Petro Design Build

The world’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, one of our best tools to quantify what’s happening beneath the surface remains largely untapped. Geophysicist Dustin Schroeder specializes in ice-penetrating radar: a powerful technique for studying ice sheets and glaciers on Earth and other planetary bodies. In this webinar, he will explore the hidden interiors of ice sheets through radar images and radar sounding data. When brought to their full potential, these tools can help us zero in on some of the most urgent questions surrounding Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers: How do they flow? What controls their behavior, evolution, and stability? And how will they impact sea level rise?

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The Hidden Worlds Within Ice Sheets and Glaciers. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. The world’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, one of our best tools to quantify what’s happening beneath the surface remains largely untapped. Geophysicist Dustin Schroeder specializes in ice-penetrating radar: a powerful technique for studying ice sheets and...

2024 Women in Ag Webinars

Check out the Women in Agriculture 2024 Webinars. Offered the second Tuesday of each month. They are FREE and open to all!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2024-women-in-ag-webinars-tickets-770439012827

Reconnected with Landscape colleagues Bernie Mihm of Fine Earth Landscapes and John Driscoll of Dogwood Hill Farms to catch up on our over 45 years in the landscape industry together and STILL loving it!!

Full moon hike at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center SERC in Edgewater was PERFECT!!

Planting crew at Bowie State College for phase 1 of a grant project for the Peace Park Restoration from the Alliance of the Chesapeake Bay. Peace Park commemorates fallen students. Petro Design Build was awarded the contract for the design and oversight of the project.

What’s for Dinner? Reconnecting Our Food with Our Climate
Tuesday, Oct. 24, 7pm ET

Speaker: Dr. Jessica Fanzo,
Director of the Food for Humanity Initiative, Columbia University Climate School

Our food systems have become increasingly fragile in the face of climate change, ongoing conflicts and the long-tail of the COVID-19 pandemic. More frequent—and more intense—extreme events challenge food production, storage and transportation. At the same time, how we grow, process, package and transport our food often harms the environment, further accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss. Fixing this requires bridging the gap between food policies and climate policies. In our final lecture of 2023, join Dr. Jessica Fanzo for a look at sustainable food practices for a hotter, more turbulent world. Fanzo directs the Food for Humanity Initiative at the Columbia University Climate School. In this talk, she’ll reveal the must-do actions to nourish 9.7 billion people by 2050.
This webinar will be recorded! Closed captioning will be available on both the live event and on the recording. By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to join live and receive a link to the recording approximately one week after it airs.
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/5916921276555/WN_ivyajg4RTGiFiBd5RQGX0w

This fungus is the perfect Fall color! Called “Crab-of-the-Woods and ”Chicken of the Woods” it’s true naturals art and life!!

On Opportunity to Enjoy the Fall Weather, burn some calories and help the planet!!

Renovation of small Old Town Alexandria Garden including a drywell under a rear decorative patio to intercept surface and roof water from neighboring yards and provide intimate seating. Includes chandelier lighting from the above tree, flagstone mowing edging and cobble details. Pergola/Trellising and Lighting to come!

The Mysterious Migrations of Cownose Rays
Tuesday, Sept. 19, 7pm ET
Speaker: Dr. Matt Ogburn, SERC Fisheries Conservation Lab

Cownose rays are enigmatic, and sometimes controversial, summertime inhabitants of Chesapeake Bay. SERC’s Fisheries Conservation Lab has been tagging cownose rays and tracking their long-distance migrations since 2014. On Sept. 19 Dr. Matt Ogburn, head of the Fisheries Conservation Lab, will reveal some the discoveries from this 9-year tracking effort. Their studies have uncovered the rays’ overwintering habitat, documented the different migration patterns of males and females, and revealed the environmental cues that help rays know when to start migrating. These findings are helping support conservation and management of this often misunderstood and overlooked stingray.

This webinar will be recorded! Closed captioning will be available on both the live event and on the recording. By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to join live and receive a link to the recording approximately one week after it airs.
https://serc.si.edu/events/mysterious-migrations-cownose-rays

Wildlife Friendly Water Features Attract wildlife with water features. Enhancing your garden and the local ecosystem. Get essential water feature tips here!

Breeding the Unbreedable: Assisted Reproduction in the Cheetah
Tuesday, June 20, 7pm ET
Speaker: Dr. Adrienne Crosier, Smithsonian National Zoo
The fastest land animal is quickly running out of time. As cheetah populations in the wild continue to decline, our zoo populations are becoming even more critical to the future of the species. In our June Earth Optimism webinar, learn about the difficulties of managing and reproducing these cats with Adrienne Crosier, a cheetah biologist with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Adrienne will also offer an inside look at some of the cutting-edge techniques scientists are using to improve genetics and cheetah cub reproduction in zoo facilities.
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/6816802909901/WN_ZbmkwST2ToS1eNHUknsuaA

Plasticene Seas – What Life on Floating Plastic Means For Our Ocean
Millions of tons of plastic pollution enter the ocean each year. This global influx of plastic has devastating effects on marine life, including entanglement and plastic ingestion. In this talk, marine biologist Dr. Linsey Haram will reveal another unexpected consequence of rampant plastic pollution: the creation of artificial, floating habitat for coastal marine life in the open ocean. Dr. Haram will describe how her team studies life on these floating plastics in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (also known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"), and the surprising results they’ve found to date. These discoveries raise many challenging questions about the future of our oceans in the context of the global plastic pollution crisis.
May 16, 2023 07:00 PM EST
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/8116788146704/WN_UUYetbEtSAapu6S_hzGqAg?utm_source=E-newsletter+list&utm_campaign=95dd7602df-March+Lecture+2023_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_aa4f08691a-95dd7602df-144319617 #/registration

Prince George's Stream Restoration Project Earns 2nd In Chesapeake Bay Contest A stream restoration project in Prince George's has placed 2nd in the Chesapeake Bay's award contest for best urban stormwater practices.

The Secret Societies of Ants
Ant societies are fascinating examples of organization, but the coevolution of an ant society with a plant involved new task demands on the colony. In our April Earth Optimism Webinar, tropical biologist Sabrina Amador Vargas will take you inside the world of acacia ants and the acacia trees they depend on for survival. She’ll reveal how this mutualistic tree-insect relationship has shaped the behavior of acacia ants and the plant morphology. She’ll also highlight how these obligate relationships promote innovative behaviors in other organisms interacting with the ant-acacia mutualism.
Join us at 7:00pm on April 18th for this fascinating webinar.
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/3616746774079/WN_ES_VOPtITpiOt7LvaX4uSQ

Photo Credit: Mason-S. Creative Commons License

A tirelessly fighting son of the Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman empowers communities and takes on polluters

📣Save the Date! Our friends at Anne Arundel County Bureau of Watershed Protection and Restoration need your help at their Planting Event on Saturday, February 25 at 10am! This event will take place at the Najoles Road Stream Restoration Project where they will be planting 1700 live stakes. Please RSVP using the link below or through the QR code on the event flyer. 🌱
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIWpbVcv6e7wE8ZQBcDKAtrwiA2wwr7Kqn8T7NmbTEbEv-Jw/viewform

How many stars can you see from your home? For many Americans, the answer is only a handful. Our ancestors once saw thousands. The growing flood of artificial light pollution, and disappearance of our night skies, are taking a toll on people and animals. But there are ways to combat it. Kelsey Johnson, University of Virginia astronomer and creator of the “Dark Skies, Bright Kids” program, has devoted her career to understanding the stars and preserving their beauty for future generations. In our February Earth Optimism lecture, she’ll reveal some of the surprising costs our 24-hour illumination takes on nature—and some surprisingly easy ways to fix it.
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/6516714821205/WN_hRZiFa-3RpyUeuZpcJPLcA

Master Gardener Virtual Classroom Page, 2022 Edition Visit our redesigned and more accessible Master Gardener Virtual Classroom page!

SHRUB: Viburnum nudum (Possum-haw) Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic Sometimes referred to as Wild Raisin because of its dark ripe fruit, this species is the most showy of the native Viburnums with lustrous leaves, multi-colored drupes, and stunning fall foliage. The shrub is indigenous to low woods, swamps,...