Patriot Office Christmas Tree Drop Off Program

Christmas has come and gone, but it is still the season for giving. As you get the last few days out of your beautifully decorated Christmas tree and begin to ponder the best way to haul it out of the house without creating the inevitable mess, it’s also time to think about what to do with it once it’s back outdoors.

Kick it to the curb for sanitation to come pickup and trash? Haul it to the dump? Throw it in the woods along a slow country road (we hate when people do that)? Drop it off at Patriot Land and Wildlife in Dickerson free of charge where we can repurpose it for wildlife habitat all across the area for little critters like rabbits, ground nesting birds, and even fish to enjoy? OF COURSE! What better sense does it make to complete the circle by harvesting a tree for you and your family to enjoy during the holidays, then return it to nature in a still usable state for wildlife to utilize once again! These repurposed trees provide nesting areas for birds, hiding areas for rabbits and other ground-dwellers, and even shady areas in the summer for fish.

So bring your trees on by our office between 8 AM – 4 PM, Monday – Friday. 22300 Dickerson Road, Dickerson MD 20842. Please proceed through the blue gates and place your tree in the pile past the board fence on the left side of the driveway. Please remove all non-organic material (stands, tinsel, etc.) from the trees prior to drop off. We will use these trees across the local area to create new and enhance current wildlife habitat. It feels good to give back, doesn’t it? Happy Holidays from the Patriot Land and Wildlife family to your family!

Call us at 240-687-7228 if you have any questions!

Montgomery County DEP Releases Summer 2012 Stormwater Maintenance Tips

Patriot Land & Wildlife’s stormwater and aquatics division has been hard at work these past few months on stormwater & pond related issues for our clients. Stormwater facility maintenance has been a major focus for the Patriot LWM team to ensure our clients are in compliance with EPA and local government regulation issues long before the inspector arrives on site.

Here is an example of Patriot LWM low impact tree removal on a stormwater outfall pipe for a client this summer

Patriot Land & Wildlife is based in Montgomery County, Maryland, a county which coincidentally has been on the forefront of the stormwater management issue for many years. The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection publishes some great informative newsletters for homeowners associations, property managers and stormwater contractors on a quarterly basis. Below is an excerpt from the Summer 2012 edition which you can read fully by clicking here. The newsletter describes very well many of the tasks Patriot Land & Wildlife preforms on a daily basis as a Montgomery County certified Stormwater Facility Maintenance Contractor.

From Montgomery County DEP:

“Summer Maintenance Tips

*Avoid the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides in and around your stormwater facilities — these products pollute our streams. If manual removal of invasive weeds has been ineffective, limited applications of aquatic-friendly herbicide may be applied by a qualified professional certified by the State of Maryland.

*Removing non-native invasive weeds as soon as you see them in your bioretention facility or sand filter will help to prevent more significant repairs later on. Ask DEP for a copy of your bioretention design if you are unsure what plants should be there. Replenishing mulch to a 3 inch depth (but no deeper) can also help to reduce weeds.

*Contact Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) if a facility holds water for more than 72 hours or if a wet pond has a higher than normal pond level, as this could indicate a problem (Call 311 or email MC.Stormwater@montgomerycountymd.gov).

*With large thunderstorms, comes the movement of trash and debris that can deposit in stormwater facilities or drain inlets. Please continue to remove all trash and debris monthly from your property, especially in and around ponds, filters, and bioretention structures.

Picture from Montgomery County DEP

*Controlling Algae & Other Pond Vegetation – Nutrient Management –Pond algae is often associated with excess nutrients washing into the pond from nearby lawns. Property-owners in the pond’s watershed can help prevent excess algae by only fertilizing at the recommended time and frequency. To learn more about healthy lawns, your community association, along with other residences that may drain into the pond, can contact the Montgomery County Master Gardeners (301-590-9650 or mgmont@umd.edu).

Using fountains, bubblers or other devices may also help control algae in ponds. Be sure to also pick up pet waste, which is a source of bacteria and nutrients in ponds and our local streams.” – End of Citation

Failing stormwater riser structure. *photo by Montgomery County DEP

Preventive maintenance goes a long way, like Patriot crew members painting stormwater riser structures to prevent future failures for our clients.

Patriot’s Stormwater & Aquatics Division prides itself on it’s low impact, environmentally sensitive stormwater maintenance techniques and client services. Contact Patriot today to learn how our preventative stormwater maintenance services can save your HOA or property money and headaches. Visit us at http://www.PatriotLWM.com or call 240-687-7228 for more information.

Patriot LWM to Present at the 2011 Chesapeake Watershed Forum

Patriot Land & Wildlife is proud to announce that we will be presenting along side BlueWing Environmental Solutions & Technologies, LLC at the 2011 Chesapeake Watershed Forum organized by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

2011 Chesapeake Watershed Forum

The Chesapeake Watershed Forum is a three day/two night conference held in Shepherdstown, WV that brings together representatives from local watershed organizations and local governments to learn the latest restoration science and direction, network with other groups facing similar challenges, and be inspired to continue the work of preserving and restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The 2011 Forum will be held at the USFWS National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV.

It will be held on September 30th through October 2nd with two pre-forum workshops scheduled for September 29th.

The 2011 Chesapeake Watershed Forum will be broken into 6 tracks which aim to cover all aspects of conervation, outreach and restoration. Patriot LWM will present as part of Track 1, Science and Practice.

Track 1: B: Friday, Sept 30, 1:30 – 3:00 Biomimicry with Floating Wetlands

The workshop will provide general information on how the BioHaven floating wetland islands work, explain the science behind their development and function, demonstrate ecological and environmental benefits of the floating wetland system and show some projects undertaken in the US and around the world.

For more information on the forum CLICK HERE

“Water (for the) World” – Maryland Life Article Highlights Floating Island Project

Photo by Christopher Myers - Maryland Life

Countries Taking Notice of Maryland’s Efforts

By Ryan Schultze – Patriot LWM

Living within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and more specifically, a stone’s throw from the Bay itself, we are fortunate to have a variety of people helping to improve it. For decades now the Bay has been suffering poor health from pollution and nutrient overload and virtually every species of wildlife has suffered the consequences. While it is true that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed consists of 6 States, Marylanders feel the repercussions the hardest, because all their environmental problems run right into our Bay. To make matters worse, Maryland’s booming development due to its proximity to Washington, DC is aiding in the loss of crucial wetlands which help to filter and remove these pollutants and nutrients from the equation. New technologies are giving conservationists new tools to do battle with, though.

Implementing clean water initiatives is tough work, but somebody’s got to do it, and we have the perfect backyard to prove their worth – the Chesapeake Bay. A recent article in Maryland Life Magazine by Donya Currie highlights some of these very issues-“With its 41 million acres of watershed and 200,000 miles of shoreline, the Bay is the most-studied estuary—which, by definition, contain salt water, fresh water, and brackish water, a mixture of both—in the world”.

Of course, every Country on the planet is experiencing these same water quality problems, also. Well, we must be doing something right. Maryland is doing so many things so well that other Countries are taking notice. The Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership (MD-AEP) is a new initiative bridging public-private partnerships to address the massive water, energy, and pollution prevention issues throughout the Asian continent, highlighting local clean-water technologies being implemented in Maryland.  “Maryland is well-positioned to help in the quest for cleaner water, both thanks to the natural backyard laboratory that is the Chesapeake Bay and because a trove of scientists, engineers, and business owners has come together to showcase the viability of new technology for pollution prevention and cleanup.”(Maryland Life)

On the leading edge of water quality improvement using new technology are our partners at BlueWing Environmental Solutions and Technologies, one of the partners of MD-AEP. BlueWing and Patriot LWM are constantly promoting BioHaven Floating Treatment Wetlands, which have shown time and time again their benefit across the State in aquatic situations when it comes to water quality improvement. “They’re a concentrated wetland, and they’re made of all recycled materials, which is cool,” says Ted Gattino, a managing partner of the Ellicott City-based BlueWing Environmental Solutions and Technology. “They can be placed in almost any water body. The reports keep getting better and better.” “The Chesapeake is probably farther ahead than many areas in the world in starting to have integrated solutions to energy and the environment and agriculture” says Dr. George Oyler, founder of Clean Green Chesapeake. That being said, Maryland’s leadership in this battle to reclaim the Bay is surely turning heads elsewhere in the world, with other countries looking to us as an example. (Maryland Life)

For a comprehensive read about these new technologies being implemented, check out the attached link to the Maryland Life article “Water (for the) World”.

http://www.marylandlife.com/articles/water-%28for-the%29-world/

Floating Island Partners Hard at Work in Midwest! Cool Videos from Minneapolis.

Here are 2 cool videos featuring our working partners in conservation Blue Wing Environmental Solutions & Technologies as they along with Midwest Floating Island and American Society of Landscape Architects show what impacts one group of regular citizens can have on their own water quality issues. These videos are of a Floating Island launch in Minneapolis as part of an effort to help solve a local lakes water quality issues. Contact Patriot LWM or CLICK HERE to learn more about Floating Island Technology!

http://www.kstp.com/article/12303/?vid=2764965&v=1
http://eplayer.clipsyndicate.com/cs_api/iframe?pl_id=16621&page_count=4&wpid=8700&windows=1&show_title=0&va_id=2764965&auto_start=0&auto_next=0

Hope Floats – Man-made islands create ecosystems to heal polluted rivers

A few years ago, Patriot Land and Wildlife was fortunate to be involved with an innovative water quailty improvement project in Washington, DC on the Anacostia River. Teamed with Bluewing Environmental Solutions and Technologies, Patriot LWM helped install several BioHaven Floating Treatment Wetlands at Diamond Teague Park in DC, with the intention of providing much-needed water quality improvement. These BioHaven islands are capable of removing as many nutrients from the waterbody as 6 acres of natural wetlands.

Diamond Teague is just across the street from the Washington Nationals baseball stadium and is a popular riverside destination for ballpark patrons, among others. The dual functionaility of water quality stewardship and ornamental landscaping allowed for a great project to occur, and lots of attention drawn to the problems suffered by our waterways.  Author Mike Cronin of “The Daily” spotlights the project.

It turns out that recycled plastic may do more for the environment than just save it from unnecessary garbage. Man-made floating islands constructed from the stuff are helping to revive urban rivers devastated by centuries of industrial pollution.The Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., for example, has been slowly coming back to life, roughly two years after the Maryland-based company Blue Wing Environmental Solutions and Technology anchored seven man-made islands there in an area near Nationals Park, where the Washington Nationals play. Those islands are the brainchild of Bruce and Anne Kania, the married couple who run Floating Islands International in Shepherd, Mont.“We are providing an affordable, doable, non-chemical solution, and people are going, ‘Aha!’ ” said Anne, Floating Islands’ CEO.Bruce realized years ago that wetlands work naturally to clean up pollutants, so the Kanias started mimicking floating ecosystems with recycled fiber from plastic bottles.Just days after the floating islands are placed in the water, a film of bacteria and other microbes forms on the mesh filters and other plastic parts of the fake landmasses, said Bruce, adding that the microbes eat nutrients and form biofilm in the process. Biofilm is the base of periphyton, which is in turn the base of the freshwater food chain. Everything from zooplankton to nymphs and minnows thrive off it.“They clean up the water and take nutrients that otherwise would have turned into algae and turn them into fish food,” said Bruce, who got the idea for the floating islands after observing the natural, peat-based floating islands of northern Wisconsin.“Three years ago, we could see only 14 inches into our 6.5-acre research pond,” he said. “Now, we can see 11 feet into it.”

The Kanias founded their company in 2005. Today they have seven manufacturers worldwide and 4,000 islands in use around the globe. Customers pay roughly $27 per square foot and may order any shape or size of floating island, which can be used in rivers, ponds, lakes and even the ocean.
Kevin Hedge, a wetland scientist and partner at Blue Wing, sees the synthetic islands as more than just a savior to an ailing environment.

“The floating islands are an ecological-restoration tool that also can be an economic-recovery tool,” he said.

Lanshing Hwang, the Maryland landscape architect who designed the island park in Washington, called it “an innovative approach — particularly for places that don’t have wetlands.

By Mike Cronin Saturday – May 21, 2011

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/05/21/052111-news-floating-islands-1-2/

A Different Spin on “Green” Advertising

When it comes to thinking outside the box, fashion design company Urban Outfitters has always been ahead of the curve.

So it should come as no surprise that their vision for the BioHaven Floating Treatment Wetland was not that of a typical client. Urban Outfitters integrated BioHaven® Floating Islands into the design overhaul of their headquarters in Philadelphia, PA first and foremost to  improve water quality in the neighboring Delaware River and stay true to their environmental roots. As floating island material can be “fashioned” in any shape, size and buoyancy, the wheels at Urban Outfitters started to turn…

Anyone who spends more than 10 minutes on the various walkways outside of the different Urban Outfitters design facilities can attest to the fact that the complex lies directly beneath the flight path for the Philadelphia Airport. To capitalize on the full potential of the BioHaven Floating Treatment Wetlands, Urban Outfitters requested that they be constructed in the shape of the company’s stock letters “URBN”. Fully visible from the air, the letters were installed in June of 2010 by Patriot LWM and Bluewing Environmental Solutions providing significant nutrient removal capabilities, innovative aesthetics, and creative advertising within the banks of the Delaware River.

 

 

 

 

For more on this project visit http://patriotlwm.com/biohaven-floating-island-projects/

Too Much of a Good Thing? Not When it Comes to Water Quality

A little over a year ago, our fellow BioHaven Floating Treatment Wetlands professionals from Floating Islands Environmental Solutions began an experiment in water quality inside the city of Naples, Florida. The Louisiana crew made their way down and installed a series of Floating Treatment Wetlands in various nutrient loaded water bodies selected by the City. The following news report gives a small snapshot into the potential of this innovative technology. Although this video mainly highlights the habitat creation abilities of the islands, it’s hard to deny that something very positive is taking place in this water body. Enjoy!

New Study Shows Potential to Use Floating Treatment Wetlands to Mitigate Lake Eutrophication and Increase Fishery Production

With everyday that passes, the true benefit of Floating Treatment Wetlands technology becomes more and more apparent to us here at Patriot LWM. Besides its obvious visual benefits created by the islands ability to instantly create flourishing habitat above and below the water, the true potential of the islands can not be seen with the naked eye. The matrix design of recycled plastic material allow for an increased surface area on which nutrient processing biofilm-based microbes attach. From this floating base of operation, the microbes work to breakdown nutrients that pass by them in the water. Intuitively we can only assume that the more water the Floating Treatment Wetland matrix and the associated microbes come in contact with, the higher its nutrient processing potential. The following study by Floating Island International takes a unique look at this statement and some interesting ways to get water in need of treatment to the microbes in need of nutrients.

The Problem:

Wetlands have long been known as natures purifiers, but as the worldwide acreage of wetlands continues to fall coupled with increased human-caused nutrient loading, many water bodies around the world have experienced cases of hyper-eutrophication. Simply stated Eutrophication is a scientific term describing the overfertilization of lakes with nutrients and the changes that occur as a result. Negative environmental effects include anoxia, or loss of oxygen in the water with severe reductions in fish and other animal populations. In fresh water, partly as a result of normal seasonal stratification, nutrient loading can deplete oxygen levels within the livable temperature zone for cold‐water fish species.

The Case Study:

In Shepherd, Montana at the home of Floating Island International, a 30 foot deep, 6.5 acre lake sits within sight of the famed Yellowstone River. The water near the surface was too warm to support a trout fishery, while the cool water underneath lacked the dissolved oxygen (DO) to do the same. During late summer no location inside the lake could consistently provide the cool-water, high-DO environment needed by fish such as rainbow, brown and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. From a fishery and property management standpoint, this basically serves as a 6.5 acre puddle of water. Enter the Leviathan…

The Solution:

In April 2009, a 1250‐square‐foot Leviathan system, incorporating floating stream beds and grid‐ powered water circulation was installed in the lake. This system circulates up to 2000 gpm through the stream channels within the island. The basic concept takes water from all levels of the lake which would previouslynot come in contact with the wetlands and circulates them through the stream channels of Floating Treatment matrix where microbes can process the nutrients.

The method allows you to basically super-charge the nutrient processing capability of your Floating Treatment Wetland and turn a once stagnant waterbody into a highly productive member of your land management program.

The Result:

After 17 months of operation, water clarity had improved from a low of 14 inches of visibility to as much as 131 inches. Simultaneously, the water temperature gradient was reduced, creating a larger zone of “livable” water for fish. Two age classes of Yellowstone cutthroat trout were introduced 13 and 14 months into the test. Through the summer of 2010, a favorable temperature/dissolved oxygen strata ranging from the water surface down to a depth of at least 12 feet was maintained as potential cutthroat habitat. One‐year‐old and two‐year‐old black crappies were also introduced two months into the test, and naturally‐occurring northern yellow perch were present in the lake when it was filled. All three species have flourished.

Fish catch rates and growth rates are now being monitored at the lake. Initial data show that experienced fishermen can catch up to one perch per minute. Visual observations from diving and an underwater viewing station indicate that perch approaching or exceeding the Montana state record of 2 pounds 2 ounces now inhabit the lake.

The research lake is relatively unique in that it supports fish accustomed to cold water (Yellowstone cutthroat trout), temperate water (perch) and warm water (crappies). Montana officials have made two unsuccessful attempts at sustaining cutthroat populations in an adjacent stretch of the Yellowstone River, which is located a half‐mile away from the research lake.

Further additions to the square footage of the original design for 2010 have further increased the “livable area” for fish to a depth of more than 20 feet at certain times of the year. This further maximizes the useable production space for the lakes fishery habitat.

Hope for the Future:

As data continues to be collected and more projects initiated, the future is very bright for the use of Floating Treatment Wetlands to restore the health of Americas water bodies. Patriot LWM is currently working with Bluewing Environmental to solidify 2 Leviathan test projects in Maryland. Stay tuned for more exciting news.

For more details on the above mentioned study CLICK HERE.

Cool Video and Blog Entry from The National Aquarium Features Patriot LWM installed Floating Island

Back in August, Patriot LWM in partnership with Bluewing Environmental, The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and The National Aquarium installed a 250 square foot BioHaven Floating Island in the Baltimore Harbor. The goal of the project is to study the nutrient processing potential of the islands and how they may one day be used to restore the health of the water body and the Chesapeake Bay. Check out the Aquarium blog article here at WATERlog.

Also check out this cool underwater video they put together in the waters near the island.