in-paving… A study recently published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening presents data showing that trees planted in paving can significantly reduce stormwater runoff. The results, published by D. Armson, P. Stringer, and A.R. Ennos, are taken from data collected in Manchester, UK from January 2011 to September 2011. The study created 5 test sites, each containing three 9 square meter plots: one of grass alone, one of asphalt alone, and one of a tree planted in a small (1 meter x 1 meter) opening and surrounded by paved asphalt (see image above). Each test site was identical

This blog has been reposted from Deeproot by blogger Leda Marritz. To read more of their blog posts, click the link below: http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/the-role-of-trees-and-plants-… For the last two weeks in December I’ll be re-posting some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Generally, only soil storage is accounted for discussing the role of green infrastructure in stormwater management. But as this post makes clear, trees and plants play a huge part as well. – LM Silva Cells were originally developed to provide adequate tree rooting volumes even in areas dominated by pavement. They do do this by extending rootable soil volume under HS20 load bearing surfaces. These rootable tree volumes and the large trees that root in them are also

This blog has been reposted from Deeproot by blogger Nathalie Shanstrom. To read more of their blog posts, click the link below: http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/how-trees-and-soil-improve-wa… We write a lot about the benefits that trees and soils have on water quality. But what, exactly, do they improve? Back in 2011, landscape Nathalie Shanstrom tackled this topic, explaining in easy-to-understand terms what we mean by when we refer to water quality improvements. While seriously impaired runoff is not a concern on most sites, trees and soils remain one of the most efficient and most safe methods from removing common pollutants. In fact, in some cases trees benefit from the stormwater: “Not only has vegetation been shown to significantly improve nutrient removal, trees also seem

This blog has been reposted from Deeproot by blogger Jared Tarbell. Visit the link below to read more posts from their blog. http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/how-trees-affect-soil-infiltr… Tree Roots Improve Soil Infiltration Rates As discussed in previous blogs, tree and soil provide stormwater benefits in many different ways: Cleansing: Trees clean stormwater through many different mechanisms, including filtration, adsorption, and plant uptake. Interception: Interception is the amount of rainfall temporarily held on tree leaves and stem surfaces. This rain then drips from leaf surfaces and flows down the stem surface to the ground, or evaporates. Infiltration: Infiltration is the movement of surface water into the soil, where it can be temporarily stored, infiltrated into underlying soil, discharged to an underdrain, evaporated back into the

This has been reposted from the Stream Hugger, by blogger S. Alderfer. Visit the link below for more interesting stormwater topics. http://stream-hugger.blogspot.com/2013/03/stormwater-runoff-good-bad-ug… OK, with a title like that, you might think I would actually quote that classic spaghetti western. But no. I'll open with a quote from a different classic flick. “Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.” That’s what Travis Bickle, the Taxi Driver, said in the 1976 Martin Scorsese movie of the same name. Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro, was referring to vigilante justice as the rain and some of New York City’s shadiest characters as the scum that would be washed away. photo by the author But this post isn’t

Reposted from DEEPROOT GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE BLOG. Visit their website for more interesting posts about stormwater. http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/small-stormwater-projects-gre… By: Leda Marritz Last month, I read an article about the merits of starting small when it comes to stormwater harvesting projects. The article started with the statement that some cities that have evaluated stormwater harvesting have concluded that the investment is too large relative to the benefits. It then goes on to examine the town of Wrightsville Beach, NC, that found itself with an unexpected surplus of water after implementing a small roof runoff collection project from the town’s municipal building complex using cisterns. According to the article, the goal of the cistern collection system was modest – they wanted enough water to

By: Jenny Hoffner This blog was reposted from American Rivers. Visit their website below for more interesting blogs! http://www.americanrivers.org/blog/city-of-atlanta-moving-ahead-with-gr… Atlanta is known for being a city of trees and lush green landscapes. At the same time, it is also known for being a congested sprawling metropolis with plenty of pavement and related stormwater problems and water supply issues. Well, in an effort to fix some of these problems and tip the scales in favor of a greener Atlanta, the City is opting for green stormwater infrastructure that increases greenspace, quality of life, health and wellness in addition to effectively addressing localized flooding and stormwater pollution. On February 4, the Atlanta City Council approved significant changes to the “post-construction stormwater ordinance”