This from Ken Lee:
At Alice Nicolson’s suggestion at a recent Grounds committee meeting, we wrote up an application on behalf of the full committee to People Loving And Nurturing Trees, or P.L.A.N.T.
We’ve probably all seen the plaque posted outside the Ivy Room, while waiting in line for dinner. In 2009, Collington was awarded a “bronze” medallion for work back then. They wrote to us asking what we’ve done lately. In encapsulating the last two years of work by various members of the Grounds Committee, and with the aid of both private donations in kind or in cash, and major support both years from the Collington Foundation, it made a surprisingly impressive (we thought!), and so post the main paras below, with the full letter here.
A. Tree Planting
With about $2,500 in monies donated to the Committee by current and former residents, the Committee contracted with Green Landing Nursery of Upper Marlboro for the purchase and planting of eleven native trees around the campus. (Two more white oaks were also planted through an additional donation.) You will note from the attached grant application that 50% of this work was to be funded with matching funds from Prince George’s County’s “Tree ReLeaf” program. The committee has been willing to finance the entire project, whether or not the County funds are forthcoming.
A $15,000 grant from the Collington Foundation enabled the planting of a variety of shrubs, grasses and trees throughout the campus. Work was done by Ruppert Landscape of Forestville, MD.
Throughout the year, residents may apply for and receive authorization to purchase trees to be planted in the common areas of the campus. In 2015 there were 21 such plantings.
B. Maintenance
Residents who form our Lake and Trails Subcommittee have for the past two winters engaged in reclaiming the woodland canopy from vines that have grown untended for most of Collington’s time on the property. Principal vines are bittersweet, wild grape and poison ivy, with lesser amounts of Japanese honeysuckle, Virginia creeper and English ivy. We have also funded services of a chipper to process woody residue along the trails.
A group of individual residents funded the visit of an arborist, Adirondack Tree Service, to prune six large trees on campus.
C. Education
Knowledgeable residents conducted two tree tours for residents and friends around the campus.
Some 30 trees on campus have been labeled.
Residents developed a list of desirable native trees to consider planting on the campus and in the woodlands.
The Committee applied for and received designation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat from the National Wildlife Federation. Signs are posted at a half-dozen locations throughout the campus. The Committee is presently applying for certification as a Bay-Wise compliant campus.
Stay tuned for whether P.L.A.N.T. will award us another medallion.
cool, huh. my committee (and the trees you were watering)
But can we then plant the medallion instead of hanging it?
This seemslike a great way to keep updated. Would like to receive future posts