2010 Annual Report - Maryland State Highway Administration

Number of Trees
Environmental Compliance and Stewardship
VII
The ICC project’s reforestation program planted 64 acres of trees, with
three planting sites either completed or underway;
While clearing land for the ICC, six large stands of bamboo were identified
and donated to the National Zoo to help feed their giant pandas. Giant
pandas are listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union’s Red List
of Threatened Animals;
Fourth- and fifth-graders from Washington Christian Academy in Olney
participated in an Earth Day event organized by the ICC project staff. Turtle
search staffers taught the students how the Eastern Box Turtle initiative has
saved approximately 900 turtles. The turtle initiative, part of the ICC
project’s extensive $370 million environmental program, began prior to
construction in fall 2007. An update of the three-year study, conducted by
Towson University in partnership with SHA, was also issued;
SHA and the Montgomery County Department of Parks hosted a grand
opening celebration and ribbon-cutting on June 19 for the Olney Manor
Dog Park, which is a part of the ICC’s extensive community stewardship
program. The enclosed, one-acre park includes separate areas for both
large and small dogs, seating for dog owners and plenty of trees for shade.
One Million Trees Initiative
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
SHA Million Tree Initiative
Contribution
2008 2009
Fiscal Year
2008 2009 2010
SHA worked with DNR, FHWA, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional
Services (DPSCS) and community organizations to plant native trees along
Maryland roadsides and in state ROW in central, southern, eastern and western
Maryland. SHA is funding the trees and materials and DNR is funding the labor
provided by DPSCS inmates. Since the program’s initiation in FY 2008 to FY
2010, SHA has directly planted or funded the planting of 500,297 new trees.
These plantings are part of the One Million Trees initiative, part of Governor
O’Malley’s Smart, Green, and Growing initiative, as noted above. Trees are
important to creating a sustainable environment. Planting trees reduces SHA’s
inventory of areas to mow, which helps to decrease greenhouse gas emission
from mowers and operational costs to SHA. An acre of mature trees can absorb
an equal amount of carbon dioxide produced by a car driven 26,000 miles per
year. Trees also stabilize topsoil and save energy by shading surfaces during
summer months. The project, lasting up to two years, will also help employ up
to ten people from the region.
Helping to Restore the American Chestnut
In FY 2010 SHA and the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) Maryland Chapter
signed a partnership agreement to plant hybrid blight-resistant American
chestnut trees on nearly two acres of land near the Hampstead Bypass (MD 30)
in Carroll County. The American chestnut tree population was almost wiped out
in the 1950s, following the loss of nine million acres of native chestnut trees
affected by a non-native fungus blight first recognized in 1904. American
STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION | FY 2010 Annual Report 63