How Quickly Things can Change

Photo by G. Crouch

In little time, Matthew went from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. By late next week, peoples' lives on this coast may be dramatically interrupted. When these storms track west of the Chesapeake Bay, the storm surge has been reported as high as 15 feet in one long ago incident. The flood hazard estimates for the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant use a maximum probable surge of 27 feet (the plant survives, but so long Norfolk, Annapolis, and Baltimore).

Storm surge isn't the concern for my home, but a major hurricane hit would possibly take off the roof or knock down walls. We would not be in the house at that point, having evacuated to a shelter or to the hinterlands about a day ahead of the storm. More than likely, we would be dealing with something less than a category 3 hurricane this far up the bay, so my choice would be to ride it out (though, this time, with all of the saturated ground, toppled trees would be a bigger problem than usual).

Time to start going through the hurricane checklist. Hopefully, track forecasts will allow me to put such preparations aside short of having to shift to the evacuation checklist.

Breakthrough!

Fragipan is one thing, but what about soils that are highly compacted from the top down? This is a problem common in urban landscaping, and not uncommon in parts of suburbia as well. Compaction makes it hard to start and grow plants, including trees, which serve many important functions, especially in cities. The solution is excavation and replacement of the compacted soil with a suitable growing medium.

Photo of urban landscaping by thanh.ha.dang (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In Stockholm, Sweden, one enlightened leader grasped the choice of replacement growing medium as an opportunity to introduce biochar into the mix whenever trees are being planted in civic landscaping projects. Biochar brings many advantages over commonly used peat moss, including its resistance to compaction. The biochar techniques used by Bjorn Embrén, head of landscaping for the city, were developed over decades and have shown stupendous results in the growth rate and survival of trees. The mixes they use include relatively little soil, but massive amounts of various grades of gravel and biochar. Tree roots find the open structure very accommodating.

Embrén's advice to cities who are interested in these techniques is "Dare to try it and you will be convinced!"  What we, in Maryland, must do first is make a few changes to the specifications for growing media in the Stormwater Design Manual, which dictates a loam/sand mix for infiltration devices. Adopting these techniques would make it possible to select from a wider range of vegetation in bioretention and filter devices, as biochar-based filters drain more quickly than those that rely primarily on soil.

At any rate, we shouldn't have to take the full development and test approach to begin adopting these designs - that part has already been done. All we need is a few delegations visiting Stockholm to see how to make them successfully. They can start by reading this manual. It is a bit old and doesn't use the term "biochar." The term they use instead, "structural soil," could have been key to adoption of the changes since it sounds so common sense and familiar.

A Way to Plant Free Trees

The erosion control project that I am advocating for my church is to block surface runoff from eroding the topsoil into our detention pond by building a hugelkultur mound on the upper rim of the excavated area. This mound would be planted with a cover crop for at least one season, but after that, it would get some perennials or even trees in places where they wouldn't interfere with future building plans.

I hope we can get started with our preparations soon because we might be able to get help from The Alliance for the Chesapeake's Trees for Sacred Places program, which offers not only free trees, but technical support, training, and religiously-oriented motivation. You just need to have room to plant 60 or more trees. This may be possible, but it would surely fill up our open ground (outside the future building footprint). Teaming with another church congregation to make a total of 60 tree plantings may have to be our approach.

Alliance for the Chesapeake has partnerships with an organization called Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, which includes the tree planting program and a new program called RiverWise which looks at stormwater management more broadly, similar to the Watershed Stewards program, and even provides substantial financial assistance to correct problems.

It makes sense to involve church congregations in these efforts. They already have many diligent members who want to be contributors to improving their local communities, but starting with their own properties is a necessary first step.

Trees for the People

In Maryland it can be hard to see the trees for the forest, since the forests cover over 40% of the landscape. Forests offer cover, but trees offer comfort, whether from their fruits, nuts, shade or shape. A tree in a forest is just another occlusion, while a tree free to unfold can be a wonder to behold.

Photo by liliebloem CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In case anyone in my area was planning to plant trees this Spring, the end of March is the free shipping deadline on trees from Izel Plants and Tree-Mendous Maryland. The latter is a government program for plantings on public property and the former is a clearinghouse for a few commercial nurseries specializing in native plants. Prices from either are about half of what you would pay at retail nurseries. Good deals on small numbers of trees are also to be had at Master Gardener and Garden Club plant sales.  Sotterly Plantation's is coming up at the end of April, as is the Calvert Master Gardener's on May 7. Trees planted in large quantities for conservation efforts can be ordered from the Maryland online nursery at just $1 each.

We get the urge sometimes to plant trees. We want to offset our own carbon emissions, leave a lasting token of our love of life, or maybe mark the years of our demise by a tree's increasing grandeur. We may own little land on which to plant, but who says you have to own the land?

A guerrilla tree planting methodology could involve meeting with authorities concerning the public lands nearest your usual haunts to see if they would want any more trees planted on those properties. If they are open to the idea, come back with suggestions of sites (unless they already have some in mind), species, and patterns. If they can budget for the work to be done or just for the trees, then it makes things easier the following year, but in the meantime keep a lookout in the vicinity for tree service companies working in the area and get a truckload or more of woodchips dumped on the site. If you can get 2 inches of compost (preferably with biochar) or manure and layers of newspaper and/or cardboard (weed blockers) in place before the woodchips, so much the better. The site will be ready to plant in after a year or so of this organic material decaying in situ.  Order trees between January and March for the best deals on shipping.  If the owner is unable to bear the expenses, other civic groups, like the Master Gardeners may have funds to contribute.  The steps outlined by the Tree-Mendous Maryland program capture other essentials and should be followed in conjunction with the guerrilla methodology.

So, next time you look at an open space in your community that seems barren, unattractive, and lacking purpose you now know a possible way to bring it to life. I'm not sure where I will apply it, but once our erosion control project is done at my church, I'd like to follow +Michael Judd's example "like Johnny Appleseed in spreading these patches everywhere. "