Cory Galliher
CUMBERLAND — Efforts to make Cumberland a greener place to live are continuing to progress, according to a presentation by Natural Resources Technician Paul Eriksson at the public meeting of the mayor and City Council.
The current goals of the initiative are to conserve Cumberland’s existing forest blocks and tree canopy and to increase the tree canopy in the core of the city from 27 to 45 percent by 2020.
“What people are concerned about is down here where people live and work,” said Eriksson, who added that the area’s forested hillsides are generally in better shape. “We’re losing shade down here.”
Eriksson said that potential approaches to meet these goals include public education, encouraging citizens to volunteer, having the city itself take action and encouraging regulatory changes to promote green development.
“We’re looking to prioritize tree locations as well as trying to emphasize planting the right trees in the right place,” said Eriksson.
Eriksson said that ideally, 40 percent of a city should be made up of urban tree canopy. He added that trees provide fresh air and reduce noise pollution along with improving property values and reducing cooling costs in the summer.
“If you lose trees in the downtown area, it gets hotter,” said Eriksson. “The more trees you have, the more shade is created and the cooler it gets. Trees also take up a tremendous amount of pollutants.
“This plan is a continuous process,” he said. “Once we do the work recommended in the plan, we need to get feedback to see if the plan was successful or if we need to go back to ground zero.”
The city initiative began in 2006 with the goal to bring more trees to the city along with tending to the maintenance of the current trees. The Chesapeake Bay Trust provided $50,000 in start-up funding.
“I think in the long term it is important for us to work on our urban tree canopy,” said Councilman Brian Grim on Wednesday. Grim also works with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
“It’s not something that’s taking a lot of resources right now. It’s part of the long-term comprehensive plan, and it takes many years for trees to mature anyway.
“(The plan) is more than just planting trees, though,” Grim said. “It’s also taking a comprehensive look at trees that are already in our city. We’ve got a number of trees that are planted where they probably shouldn’t have been and it includes taking a look at those.”
Cumberland’s environmental preservation efforts resulted in it being given the PLANT Community Award and the Tree City USA Award at the annual Arbor Day celebration last year.
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