From the Arbor Day Foundation:
Dear Tree City USA Supporter,
On behalf of the Arbor Day Foundation, I write to congratulate Harford County on earning recognition as a 2015 Tree City USA. Residents of Harford County should be proud to live in a community that makes the planting and care of trees a priority.
Harford County is one of more than 3,400 Tree City USAs, with a combined population of 140 million. Started in 1976, the Tree City USA program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.
As a result of your commitment to effective urban forest management, you already know trees are vital to the public infrastructure of cities and towns throughout the country, providing numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits. In fact, trees are the one piece of community infrastructure that actually increases in value over time.
State foresters are responsible for the presentation of the Tree City USA flag and other materials. We will forward information about your awards to your state forester’s office to coordinate presentation. It would be especially appropriate to make the Tree City USA award a part of your community’s Arbor Day ceremony.
Again, we celebrate your commitment to the public and trees of Harford County, and thank you for helping to create a healthier planet for all of us.
Best Regards,
Dan Lambe
President
I’m curious if the developers who are tearing down trees, as well as destroying fields and areas of native vegetation, will receive accolades. Oh yeah that’s right, they pay to keep the elected employees in office so they can receive the accolades while distributing permits as fast as they print them to anyone who wants to ensure Harford County lose it’s rural charm. More specifically, are the developers, for example those working on Fallston Mall required to have a specific amount of green area, as in trees, based on the size of the building and impervious surface space, excluding the very limited buffer zone? Wouldn’t that be wonderful to have trees lining Route 152 and Route 1 around Fallston Mall? All the other new developments would reap the benefits of trees, also.
Trees? Who needs em’. We’ll have little muddy medians here and there in our new Fallston Mall with scraggly lollipop trees – native trees are too big and mess up our asphalt. Besides, the green areas are more like trash catchers for the discarded wrappers and popcorn bikes thrown from car windows as they exit the 6 plex theatre going in where the nursery is located. Trash is cool – you’ll learn to like it.
Boxes, not bikes.
It sure is nice that they didn’t have to cut any trees down to build your home so you can now preach to others.
I’ve got lots of trees in and around my tent……anti nature lover.
I’m curious where the stupid bowtie is.
Hey questions to the County Council, are the taxpayers responsible for the TIF in the amount of 14 million that benefited the all mighty great one Clark Turner who is now bankrupt with 44 MILLION in unsecured debt.
Fake. If you copy someone’s username, you probably copied this comment from someone, too.
Cut down all the trees you want to make room to build my house and provide the lumber it’s built with and then stop. Once I have mine screw everyone else.
Idiots! Everyone that whines about development that doesn’t live in an animal-skin tent should just shut up!
So if you live in a apartment, condo or house you will forever give up any right to support open space, be concerned with out of control developement, density, abuse of zoning regs, inside deals, etc. That’s just a dumb comment.
It seems to me like there is suddenly a massive rush to build about a million apartments and condos around Rt 1 (Business and Bypass) in the Fallston area. Did somebody ring a bell or someone die so that their heirs could sell out to developers?
My question is do we really need to “develop” all this land? Is there a crying need for apartments in this county? Has anyone on the County Council looked into what this is going to do to the traffic in this area, not to mention the schools.
How could someone be so dumb to allow all this development when their is no public transportation and limited public water and sewer access? All of the houses along Rt 152 in the Fallston area are on well and septic systems. And God willing, there won’t be any push for public water/sewerage in this area.
When I moved out here, I assumed that the well and septic requirements would limit development but I was wrong. I can’t help but wonder where all this apartment sewage is going to go. And of course there won’t be any additional land fill burdens because these new apartment dwellers won’t be throwing out any trash.
But this is about trees. When I see the tree killing bulldozers at work on a pristine piece of land, I’m struck with a profound since of butchery. Trees are an advanced life form and I do feel they feel pain when they are butchered. They are aware of the passing of the seasons and the natural ebb and flow of the rhythms of the earth. In ages past, trees were considered sacred. This era is out of sync with the earth. If we’re not careful, we will destroy the ecosystems and drown in our own shit.. But the planet itself will go on.
But I’m just a poor country girl with no money and no influence so no one listens to me. The only thing I can do is plant another tree on ground that I own so no one can kill it for a profit.
“When I moved out here…”
That’s when I stopped reading/caring what this person thinks about the devastating impacts of so many people moving “out here.”
I am sorry you stopped reading when you learned I moved out here. My question is why would I care what is happening if I didn’t live here? Were you born in this county? I moved here in 1972 after some truly nightmarish things I lived through in Baltimore County. My home in Fallston was and continues to be a sanctuary for me. I am sorry my presences offends you.
It is not your presence that offends as much as your sanctimony regarding the population boom that has occurred in this beautiful county since WWII, which peaked around the same time you say you moved “out here” (+50% growth in 1970s) and has slowed since 2000 (12% in 2000s).
You have every right to be “out here” and I welcome you, but there is more than a hint of irony in your argument that you apparently don’t see or don’t want to admit. I don’t disagree with your overall contention that this county would be much more beautiful, quiet, and rural were it not for that development. But how many trees were cut down or farm fields bulldozed to build your house, roads, etc?
The fact that you continually refer to Harford County as “out here” leads one to believe that you do not view this place as your home as much as a place you escaped to. And yes I was born here; my family has been here since before the Civil War. But that is not the point and I only add it because you asked. My point is that your argument would be much better made if you kept to yourself the fact that you proudly participated in the very thing you are chastising others for doing (i.e. the migration of people to Harford County and the development that took/takes place to meet that demand.)
Sarah – Bravo!
Thank you for your comments. They are well taken.
When I look at it from your perspective, I can see some hypocrisy on my part. But rest assured, I treasure this county and would love to see it retain the rural character that first attracted me to it. . My home “out here” is my sanctuary and It is my heart’s home, not just a physical place to live.
I am fascinated to hear your family has lived in this county since the Civil War. I would love to some day hear the history of your family. I have always envied families that have endured for generations in the same location.
My family hail’s from Virginia where they have maintained a presence since the second landing at Williamsburg. The aftermath of the Civil War left a lot of Virginia families torn apart and more or less homeless. (I would like to point out that among most “old Virginian” families, they fought for Virginia, not the Confederacy. We were not all participants in the plantation system.)
Since I hail from a long line of “preachers and teachers”, my particular line of the family wandered the great land known as the United States of America until we found safe harbor in Maryland. Some of my people still search for the home they lost during the conflict.
My branch of the family found life in Baltimore County becoming increasingly difficult as population pressures .. Well ‘nuf said.
But please, understand Harford County is my home, I was married in Fallston Methodist Church and have returned here after my own period of wandering. Maryland is my home, and Fallston is where my heart is. We killed not one tree to build our house, and the only thing they ever raised on our land was rocks. But the grass grows green and we have planted more than a few trees on our property, some were grown from saplings brought in coffee cans from our old house.
But I take your point even if I’m still tripping over it.