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NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
September 20, 2006
Contact:
Jamie Thurman (301) 662-3000
jamie@communitycommons.org
FREDERICK, MD—Community Commons was recently awarded $20,000 to fund salaries for our efforts with Frederick County Public School System on the Meaningful Bay Experience (MBE) Project.
The Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement, signed in June 1999 by Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, requires a “meaningful” Bay or stream experience (MBE) for all students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Maryland has set a more stringent goal of a minimum of three experiences throughout elementary, middle, and high school for each student. The cost and logistics of transporting large numbers of students to the Chesapeake Bay or streams is prohibitive. Therefore, innovative methods must be used to reach the goal.
Completing meaningful watershed experiences on or near school grounds is a logical place to take a low cost and time efficient field trip. In order to make the school grounds field trip meaningful, small natural systems must be restored, as most school sites are large expanses of asphalt and turf, with few natural habitats. A research project supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the average area of un-used lawn on elementary and secondary schools in Maryland is 2.7 acres and 4.3 acres, respectively. These unused acres offer a blank canvas for student led habitat restoration projects and address the MBE goal while providing a direct benefit to local streams and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay.
Over the next 3 years, we will be working with local schools to develop plans for schoolyard habitat restoration and implement a component of the plan with community involvement. The projects include classroom curriculum components as well as implementation of the plan on the school grounds Schools develop their individual projects and follow plans developed for their own needs and abilities.
Community Commons is a nonprofit conservation organization located in downtown Frederick, Maryland. We are dedicated to building a sustainable future for the social and natural resources of central Maryland using education, outreach and partnership building.
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