Photo by Ron Cassie Chuck Harris, a forestry technician with the Department of Natural Resources, discusses the Backyard Buffers program at a Feb. 27 Green Living Forum meeting in the Emmitsburg Town Office.

Since 2003, the Potomac Watershed Partnership's "Backyard Buffers" program has helped homeowners with streams near their property build "a landscape that will make a difference."

"To improve water quality, you can make a start with people and their backyards," Chuck Harris, a forestry technician with the Department of Natural Resources, told a group of 20 at a Feb. 27 presentation at a Green Living Forum meeting at the Emmitsburg Town Office. "If you have a stream or waterway near your yard, it's important to grow and plant trees and shrubs to live along that waterway."

Trees and shrubs help stabilize soil and act as crucial buffers by filtering out pollutants. However, according to the Department of Natural Resources, more than two-thirds of Frederick County's 1,359 miles of streams and 74 miles of rivers do not have adequate vegetation growing along the banks.

For the past several years the "Backyard Buffers" program, presented in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service, Frederick County and the Monacacy & Catoctin Watershed Alliance, has distributed around 50 "buffers in a bag" to local residents each spring. Some, Harris noted, have been repeat customers.

Many planned communities, Harris said, have impinged upon natural wildlife habitats and threaten the quality of water and life in Frederick County. Other properties, either small farms or former farms often subdivided into 1 to 4 acre lots, also lack critical native vegetation near rivers, streams and creeks that flow into Monacacy River and ultimately the Potomac. This is where the still relatively new effort to recruit volunteer homeowners comes into play.

Each "buffer in a bag" this year will contain 25 native tree and shrub bare-root seedlings, from one to two feet in height. Also included are fact sheets on tree planting techniques, typical planting arrangement, proper tree maintenance and information on other native plant species suitable for streamside plantings.

This year's "buffer-in-a-bag," includes bare-roots for three types of trees and two different shrubs. It provides for five Pin Oak trees that should each be planted eight feet apart and may grow up to 80 feet tall; five Red bud trees that should be planted eight feet apart and may reach 15 to 30 feet tall; and five Persimmon trees that also should be planted eight feet apart and may grow up to 50 feet tall.

The "buffer-in-a-bag" also includes bare-roots for five Winterberry Holly and five Silky Dogwoods shrubs, all of which should be planted six feet apart and may reach 10 feet tall.

A press release from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service in Hagerstown said that any Frederick County homeowner with "a drainage ditch, stream, creek or river flowing through or adajacent to their property could qualify for one free "buffer in a bag," each of which is big enough for a 50-foot section of unprotected waterway.

Pick-up for the "buffer-in-a-bag" is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m April 19 at Gambrill State Park. Harris said that plants should be stored in a cool place, and should be planted within seven days.

A brief application must be submitted before March 31 to be eligible. For infomation contact the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Forest Service in Hagerstown at 301-416-7261 or e-mail Chuck Harris at charris@dnr.state.md.us.