News &  Views
August 16, 2017
Win Up to $2000 by Creating a Video about Your Connection to the Land We all depend on the land to live. The land affects where we live and how we live. Even though we walk on it every day, sometimes we forget it’s even there and can take the land for granted. How do you connect with the land? Do you play on it? Make your living from it? Explore it? Just look at it? Share your connection to the land with the Land Trust Alliance, the national umbrella organization for land trusts (including NeighborSpace). Take a few minutes to shoot a quick video – no more than 2:00 minutes – of how you connect with the land and how that makes your life better. You could win $500, $1,000 or $2,000 from the Land Trust Alliance – plus the chance to designate the land trust of your choice to receive $10,000!  Click here for more information and examples of videos from last year's winners. Seeking Contractor or Intern for Management Plan Development Work  NeighborSpace has protected 18 properties inside the URDL totaling 86 acres. To be able to take care of them properly in perpetuity, we are seeking a contractor or intern to prepare a management plan for each. The plans would spell out appropriate goals and related maintenance tasks based on each property's conservation values and the goals established by our community partners. We believe the project is ideal for a landscape architect, landscape designer, planner, master gardener or other solo or small firm practitioner of a similar discipline looking for contractual work.  It may also be suited to a soon-to-graduate student of one of these disciplines looking for a practical intership experience.  Click here for more information.  New 1.5-Acre Park Under Construction in Lochearn It's official:  Powhatan Park is under construction, with grading and crushed stone pathways already completed (and being tested, quite happily, by the young men you see below). Click here for a short article on this park's history.  See our homepage for a scroll of "before" and "after" photos. How We Spent County Open-Space-Waiver Fees in FY 2017 Following the amendment of county law last fall, both the county and NeighborSpace are required to report on how open-space-waiver fees are spent. (This is a change for which we advocated strongly. For a copy of the law and the torrid history of its amendment, click here).  If you aren't aware, these fees are collected from developers who aren't able to provide 1,000 square fee of open space per dwelling unit in a residential development project. Current law provides that 80% of the fees collected acrue to the county, while 20% come to NeighborSpace. The county's report for the fiscal year that ended June 30 is required to be posted on its website.  As of this writing, that does not seem to have happened. We are required to send our report to the County Auditor. We complied with this requirement and also incorporated the accounting in our 2017 Annual Report, available here (see the last page). Sponsor a Tree & Help Us Improve the Canopy!  We still have plenty of trees available for sponsorship at Adelaide Bentley Park. Every sponsor will have his or her name or that of his or her designee imprinted on a beautiful tree tag.  This initiative, now known as the Donald C. Outen Urban Tree Society, is an effort by NeighborSpace to further a county goal of maintaining 40% forest cover in communities inside the URDL.  Click here to read more about the Society or simply click on the logo below to cut to the chase and sponsor a tree.        Many thanks for your continued support! Barbara L. Hopkins, Esq., ASLA Executive Director

NeighborSpace of Baltimore County, Inc. P.O. Box 6715, Towson, MD 21285
Web: www.neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org  ~ Phone: 443-377-3760  ~  Email: barbara@neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org
Barbara L. Hopkins, Esq., ASLA, Executive Director