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The Montgomery County cut $349,000 from areas of the 2010 budget that directly effect watersheds and quality of life in the county including bikeways, Keep Montgomery County Beautiful Grants, stream gauges and water quality protection, stump removal, tree maintenance, tree planting, and weed eradication. Members are expressing concern to County Council members and to County Executive Leggett and working with other advocacy groups.
Dear County Council Members and County Executive Leggett:
WE CANNOT AFFORD TO FALL FURTHER BEHIND ON OUR TREE CANOPY! In times the county was relatively flush with funds the council allowed us to get behind and we cannot afford to get further behind. IS it true that the street tree budget has been eliminated? This is false economy at its worst since street trees are an investment that GIVE BACK more and more each and every day as soon as they are planted. Trees and the oxygen they produce, heat island effect and stormwater run-off they reduce and economic benefits they provide are NOT a luxury but a necessity!
Please respond with all relevant information on the street tree budget and considerations and if indeed cut out please restore and fully fund our street tree budget!
Best regards,
Kathy Michels
Each year, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (DOT), the agency charged with maintaining street trees on County Roads removes approximately 2100 trees. Street trees are cut down for a variety of reasons. They can become unstable due to disease or accident. They may be an unavoidable impediment to road improvements or development projects. They are also cut illegally by homeowners who don't know or care that the trees are in the road Right Of Way (ROW). Typically, the County has replanted those lost trees at the rate of about 1700 a year, using a small budget of $247,000 to plant yearly. Replanting has clearly not been 100% of what is lost but it represents an ongoing commitment to our collective green infrastructure. Planting season is from October 15 to May 31st. DPWT uses a contractor and if the ground dos not freeze, they can plant all winter. But not this winter and not even next spring. Why? Because on Tuesday November 17th the County Council voted to cut the entire budget of the Street Tree Planting Program.
The loss was initially triggered by the County Executive, who offered up the program as a budget cut. These are hard times. Many programs and agency funding were expected to be slashed by certain percentages. The tree pruning and removal budget was down sized but replanting has been cut altogether. Oddly, the County Executive did tell or seek the advice of his own Forest Conservation Advisory Committee before he offered to sacrifice the program. They were not even alerted of the impending Council vote.
This is completely unacceptable in a county that has worked hard to create a model National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit under the Federal Clean Water Act. A county which, in July of 2007 enacted a "Green Streets" provision into the updated Road Code. A county that claims to be an environmental leader. Philadelphia and Washington D.C. are leading the east coast in their efforts to provide 'green youth' with street tree planting that will improve overall water quality. It has taken us years to see the simple truth that trees are our best line of defense against the ravages of storm water runoff to our local streams. Cutting the entire planting budget will set this County back a long way in terms of addressing water quality commitments to citizens, our County watersheds and the Chesapeake Bay.
Adding this latest blow to our lack of action on even the most obvious flaws in the current Forest Conservation Law and the Council and Executive's failure to come up with a County Tree Ordinance leaves us with a much bleaker future in what are now considered world-wide basic public health issues; clean drinking water, sustainable natural resources and climate change.
