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When you think of bamboo you may think of giant pandas or red pandas and that makes perfect sense as the word ‘panda’ is thought to have come from the Nepalese words ‘nigalaya ponya’ translating to ‘bamboo eater’. Although you can find both beloved creatures in zoos or research institutions, like the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, there are no wild North American species that consume the invasive bamboo species.
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Our ongoing efforts to install and maintain a reforestation project at Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary School in Richmond, VA has been recognized (thanks to everyone who voted) as the top urban BMP in the Bay this year!
The streets we travel during our evening walks or work commutes are full of twists and turns, bumps and curves. These same streets carry the oil that drips from our cars, the fertilizers we spray on our yards, the salt laid on the street in preparation for the snow that inevitably doesn’t fall, and many more pollutants.
Depending on where you are in the watershed, this unseasonably warm spell may have your plants getting ready to break dormancy early. Right now is a perfect opportunity to prepare your garden and prevent it from blooming too early.
This fall, on a chilly October morning, Alliance staff members on the Virginia Green Infrastructure team met with employees from Dominion Energy and community members at John B. Cary Elementary School (Cary) to plant native trees and shrubs in the school’s conservation garden. The garden is formerly a grassy lawn converted to a landscaped area that provides multiple environmental benefits and serves as an outdoor classroom and recreation space for the school and surrounding neighborhood.
It can be easy to forget where our food comes from and the work that goes into making that food (and that it doesn’t just appear in a grocery store). In a similar way, it can be easy to ignore where the native seed mixes we purchase come from. In the era of online shopping, it just takes a few clicks to have a nice sack of native wildflower seed mix delivered to our doors, but of course, much more work goes into the process of making sure there are enough native seeds to go around!
Rain gardens are a crucial piece of green infrastructure that capture and filter stormwater before it enters local waterways. They are bowl-shaped and full of native grasses, perennials, and shrubs whose roots filter sediment and pollutants from runoff. They also prevent flooding by storing water, reducing erosion from collecting sediment, and providing habitats for native …
Summer is here and with it, some of our favorite weather. Rising temperatures drive us to the water, where we enjoy a range of outdoor activities, including watching thunderstorms! While afternoon storms are often accompanied by welcome cooler air, they also bring sudden downpours and large volumes of water that come too fast for the …
It seems like everywhere you look, the native flowers of the Chesapeake are in full bloom. We asked our native plant-loving staff to provide a few fun facts about some of their favorite native plants! From herbal teas to honey bees, it’s fascinating to learn about the beneficial qualities of our native plants! We hope …
The Alliance is excited to launch a new project, Maintaining Best Management Practices in the Anacostia Watershed, to increase the functionality of green infrastructure practices for healthier lands and water and to promote workforce development opportunities, particularly within overburdened and under-resourced communities.
