Pastor Troy Randall is the President of northwest Baltimore's Arlington Neighborhood Association, as well as the founder of the community-based non-profit At The House, Inc. and Horn of David International Ministries. He is a proud product of Park Heights and received his community experience as a social worker. He started leading his local neighborhood organization thirty years ago after becoming a father. “When you have children,” he explains, “you want the area they live in to be of a sort of caliber, and the only way to do that is to become part of the solution, rather than doing nothing and being part of the problem.”

The Arlington Neighborhood Association was formed just last year when three smaller neighborhood groups in the same region of Park Heights merged. The Association’s first project came through when their application to join the Clean Corps Initiative was successful. Clean Corps is a new City effort partnering with local non-profits to hire residents to clean and maintain community-selected sites. “We have a lot of illegal dumping in our community, we have been battling with rats, and one of the things that helps is to have cleaned areas,” Pastor Randall says. He speaks proudly of the green spaces in Park Heights, like the Arlington INSPIRE Garden, and of more on the way. Working with Park Heights Renaissance and Civic Works, neighbors are currently developing three vacant lots into new community spaces, including a Jazz Garden, an Herb Garden, and a Salad Garden. “With my new grandbaby,” Pastor Randall says, “I want her to have a place to come and play and learn and be one with nature here in the community. They sometimes call Park Heights a concrete jungle but I beg to differ – we have gardens, parks, all of it.” Learn more about resources for connecting kids to nature in your community here.

Show your love for our planet this Earth Day by participating in a public workshop centered on how the city can take action against climate change! The Baltimore Office of Sustainability is excited to host this in-person workshop on April 22nd, 2023, from 10 am - 2 pm at the Vollmer Center at Cylburn Arboretum (4915 Greenspring Ave, Baltimore, MD 21209). This is part of Baltimore’s Climate Action Plan update community engagement process, and this workshop will be centered around creating actionable strategies to reduce Baltimore's contribution to climate change as well as considering important tradeoffs associated with reducing emissions in the city. Please register here!

Light breakfast, lunch, and beverages will be provided. Parking is available and free onsite. We know you are busy and sincerely value your time, so we are offering compensation for your participation at a rate of $25/ hour. To ensure we have the necessary information to process your payment, please follow these steps:

1. Register for this workshop
2. Fill out, sign, and send in a W-9 to climate@baltimorecity.gov with the subject line “W-9 In-Person Workshop"
3. Attend and actively participate in the workshop



Checks will be mailed to the address provided on the W-9 in the weeks following the event. If you need assistance filling out your W-9, or have any dietary restrictions that we should know about, please email climate@baltimorecity.gov and we can work with you.

The Office of Sustainability is updating its Critical Area Management Program Manual (CAMP Manual). The last CAMP Manual update happened in 2020. The CAMP is a regulatory program that is intended to improve the water quality of the Bay by controlling pollution from stormwater runoff and conserving and protecting wildlife habitats along the shoreline of the Bay. The proposed updates are minor and are intended to:

1. Correct language that inadvertently exempts projects located in the 100-foot Buffer from providing mitigation for tree removal in areas of right-of-way.
2. Simplify the mitigation credit table by removing items that do not apply to projects located in an urbanized jurisdiction.
3. Provide a definition for “Planting Unit” (this update was explicitly requested by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources – Critical Area Commission).

A summary of the proposed changes can be found here. The complete CAMP Manual that lists the proposed changes can be viewed through this link. The public comment period will close on April 14, 2023. Please submit any questions and comments regarding the proposed changes to sustainability@baltimorecity.gov. 

Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law OImsted -- Anne Whiston Spirn, from Uncommon Ground

"All landscapes are constructed. Garden, forest, city, and wilderness are shaped by rivers and rain, plants and animals, human hands and minds. They are phenomena of nature and products of culture. There is always a tension in landscape between the reality and autonomy of the nonhuman and its cultural construction, between the human impulse to wonder at the wild and the compulsion to use, manage, and control."

Manifesto of the Third Landscape -- Gilles Clément

This manifesto by Gilles Clement is about his discovery of the "third landscape." The manifesto defines the "third landscape," its origin, and its properties. In his manifesto, he goes over the origin of it, the character, status, stakes, mobility, evolution, scale, representations, limits, and relationship to time, society, and culture.

In the Middle of War, Ukraine is Building a Wind Farm --The Washington Post

The first installment of a wind farm that could ultimately power a half-million homes recently went online just about 60 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine.

As the weather turns warm, many Baltimoreans will head into the garden for a spring clean-up to make way for new plants. Try to resist the urge to head out too early though! There are benefits to delaying the cleanup of your flower and vegetable beds. Many pollinators, beneficial insects, and invertebrates in the soil overwinter in dead plant material or use that plant cover for protection from late-season frosts. Once temperatures are consistently warm enough, they emerge and get to work! A good rule of thumb is to wait until evening temperatures are regularly around 50 degrees. A visual indicator can be seen in your lawn as most grasses don't begin to grow until soil temperatures reach 50 degrees. While cleaning, watch for plant material that may have dried mud-plugging stems where bees may be sleeping or for chrysalides where butterflies and moths are waiting to emerge. Move these plant materials to a corner of the garden where those sleepy bugs can still rest. Following these easy steps will help keep your garden's ecosystem healthy. Expect some great bird and bee-watching when things begin to bloom!