_______________________________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Tony Hausner Safe Silver Spring Phone: 301-587-6943 thausner@gmail.com
Evan Glass Conservation Montgomery Cell: 301.980.2968 Evan.Glass@gmail.com
Pablo Blank Un Granito de Arena pabloblank@gmail.com
Local Nonprofits Receive Funding for Community Tree Planting from the Chesapeake Bay Trust Community Greening Project Aims to Work with At-Risk Youth to Develop Greener and Safer Communities (Silver Spring, MD – Dec. 3, 2012) Three Montgomery County nonprofit organizations announced today that they will join forces and help reforest an urban section of the Long Branch area in Silver Spring, a subwatershed of the Chesapeake Bay. The partners’ “Community Greening” project will be funded with a $5,000 grant awarded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT), an Annapolis-based grant-making organization. Technical guidance will be provided by the Montgomery Planning Department. The Community Greening project will recruit primarily Latino and African American middle and high school students in underserved areas of the Long Branch community to plant 25 trees within this underserved area of the county. The organizations will also work with the students to remove invasive plant species from the proposed planting areas to prepare sites for new trees. A growing body of research points to a connection between ample green space and tree cover, overall higher quality of community life and lower crime rates. A 2010 “Crime and Fear”i study published by Dr. Kathleen Wolf of the University of Washington College of the Environment showed that: • •
Public housing buildings with greater amounts of vegetation had 52% fewer total crimes, 48% fewer property crimes, and 56% fewer violent crimes than buildings with low amounts of vegetation. Studies of residential neighborhoods found that property crimes were less frequent when there were trees in the right-of-way, and more abundant vegetation around a house.
With a tree canopy that covers only 13 percent, the Long Branch area is part of the 200-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed. The area bounded by Flower Avenue, Piney Branch Road and Arliss Road in the Long Branch county planning area has been identified on the County Urban Canopy Assessment as the second most denuded urban section of the county. To sustain healthy streams and creeks and community quality of life within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the area around the Long Branch stream valley should have a minimum of 25-30% tree canopy, according to data from the national nonprofit, American Forests. “We’ve known for a long time that a healthy tree canopy contributes to the overall quality of life and health of a community, improving air quality, water quality and mitigating the impacts of climate change and the heat island effect in urban communities,” said Caren Madsen, who chairs the nonprofit Conservation Montgomery and will serve as the project leader over the next year. “By getting students outdoors and giving them a dose of Vitamin G, we’re looking to bring community members together to make a positive difference in their neighborhoods.” The Community Greening project will run over the next year, ending in December of 2013. The three nonprofits will work with guidance from arborists and planners at the Maryland-National Capital Parks and
Planning Commission (Montgomery Planning Department) who are providing data to show the best potential planting areas. The nonprofit organizations will hold training sessions for the students and adult mentors and will organize two community tree planting events in the 2013 spring and fall planting seasons. After planting, the volunteers will be asked to water the young trees and assume a stewardship role in the maintenance of the trees as they get established. “Safe Silver Spring is pleased to have a role in this project because of the potential that it has to bring underserved members of our population together around a common goal,“ said Tony Hausner, who chairs the nonprofit Safe Silver Spring. “We are eager to help with recruitment of youth for this service project and lend a hand in identifying the best areas of the Long Branch community to plant and preserve tree canopy.” Stream conditions in the Long Branch subwatershed of the lower section of the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River have declined over the years as a result of polluted stormwater runoff, dense development, tree loss and neglect. Watershed monitoring by Montgomery and Prince Georges County agencies shows a poor water quality rating for Long Branch, Sligo Creek, and Northwest Branch, which are all urbanized areas of Montgomery County. “We support this excellent project because of the valuable lessons we can bring to the Latino community,” said Pablo Blank, acting director of the grassroots group Un Granito de Arena. “Over the past three years, we have worked with the Latino community to improve awareness about a healthy environment and to promote simple ways to save the planet and improve our lives each day.” ###
About the nonprofits: Conservation Montgomery helps county residents understand their role in environmental stewardship. Over the past year, Conservation Montgomery has been responsible for adding 25 trees to the county tree canopy with community planting projects. For more information: www.conservationmontgomery.org Safe Silver Spring: The Mission of Safe Silver Spring is to develop strategies, partnerships and goals to keep Silver Spring a community where people can live, work, travel, shop and play safely. Safe Silver Spring encourages citizens, community and business leaders, businesses, non-profit organizations, and public officials to take steps to reduce crime and keep our neighborhoods safe. Un Granito de Arena, translated means “A grain of sand.” The organization is working toward incorporation and 501c3 status and will change the name to LEAD Environment – Latinos for Environmental Action Daily. The organization goal is to support educational programs and activities geared toward protecting and caring for natural resources, contributing to the cleanliness of our neighborhoods and cities, and promoting civic responsibility and respect for others. Links for background: • • • •
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Montgomery County Urban Tree Canopy Assessment: http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/environment/tree_canopy.shtm Landscape and Human Health Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://lhhl.illinois.edu/index.htm Green Cities, Good Health: Crime and Fear Fast Facts: http://depts.washington.edu/hhwb/Thm_Crime.html Environment and Crime in the Inner City: Does Vegetation Reduce Crime? http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/EnvironmentAndCrime.pdf
Wolf, K.L. 2010. Crime and Fear - A Literature Review. In: Green Cities: Good Health (www.greenhealth.washington.edu). College of the Environment, University of Washington.