Stormwater Committee Minutes
January 18, 2006

ATTENDEES

Ann Hoffnar Ed Murtagh Kathy Michels Alison Gillespie

Priorities for DEP Watershed Restoration Program

We briefly discussed the program and the importance of letting DEP know what we think their priorities should be on their Watershed Restoration Program. We agreed that DEP should focus more on infiltration practice uplands, more home owner outreach, more involvement from the public on projects. Robert Goo, by email, suggested we want to see meaningful change; in the absence of meaningful change we want more demonstration projects with high visibility, for example, homeowner raingarden workshops. Ed will work on a draft that will be coordinated with efforts of the other watershed and environmental groups also working on this issue.

Raingarden in Takoma Park

Robert Goo told us by email that he has been picking up branches and debris and that we may have some small shrub die-off, but the garden looks great. It seems to be functioning well. We all agreed we will need some maintenance events in the spring and summer. Education and maintenance are the essential ingredients. It was noted that the average citizen doesn’t know which plants are weeds and which are the beneficial native plants that we want to encourage. This is a problem. Alison suggests we might be able to get volunteer weed leaders from the MD Native Plant Society living in the Takoma Park area to come help lead/advise with our weeding events. Kathy will talk to Jenny about the garden. Robert and Ann will set up workday events and write and distribute flyers.

Ann will follow up with the City of Takoma Park to plan building the second garden at the site.

Jenny Reed’s presentation to Takoma Park Horticulturist Club

Is this still happening? We all support it. Ed will follow up with Jenny.

The Coalition to Improve the NPDES Stormwater Permit

We all agreed that we should support the coalition’s efforts to give the permit more teeth. The Board has agreed to support the 11 points the coalition will stress, to the extent that the Sligo Friends in this coalition agree to them.

Should we have an Outreach Table at the Green Matters Symposium?

This symposium is held every year and the upcoming symposium (Friday February 24, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) is on LID landscaping. Brookside Gardens is the host. The information has gone to our listserv and is on our Friends of Sligo calendar. We agreed to staff a table during the lunch hour. We hope to let people know about FOSC and that we have LID landscaping projects that they can participate in. Ann will sit at the table if 1) Ed checks with Lynn Vismara to see if we are permitted to have a table and brings materials copied from the website and 2) Alison prepares a revision to the current handbill in time for Ann to get it duplicated.

May Program Meeting

Much of the discussion centered on the Brookside Gardens and the Brookside Nature Center. Should we have our May program meeting at the Nature Center? Although there is usually a charge for use of the facility, we could probably trade with a weeding event or by helping build a rain garden at Brookside gardens. Alison will talk with staff at the Brookside Nature Center. Could we build a raingarden at Brookside? Ed will talk with Dave Vismara. Alison has her eyes on a site where a raingarden would be very effective. The visibility of Brookside would be a great way to reach gardeners. We need pictures and some ideas first before we approach Brookside Gardens.

The program meeting topic could be “habitat—create habitat with stormwater” the effects of unmanaged stormwater and the improvement we can make with raingardens and other LID.

The facility is big enough that we could advertise highly and ask NNWB to join us in the presentation and help us advertise the meeting.

Other Potential Events and Activities

Alison is working with the naturalists at the Nature Center, hoping to develop some walks and talks in Sligo.

We would like to do a tour of stormwater control projects including the Green Roof at Northwood High School, the Eastern Middle School raingarden and the one in Takoma Park. Can we arrange it for May? We need to create a “guide book.”

We discussed the need for showcase residential raingardens. Alison would like to add an LID/environmentally beneficial garden tour that includes her community. Alison suggested that Wendi Schnaufer (who lives near Alison) could host a raingarden building event in her yard. She is doing some landscaping and may be interested in building one with our help. Ed will talk to Wendi about this.

Grants and Grant Work

Ed reported that COG (John Galli) and the MCDEP and PGDNR were successful with their grant request to the U.S. EPA. The grant is for litter reduction, community outreach and stormwater control through LID practices. MCDEP will use their portion of the grant money in Paint Branch. COG and PGDNR will work in our very own Takoma Branch. We may be able to get involved and may find this work will stimulate our Friends of Sligo Creek work in Section 1 and in general help us get acquainted with the various PG agency staff personnel.

Kathy has two grants she wants to write. We need money to work on the second phase at Eastern Middle School, and we need grant money for a much larger stormwater project Kathy and Ed would like to do at the Parkland Swimming Pool (a non-profit community swimming pool). Ann volunteered to assist Kathy with writing the grants.

Notes prepared by Ann Hoffnar and Ed Murtagh