Want to make Prince George’s County “prettier than [it] already is?” Just want to earn community-service credits?
Join the Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops that will come together with high school students and faith-based groups, among others, to add thousands of plants to Prince George’s County’s public areas this weekend. The volunteers will create, and later maintain, community landscaping projects to add to the beauty of the county and further its green initiatives.
Their countywide efforts will continue an annual tradition started by County Executive Jack B. Johnson - Gorgeous Prince George’s Day.
The seventh annual Gorgeous Prince George’s Day will be held Saturday, with volunteers participating in reforestation projects around the county. Volunteers will plant trees, shrubs and flowering plants from 8 to 11:30 a.m.
Susan Hubbard, public information officer for the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation, said 242 groups have signed up to participate this year, “which is similar to last year.” The groups come from “all parts of the county.”
For high school students in Maryland, who are required to work a minimum number of community-service hours, Gorgeous Prince George’s Day is also a popular way to fulfill that requirement. “If they are assisting their communities or other communities, then they can get community-service hours for that,” Ms. Hubbard said.
She gave examples of past Gorgeous Prince George’s Day projects, including events that “assisted schools with landscaping” or “worked with communities if they have, say, a large common area.”
She pointed out that because the plants are obtained through the county, “all of the landscaping materials have to be utilized within the public right of way” and that the projects cannot go toward “a private garden.”
By improving public areas, Ms. Hubbard says, volunteers become a “part of an overall program to enhance the aesthetics of Prince George’s County to make it prettier than [it] already is.”
Following the activities, a picnic for the volunteer landscapers will be held at Historic Bladensburg Waterfront Park on Annapolis Road from noon until 3 p.m. The cookout will be “a bringing together of all those persons who volunteered if they choose to come,” Ms. Hubbard said.
Gorgeous Prince George’s Day is not only environmentally friendly but contributes to larger improvements in the county, she added.
The event contributes to Mr. Johnson’s larger Livable Communities Initiative. According to the county Web site, the Livable Communities Initiative “will guide, support and assist the government, residents and businesses in the creation and implementation of principles that will result in a healthy, safe, litter-free environment and promote more livable communities in Prince George’s County, one community at a time.”
Further, the plan was developed after evaluating “government programs that affect the cleanliness, beautification, health, safety and educational conditions of the County” and is “designed to consider the widest range of solutions to the environmental problems facing the County …”
The spring 2009 “Prince George’s Goes Green” report, issued by the Goes Green Steering Committee, states that during the 2008 effort, more than 10,000 trees, shrubs and annuals, “through the collective efforts of our volunteers,” were planted by “homeowners, civic, faith-based, school, youth, and government groups, as well as interested individuals.”
In a letter announcing this year’s event, Mr. Johnson said that through the overall “annual Gorgeous Prince George’s Day event, we have planted almost 200,000 trees, shrubs and flowers, establishing Prince George’s County as a leader in promoting healthy and green neighborhoods.”
To participate in the Gorgeous Prince George’s Day, groups submit applications to the county with information on their site and what they plan to plant. Groups also may request assistance with landscape design. Groups are required to sign up in advance because the county has to “go out and develop a landscape plan or enhance the landscape plan they already had if they participated before,” Ms. Hubbard said.
Accompanying the application is a group order form, which allows participants to choose up to 20 plants, including large shade trees, small ornamental trees and perennials. In addition, up to 150 daffodil bulbs are available per group to plant in prepared beds.
Participants are responsible for the upkeep of the new landscaping once it is planted. Ms. Hubbard said that when the county assists with designing the plans, “we help them make a landscape plan that they can maintain afterward.”
The Gorgeous Prince George’s Day event is just one of many environmental initiatives in the county, as outlined by the Goes Green Steering Committee, whose goals include reducing “energy consumption per square foot in all existing County buildings” and “establish a green building education and outreach program,” among others, according to its Web site.
• Meredith Hulley is a freelance writer and a University of Maryland student.
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