Maryland Sea Grant Releases Chesapeake Landscape Certification Video

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Maryland Sea Grant has worked with the Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional Certification (CBLP) program to produce a video on the importance of landscaping and clean water to the Chesapeake Bay.

The three-minute video, available on our YouTube channel, explains the advantages of getting the certification, and the benefits of designing, installing, and maintaining practices to reduce stormwater runoff.

“Fundamentally, it’s about the choices that landscape professionals make every day, and the positive impact that those choices can make,” said Beth Ginter, CBLP Coordinator.

Some of the practices the film talks about include rain gardens, rain barrels, pervious pavement, living shorelines, and rainwater harvesting.

The program includes two levels of certification.  Level 1, the baseline credential, includes a two-day class that incorporates a classroom component as well as field time. Level 2 is an advanced credential, which is taught in a three-day seminar. The goal is to create a cadre of certified professionals that local governments and other partners can look to for Bay-friendly landscape practices that will help them meet their pollution-reduction goals for stormwater under the federally mandated pollution diet.

“We are focused on meeting water-quality goals by a date of 2025, and we want to make sure all the investments we’re making in water quality are being protected, so that means being designed, installed, and maintained properly,” said Amanda Rockler, a Maryland Sea Grant watershed specialist focused on pollution-reduction practices.

The landscaping program has certified more than 300 professionals, as of October 2018.  Projects completed by the CBLP pilot cohort in 2017 accounted for significant reductions of harmful pollutants to the Bay. Approximately 775 pounds of nitrogen, 370 pounds of phosphorus, and 509,929 pounds of sediment were avoided due to the work of these certified professionals.

We thank our many partners, and filmmaker Neil Solomon, for making this film possible.

For more information on the program, contact:

Beth Ginter, CBLP Coordinator
beth@cblpro.org
703-501-1208
http://www.cblpro.org