Join the American Chestnut Land Trust as we celebrate Earth Day! Work on roadsides in the local community and on selected ACLT projects. It’s a day to clean-up our corner of Calvert County working alongside our friends and neighbors! Meet at our south side trailhead on Scientists Cliffs Road in Port Republic (across from Gate A). Cookout lunch to follow at Noon at Double Oak Farm. RSVP to Joy Woppert at 410-414-3400 or volunteer@acltweb.org

Enjoy a wonderful paddle while helping cleanup the St. Mary’s River, Saturday, April 10, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. during the St. Mary’s River Cleanup hosted by the St. Mary’s River Watershed Association. Volunteers will paddle the St. Mary’s River Water Trail from the Great Mills Canoe/Kayak Launch to St. Mary’s College of Maryland picking up trash. The public is invited to participate.

Last year volunteers collected 70 bags of trash, nine tires, and approximately a half ton of loose trash from the St. Mary’s River Water Trail and the St. Mary’s College of Maryland campus, including the site of a recent reforestation project.

“We urge residents to get involved with the cleanup this year. It’s a great way to meet neighbors, spend time with your family and feel good about yourself and your community,” said Ginny Harris, Cleanup Coordinator with the Alice Ferguson Foundation.

Meet at the Great Mills Canoe/Kayak Launch, off MD Route 5, at 9 a.m. Bring your own canoe or kayak, life vest, and paddling gear. Help cleanup the St. Mary’s River and improve your watershed!

Please call 301-862-3517 or email info@StMarysRiver.org to RSVP.

Trash and litter has negative effects in many areas of life in the region:

• It harms wildlife;
• costs taxpayers precious funds for cleanup and removal;
• is a public health threat by increasing breeding grounds for virus carrying insects and rodents;
• decreases property values;and hurts businesses, recreation and tourism.

The St. Mary’s River Cleanup is part of the Alice Ferguson Foundation 22nd Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, http://www.fergusonfoundation.org/trash_initiative/trash_cleanup.shtml.
There are more than 200 cleanup sites in Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Free and open to the public

Filmmaker Scott Kennedy’s 2008 film, The Garden, documents the struggles of Latino/a farmers in South Central Los Angeles to keep their 14-acre community garden, the largest urban garden in the U.S., from repossession and land development. In cinéma vérité fashion, it tells the story of backroom deals, green politics, money, poverty, power, and racial discord.

TFMS’s Third Annual Film Series will focus on environmental film. Internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmakers Scott Hamilton Kennedy (United States), Yung Chang (China/Canada), and Wolfgang Widerhofer (Austria) will screen and discuss a variety of work that explores a range of environmental issues. Topics include environmental displacement, environmental racism, built environments and social activism, and dependence and sustainability.

Get more details at the TFMS website.

Christina and Frank Allen will be showing the movie “Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan”. It is good for both beginning gardeners and also there is much that seasoned gardeners will appreciate.  It will be March 27th at 3 pm at the Cole Cinema, St. Mary’s College. It is free.

Ya Gotta Have a Plan!

Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan is an intensive course in garden planning, compete with handouts and field trips. In this DVD, Cindy Conner shows you how to put together a notebook with a plan unique to your garden. The companion worksheets help you determine how many seeds and plants you need, where they go and when, when to expect a harvest, and what to plant next. You will learn to mak a garden map, to plan rotations, and to keep your garden full all year long. Whether you are new to all this, or an experienced gardener, this DVD will help you become more efficient, allowing you to enjoy your garden to the max. You will meet some of Cindy’s friends who are happy to show you their gardens, the result of careful planning.

When she began growing vegetables in 1974, Cindy Conner knew little about gardening. She studied everything she could find about organic methods so she could produce nutritious food and have a healthy family. Eventually her concern extended to a healthy community. Cindy was a market gardener for 10 years. Now, with her videos, the community she is reaching has expanded. In more than a decade of teaching, she has developed a system of garden planning she wants to share with you. Cindy lives in Virgina in Zone 7.

Cindy’s garden has been in production for 25 years and you will learn of its transformations through that time. You will see seven other gardens ranging from 100 sq. ft. to a half acre and listen to the gardeners tell how garden planning helped them, as you tag along for a tour.

You can purchase your own copy of the DVD at http://www.homeplaceearth.com/.

Cole Cinema is located in Campus Center. Download a walking map of the college.