Corporate affiliates 

County Executive's Proposed FY12 Budget Released 

The March Madness of Street Trees Net Loss 

 

By T. Reid Lewis 

Environment Committee Chair

Springfield Citizens Association

 

We need to act now to put the County's street tree budget on a course to restore the losses

inflicted during the 'recession budget' of recent years. According to the draft 

FY2013 Budget released last week by County Executive Ike Leggett, our County

experienced a net loss of 1,119 street trees during FY2012 with the score:

 

Removed 1,466 trees

Planted       347 trees

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Net Loss  1,119 trees

 

Yet the Executive's narrative in his proposed budget labels this as an "accomplishment."

 

We lose many of our County street trees for a variety of reasons, including disease, storm damage, old age, invasive plants growing on them and choking them -- or general lack of maintenance. Extrapolating to include three years of recession, the County has removed approximately 4,500 trees while replanting only about 1,000.  Unless we act to change this ongoing Montgomery March Madness, the 10-year score will be a net loss of 11,190 trees after removing 14,660 and planting 3,470.

 

When combined with Pepco's extremely active tree removal program in both in County

and State rights of way, the tree canopy has suffered a significant setback that needs

the attention of all residents.

 

Further, to replace the lost canopy of a single mature tree, seven young trees must 

be replanted according to Mark Buscaino, Casey Trees Executive Director, a Certified 

Arborist and Urban Forester who is also on the Advisory Council of Conservation Montgomery. 

 

We need to correct this short-sighted allocation and provide the County Tree Maintenance

Program with an adequate budget to reverse the loss of street trees that contribute so much to our neighborhoods.

 

Science has long documented the importance of trees to the health of our citizens and our environment and even to the value of our real estate.  And yet the proposed FY2013 Tree Maintenance Budget is essentially unchanged at $3.5M for FY2013.  It is simply unacceptable that the relatively small budget for our green infrastructure remains at a level that results in a net loss of 1,119 trees annually.

 

You can help by demanding that County officials reverse dwindling street trees in the FY2013 Budget.  Write to County Executive Ike Leggett at ocemail@montgomerycountymd.gov and the entire County Council at county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov

 

We can keep our County beautiful by maintaining our mature trees and planting more trees. But we can't do it without the support of our elected officials and County agencies.

                                     -- To respond to this story for forwarding to Mr. Lewis, send e-mail to                                               ConservationMontgomery@live.com 

 

 

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Welcoming Bethesda Green as a new partner 

Residents should never have to feel torn between the choice of a school or a cherished park. Both are equally important to our future and to community quality of life. Yet a school site selection committee, the Board of Education and Montgomery County Public Schools are not getting the message. 

Once again, without conducting comparative analysis of alternatives, and without relevant information needed to evaluate suitability of sites, a Montgomery County Public Schools advisory committee has recommended that the site of Rock Creek Hills Park, a former school site to which the MCPS has recall rights, be taken back from the Parks Department for construction of a middle school.  Residents around the heavily used Kensington park say their park fails to meet the overwhelming majority of the Board of Education's middle school site evaluation criteria, and would not yield parity with other middle schools in the County. 

The website of the community organization formed to save the park notes that building on the steep slope of the small site would be an expensive waste of scarce taxpayer dollars: "An independent construction budget estimate (ICBE) finds that the 2011 MCPS feasibility study for a middle school on the site of Rock Creek Hills Park underestimated costs by approximately eighteen million dollars. The ICBE puts 2017 total costs at $64.5 million, almost 40% above the MCPS estimate," according to the Save Rock Creek Hills Park community organization. 

Minority reports have been filed by residents and officials at the Planning Department to note the flawed process involved in school site selection. The Board of Education will meet again on March 26 on this issue.  A hearing will be held on the issue at the Planning Board on April 9.  The School Board will vote on a recommendation by School Superintendent Joshua Starr on April 12.

Background Links:  

April 27, 2011 Letter from the Planning Board Chair to the BOE Chairman  

November 8, 2011 Letter from MCPS Superintendent Starr on the site selection process

Patch Story on the new process starting again for site selection

Summer 2011 Gazette Story published as Kensington fought for their park