Celebrating CA’s Community Partners in Sustainability
Guest Post by Environmental Program Manager Natalie Yee
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Columbia Association. Our team takes pride in bringing expertise and passion to our work — but we can’t do it alone. We are beyond grateful for local organizations and residents that care deeply about the environment and team up with CA to protect our open space for generations to come.
Here are just a few sustainability partnerships we’re grateful for!
Howard Community College
Ever heard of the Weed Warriors? This program is just one example of CA and Howard Community College’s partnership in action! Weed Warriors are dedicated volunteers who perform invasive weed removal and plant native species in their place, which has major benefits to our ecosystem. CA and HCC collaborate to run the Weed Warriors program year-round, including leading the biannual trainings for new volunteers.
CA also enjoys participating in HCC’s environmental events each year, including Greenfest, Fall for All and Campus Sustainability Day to help promote the sustainability efforts that are happening in the community.
HCC Environmental Health and Safety Supervisor Bob Marietta teaches Weed Warriors proper removal techniques for invasive species.
There’s no better way to celebrate Earth Month than with a free plant giveaway at Greenfest!
Civic Works
CA is passionate about promoting energy efficiency in the community. This extends past our own facilities — we work to provide homeowners with opportunities to reduce their energy usage. Our partnership with Civic Works’ Energy Programs, a non-profit community resource, helps us make it easy and affordable for residents to go solar and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Civic Works serves as a third party to facilitate energy efficiency and solar upgrades to homeowners in the region. They have installation partners that are able to meet performance standards for quality of work and local hiring practices.
CA and Civic Works host quarterly information sessions for the community to learn more about installing solar for homeowners. Check out our Events calendar for details on upcoming sessions.
Blossoms of Hope
Blossoms of Hope is a non-profit organization committed to beautification projects across Howard County, as well as raising funds and awareness for cancer-related efforts and other causes. For more than a decade, CA and BOH have partnered to bring those efforts and community support to open space and CA facilities.
CA began working with BOH on tree plantings 10 years ago when CA agreed to plant and maintain 15 cherry trees, four flowering dogwood and six redbud trees in what’s known as Kennedy Gardens on Lake Kittamaqundi. In addition, BOH provided three National Cherry Blossoms Festival legacy trees to plant in that area. Those special saplings – which originated in Tokyo and came through Washington, D.C. – have taken root in CA open space and grown into sturdy trees with white blossoms appearing each year.
We are proud to support BOH’s initiative to plant 3,700 Blossoms by 2025 many on CA property. Lake Kittamaqundi is one of many sites where trees have been planted on CA open space. CA has also collaborated with BOH to bring trees to Lake Elkhorn, Wilde Lake and Symphony Woods.
Blossoms of Hope plaque at Lake Kittamaqundi.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
One of the many ways the Maryland Department of Natural Resources works to preserve, protect, restore and enhance the state’s natural resources is through a free fishing program called Hooked on Fishing. Each summer, CA partners with the DNR to conduct an introductory lesson to teach children ages 8 to 15 proper casting technique, angler ethics, catch and release, fish identification and safety. CA has hosted Hooked on Fishing events at Jackson Pond, Lake Elkhorn and Wilde Lake and is proud to help the DNR educate the next generation.
A 2023 Hooked on Fishing event at Wilde Lake.
CARES groups + Yards Alive
CARES stands for Community Action and Resources for Environmental Stewardship. CARES groups are exactly what they sound like: Groups of residents from different villages that care about the environment!
Our CARES groups are active in Kings Contrivance, Wilde Lake, Long Reach and Owen Brown, as well as a Yards Alive group in Oakland Mills. The CARES groups strive to engage the community in environmental stewardship projects including environmentally-conscious landscaping, trash clean-ups, tree giveaways and more. The Yards Alive group particularly focuses on educating homeowners about sustainable landscaping practices. Many folks from these groups are CA Weed Warriors!
Long Reach CARES after a successful trash clean up.
Stronger together
CA has proudly partnered with more than 100 organizations to build a stronger community, and are always looking for new ways to engage. If you are part of an organization that would like to work with CA, please feel to contact OpenSpace.ResourceRequests@
