Each month, we will highlight innovative, bay-oriented local actions. If you have a project that you'd like to see highlighted, please contact Catherine Shanks.
Gunpowder Valley Conservancy Dulaney Branch Riparian Buffer PlantingIn 1999, The Gunpowder Valley Conservancy championed a project, to reforest a 20-acre area along Dulaney Valley Branch stream, a tributary to Loch Raven Reservoir. Now over ten years later, the stream has a large buffer area of trees and grasses that soak up polluted runoff before it reaches the stream and reservoir. The 6,000 trees planted have created a wonderful habitat for many types of wildlife and given the surrounding communities cleaner air, cooler temperatures in summer, less wind in the winter and a more beautiful view. The property is owned by Baltimore County and was formerly the Cloverland Dairy Farm where many of Baltimore County's residents got their ice cream and local milk. The Gunpowder Valley Conservancy joined forces with the Cloverland Community residents, student volunteers from the Dulaney High School Key Club and the Towson University Circle K. (Both associated with the Kiwanis Club of Towson/Timonium). |
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In addition to the planting of thousands of trees along the stream and its tributaries, two wetlands were re-established in an adjoining farm field to reduce polluted runoff that carries nutrients and sediments into the reservoir and eventually into the Chesapeake Bay.
Throughout the years, this 20-acre site has been a volunteer opportunity for Boy and Girl Scouts, numerous public and private schools and universities in the county and city as well as churches. In 2008, MD DNR recognized the site as a Demonstration Riparian Forest Buffer project.
The Gunpowder Valley Conservancy accomplished much with this project and maintains the property with the help of Baltimore County Recreation and Parks and adjacent homeowners. The Chesapeake Bay Trust and Constellation Energy, through the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, funded the project with most of the trees coming from the Maryland Department of Natural Resource's TREE-MENDOUS Maryland Gift of Trees Program.
Map showing the streams that wind through the property
