During the 2020-21 academic year, Whatcom County partnered with Western Washington University’s Sustainable Communities Partnership (SCP) to support consistent and coordinated climate planning across jurisdictional boundaries within Whatcom County. This partnership, with staff support from the Port of Bellingham and the City of Bellingham, formed the collaborative Building Community Resilience Project (BCRP) to support Whatcom […]
Read More… from Building Community Resilience through GMA Comprehensive Planning
From 1979 to 2005, the total water use in Pepin County had increased from about 1.2 milliongallons per day to about 3 million gallons used per day (Protecting Groundwater in Wisconsinthrough Comprehensive Planning). This increase in water use is believed to be from irrigationand industrial use. Water use trends in commercial use do not reflect […]
Read More… from Groundwater Quality Protection in Pepin County
As a part of the UniverCity Year projects aiding Pepin County, our Environmental Monitoring Seminar was presented with water quality data concerning nitrate concentration within the county. Pepin is a small county in west-central Wisconsin whose rural residents rely on private wells for their water supply. The integrity of these private wells is threatened by […]
Read More… from Water quality data, privacy, and communication strategies
The purpose of collaborating with the Pepin County Land Conservation and Planning Department (LCPD) is to work to improve the health of the freshwater stream ecosystem and the riparian habitat of the Fall Creek Watershed. This project works to confront the issues that the agricultural industry has caused to the watershed by promoting environmentally sustainable […]
Read More… from Conservation management plan for Fall Creek Watershed
The Montgomery County Parks Department needs to adopt an alternative water source to secure the future of their water supply at their Damascus and Cabin John facilities. A greywater system is a viable option. Greywater is a sustainable, innovative water source collected from sinks and ice shavings for reuse options, conserving water, and reducing energy. […]
Read More… from Greywater Implementation in Montgomery County
The Montgomery County Department of Parks, and other environmentally-oriented organizations, have historically had a difficult time communicating the importance of environmental issues to the general public. A major reason is that much of this communication has promoted environmental protection for the intrinsic sake of the environment, and not for human well-being. As a result, people […]
Read More… from Creating Connections Between Environmental and Human Health and Messaging a Call to Pro-Environmental Action
The Montgomery County Department of Parks has asked our team of Environmental Science and Policy majors at the University of Maryland, to assist in developing creative ways to effectively message sustainability as a way to protect the health of County citizens. This paper highlights suggestions for ways to effectively do so. It focuses on the […]
Read More… from Messaging Sustainability for Environmental Health
This project’s goal is to analyze how the presence and quality of local parks and open spaces affects adjacent property values and the local economy, and to gauge the public perception of parks in Montgomery County to better understand public opinion and concerns surrounding parks. This project will also recommend how those concerns can be […]
Read More… from Economic Impacts of Montgomery County’s Parks
Stormwater management is a vital practice that allows urban areas to mitigate negative water quality impacts associated with urban development. The Montgomery County Department of Parks seeks to increase their reuse of stormwater as part of its commitment to furthering sustainability practices within the parks system and to minimize their impact on the environment. The […]
Read More… from Stormwater Harvesting and Reuse in Montgomery County Parks
For our Environmental Science and Policy Capstone project at the University of Maryland, we were assigned a Montgomery County Parks project. The goals of this capstone project were to inspire and increase community involvement to report invasive insect and disease pests and to inform residents about invasive tree pests, particularly educating residents on how to […]
Read More… from Obstacles to Community Participation in Reporting Pest-Related Tree Damage