Shore Land Stewardship Council Presents Critical Area Education Effort to Caroline County Commissioners
Ellie Altman, Executive Director of Adkins Arboretum and Carol Jelich, Project Manager of Shore Land Stewardship Council (SLSC), an initiative of Adkins Arboretum, recently presented information to the Caroline County Commissioners on regional efforts to educate homeowners in the Critical Area by providing an on-the-ground, direct, grassroots approach to reach those who make the decisions about the care of private lands.
Convened by Adkins Arboretum, SLSC is a partnership with nonprofit organizations, businesses and government agencies whose purpose is to inform and empower individuals, businesses, communities and local governments in Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot counties to use more environmentally sound land stewardship practices in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, the 1,000 foot ribbon of land around the Bay and its tidal tributaries. The organization's overall goal is to have a positive impact on water quality and the health of the Chesapeake Bay in keeping with the goals of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area law.
Through its First Stop Campaign, the SLSC will help landowners solve the environmental problems that the Critical Area Commission and local municipalities' are charged with addressing through enforcement of Critical Area laws. The First Stop Campaign directs property owners to contact their local planning offices first to determine which permits they need before embarking on any landscaping changes, such as removing trees or altering their shoreline. As part of a pilot project, selected Critical Area property owners in Caroline County are receiving a First Stop pewter blue crab key chain and an information card about the Critical Area.
SLSC next plans to give landowners the knowledge to implement stewardship practices that exceed the requirements of the Critical Area law through the publication of an illustrated guidebook on how to care for their properties in the Critical Area. The guidebook is scheduled to be printed later this year and will be made available free of charge through the County Planning and Codes Administration and Adkins Arboretum.
Members of the Consortium, contractors, state and local regulatory agencies, realtors, developers, conservation-oriented nonprofits, and private landowners in the Upper-Shore, meet regularly to discuss these best landscaping practices and to communicate them to Critical Area property owners.
