Forest Restoration

Many Hands Make Light Tree Planting: Leibs Creek Buffer Planting with Trout Unlimited, Muddy Creek Chapter

Planting 500 trees in one day sounds like a daunting task. On your own, you would need to plant one tree every 173 seconds for 24 hours straight. But on this beautiful October morning, with a team of motivated volunteers on the job, we had the final tree in the ground in less than two …

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The Great Hack of 2020

As I finally finish regaling another successful and collaborative spring tree planting season and the last of the maintenance is being implemented, I can’t help but to praise the various tree species that have worked so hard over the season to help us realize our lofty dreams of more forests in our landscape. We strive …

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A photo of a goldenrod plant in bloom.

Glorious Goldenrod!

Hazy, late afternoon summer sun. Blue skies, drowsy hum of busy insects, and calls of bobolinks, song sparrows and eastern meadowlarks. Picking blackberries. Old fields behind the barn, seas of yellow and green, stand out in my mind’s eye. Deep breaths of that crushed scent – lingering and distinct – bringing the outdoors inside on …

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A close up photo of the eldeberry inflorescence (flower)

Respect Your Elderberries

Despite being scruffy, warty, and alien-looking, common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is a magnificent shrub. It is hugely beneficial to pollinators and other wildlife and produces a fruit that is prized for food and medicine alike. Elderberry is also incredibly hardy, fast-growing, and prolific, making it a surefire choice for restoration plantings. Though it is indeed …

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MLB: Major League Birds

Are you missing professional sports as the nation pulls together to slow the spread of COVID-19? In case watching old games is getting…well…old, we figured that our first ever Forests for the Birds celebration of spring would be the perfect occasion to highlight the avian Major League Baseball mascots and the teams that endear these …

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A single trout lily plant growing among the leaf litter on a forest flower.

Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers: Fleeting Friends of the Forest Floor

I love being in the woods at all times of the year. I’ll even gladly take the bitter cold of winter or sweltering heat of summer. But forests in the spring are exciting! A good month before most trees leaf out, another cadre of old friends return to our lives: spring ephemeral wildflowers. There is …

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Close up of a single American woodcock.

Big Romantic Gestures from the Little American Woodcock

Romance is in the air. For the American woodcock (Scolopax minor), that’s a literal statement. The courtship ritual of the woodcock is the most elaborate that I’ve seen outside of Homo sapiens, and is a must-see for lovers of forests, birds, or flirtation. In the southerly parts of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, lucky residents may …

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Attention Maryland landowners: Tree planting opportunity available

The trees on your land provide you a myriad of benefits. For the past few years the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has teamed up with Maryland Forest Service and the Maryland Forestry Foundation to help landowners implement tree planting projects through our Healthy Forests Healthy Waters program. With funding secured from the Maryland Chesapeake …

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A close up of the flower, rudbeckia

Resolve to Lose a Little Lawn in 2020

There are many good reasons to have a lawn. A lawn can be used for overflow parking, a space for children and dogs to play, or as a stable surface for heavy foot traffic around buildings and houses. But about ten percent of the land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is lawn cover. Do we …

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20 Acres of Trees Being Planted at Local School

PRESS RELEASE Contact: Marissa Spratley Email: mspratley@allianceforthebay.org Office: 443-949-0575 Cell: 410-718-2728 PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 20 Acres of Trees Being Planted at Local School DCNR, Penn State, and the Alliance Partner to Help Improve Pennsylvania’s Water Quality Manchester, PA (October 24, 2019) Today, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay (Alliance) joined Cindy Dunn, secretary …

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