June 21 marked the inauguration of the Donald C. Outen Urban Tree Society, an effort by NeighborSpace to further a county goal for maintaining 40% forest cover in communities inside the URDL. Looking just at existing numbers, it looks like the goal has largely been achieved:

But, as we have pointed out previously, the numbers can be deceiving.  All that's green may not be good. In fact, what's green can be downright destructive, as illustrated by the photo below showing the scant amount of tree canopy that could be saved after removal of vines and other invasive species at Adelaide Bentley Park in Towson.  The cost of getting the park to this point exceeded $8,000.  An additional investment of $19,000 was necessary to reforest and develop the park as it exists today.

These considerations led NeighborSpace to create the Donald C. Outen Urban Tree Society.  We are fortunate that Don Outen, a forest sustainability expert who worked to establish the county's urban tree canopy goals, agreed to lend his name to the effort. Membership in the society involves sponsoring a tree on an existing NeighborSpace property.  Sponsorships vary in price from $100 to $1000 according to the tree's "density at breast height," a measure of its maturity. For each sponsored tree, NeighborSpace purchases and installs a tree tag like the one shown below, listing information about the tree and its sponsor (or a designee of the sponsor).  The proceeds are then used by NeighborSpace to address the challenges associated with protecting the tree canopy on its sites.

A limited number of trees are available for sponsorship at Adelaide Bentley Park in Towson.  We are working to make additional trees available for sponsorship at other sites this summer. For more information and to quickly and easily sponsor the tree of your choice online, click here.