Featured Case Study: McKenney Hills, saving urban tree canopy 
In this photo, CM Board Member and Audubon Naturalist Society Conservation Director Diane Cameron (left) shows natural features of the urban forest to McKenney Hills resident Juliana O'Neill. O'Neill is a mother of two young children who will attend the future McKenney Hills Elementary School. She is snuggling 14-month-old son Lucas as she chats with Cameron, also a mother of a student in the Montgomery County Public School system.
Walking in the McKenney Hills Winter Wonderland...
Collaboration and compromise in the struggle to preserve urban tree canopy in the Down County
As Jack Gleason walked his dog one afternoon, he noticed something odd in the McKenney Hills woods near his Silver Spring home. Large majestic trees along his usual route were tagged. Gleason was curious and alarmed at the same time.
He contacted Diane Cameron, whom he had known as a local environmentalist in the community, and neighbors who love the urban forest in their midst mobilized. After a few phone calls and some fact-checking, they discovered that one-tenth of an acre of urban trees were in the direct path of construction plans for the future McKenney Hills Elementary School that will be redeveloped. The new school will be larger than the old McKenney Hills school that once stood on a still-vacant field in a clearing near the woods. A section of urban forest in the McKenney Hills, Carroll Knolls, Capitol View and Homewood Park area of Silver Spring, Maryland is contiguous with a larger tract of forest owned by the county Legacy Open Space Program. Together, the Legacy Open Space Forest and the McKenney Hills Forest constitute an interconnected forest ecosystem totaling 50 acres, by far one of the largest remaining tracts of urban forest in the Down County.
Robert Miller, author of Urban Forestry, Planning and Managing Urban Greenspaces, defines an urban forest as, "the sum of all woody and associated vegetation in and around dense human settlements, ranging from small communities in rural settings to metropolitan regions." In Montgomery County, urban forests in the densely developed Down County area are diminishing rapidly. Aerial photos from 2008 show forest cover of 13% in the urban ring of the Down County and about 29% of total forest cover countywide. The nonprofit American Forests recommends a minimum forest cover of 25% in urban areas in order to sustain a healthy ecosystem, improved air quality and stormwater management, and an acceptable quality of life.
Residents in the McKenney Hills community, who have formed the McKenney Hills Forest Preservation Group, are sympathetic to the desire to have the school built on time. The goal of rebuilding a larger McKenney Hills school is to relieve overcrowding that has forced kindergarteners out of Oakland Terrace Elementary School and into swing space on the campus of Sligo Middle School. But at the same time, they see value in maintaining green space adjacent to the school planned for the site. In an effort to compromise, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) along with the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS), and the Montgomery County Public School system in late October. The Planning Board heard the case and incorporated the MOU stipulating the preservation of additional woodland -- plus a set of additional site protections and environmental commitments on the part of both MCPS and the environmental groups -- into the school project.
"These woods are cherished," said, Bruce Cohen, who has lived in the nearby Capitol View neighborhood for 61 years. "So many people walk their dogs here, and kids come out with their parents to play along the stream at the bottom of the slope," said Cohen. As he walked through the woods on a recent winter afternoon, he pointed to the trees that will be saved as part of the negotiations between the community, ANS and the school system -- as well as those that will be taken down to make way for heavy construction equipment and stormwater measures that are still being negotiated between the engineers hired by the county school system, residents and environmentalists.
Eight trees that are 30 inches and greater in diameter at breast height (dbh) will be spared as the result of community advocacy for the McKenney Hills urban forest. Other smaller trees will also be spared, and there will be far less disturbance to steep slopes and the roots of nearby trees that otherwise would have been adversely affected by the school constuction. According to Cameron, who specializes in stormwater management, public and private experts have noted the uniqueness and spectacular quality of the McKenny Hills woods which are located within the Capitol View Branch of the Lower Rock Creek watershed. Cameron continues to work with officials from MCPS on the details of the stormwater management plan, with a goal of keeping the stormwater management on-site and minimizing the overall impact of the construction once it is underway. 
"We're looking for the best possible outcome and in the full spirit of compromise so that the building of the school is not delayed. We feel strongly that it's in everyone's best interest to preserve as much of the natural surroundings adjacent to the school as we can," said Cameron. "Think of how valuable it will be for young children to look out of their classrooms at green space even in an urban setting. If all goes well, they'll also be able to use part of the adjacent woods as a small nature center next to the school."
Keep scrolling for more photos, details and files related to this case study...
Veteran county environmentalist Ginny Barnes (purple jacket), and Vice Chair of Conservation Montgomery, points to additional trees that could be spared near the future site of the McKenney Hills Elementary School.
Links to stories published in the Gazette newspapers:
Updates from the McKenney Hills Forest Preservation Group
Photos from the Rally to Save the Trees on March 5, 2011
Letters
- October 6, 2010 Letter from Bruce Cohen to Planning Board Chair Francoise Carrier
- October 27, 2010 Letter from green builder Stanley Sersen of ASG Integrative Design to the Montgomery County Planning Board
Testimony
Memorandum of Understanding
Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance Plans
Plans produced by Keith Underwood, contracted by the Audubon Naturalist Society to develop the plans for the Montgomery County Public Schools
If you have questions or want to learn more, contact:
Diane Cameron
DCameron@audubonnaturalist.org
Or send an email to ConservationMontgomery@live.com
