Baltimore County Trees

In 2009, Baltimore County was awarded $7.4 million from the Dept of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (part of the ARRA recovery act) to create programs and replicable models that will help us live a low-carbon-emissions life.

The newly created Baltimore County Dept of Environmental Protection and Sustainability has allocated $500,000 of that to the planting of trees around school and county government buildings.

Utilizing an "energy tree opportunity index", the county is assessing where they will get the biggest bang for their buck. That is, they are canvassing 253 parcels of land and over 500 buildings to see which can both benefit most from the cooling shade of trees (and other collateral benefits) and which have the necessary infrastructure to support them.

Half a million dollars is a lot of money, and it is a great start. But it doesn't go far enough.

It would be even better if the county challenged home owners, neighborhood associations, apartment building managers, local business associations and local businesses themselves to celebrate this initiative by matching them, tree for tree. Individuals and groups could be recognized as "tree partners" or "tree stewards", helping to lower their energy costs while the county lowers its energy costs.

And wouldn't it even be better if the power companies, especially BGE, would support the organization and implementation of this program, offering something like a "peak rewards" program for houses that properly plant and maintain trees to reduce energy consumption?

But we can begin by ourselves. If we do one thing outside over the course of the summer, why not plant a tree?

For more information on the kinds of trees that are best to plant and for information on how to obtain inexpensive trees (and free delivery for 10 or more trees) contact Baltimore County's Tree-Mendous Maryland Program office.

(Photo: my oak tree nursery!)