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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the “global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.” They are the organization who, along with their member organizations and legions of experts, determine which animals are endangered or facing extinction across the globe. Monarch on swamp milkweed Just a month after we posted about celebrating and protecting pollinators across our area for National Pollinators Week, the IUCN announced that the migratory monarch butterfly is now endangered. Climate change and its effects (like increased wildfire activity and droughts), deforestation for agriculture and urban…

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Laura Kelm and BeaverCon mascot Last month GreenVest Project Manager, Laura Kelm, presented at BeaverCon, a conference about beaver conflict management and watershed restoration. This year’s theme was “Building Climate Resilience: A Nature-Based Approach” which closely reflects GreenVest’s own values. Laura presented with project partner Biohabitat’s Senior Ecologist, Joe Berg, about the beaver at the Bacon Ridge Branch Stream Restoration Project. The presentation focused on how the beaver on-site facilitated the conversion of a baseflow stream channel restoration into a 0-stage channel. Restoration construction completed in Spring 2020, and beaver on-site quickly got to work making the project their own…

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtail April showers bring May flowers, the saying goes. But what do May flowers bring? They bring pollinators. Bees, butterflies, birds, and others you might not suspect (like flies, moths, beetles, bats, and small mammals) all work to pollinate plants. In fact, pollinators are necessary for the fertilization of at least 75% of the world’s flowering plants. That’s over 180,000 different types of plants, of which over 1,200 are used for food. These plants not only provide us with food, but also cleaner water, cleaner air, and more oxygen. They also help stabilize our soils and provide food…

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June 1st was a beautiful day for a boat tour and presentation about the Middle Branch Resiliency Initiative. Thank you to all who joined us on the excursion; these photos speak for themselves! MBRI Presentation MBRI Boat Tour MBRI Boat Tour MBRI Boat Tour MBRI Boat Tour

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This past weekend, our staff had the joy of celebrating another year at GreenVest at our 2022 Holiday Party. Our usual January celebration was canceled due to COVID-19 safety concerns, so we substituted the holiday cheers for a pre-summer toast. Hosted at the Hamilton in Downtown Washington, D.C., our staff enjoyed cocktail hour and a seated dinner, while catching up with colleagues and significant others. Managing Member, Doug Lashley, also announced GreenVest’s sizable donation to a Ukrainian charity in lieu of individual gifts this year. GreenVest is appreciative of all that our staff does, and we are pleased to have…

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Today, GreenVest celebrates our 30th birthday! Thirty years of championing ecosystem restoration, preservation, and mitigation using nature-based solutions for sustainable outcomes. Our team enjoyed a delicious catered lunch and a wonderful birthday cake to celebrate. Here’s to all we have accomplished and to all we will accomplish in the next 30 years… and beyond! GreenVest 30th Birthday Celebration

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Long-tailed salamander in its natural habitat Every Spring, special pools blossom into existence fed by melting winter snow and seasonal rains. These vernal pools (from the Latin vernalis meaning “of the spring”) provide a host of environmental services to any habitat in which they form. Long-tailed salamander in hand. Amphibians especially love vernal pools, as they are safer places (i.e., less aquatic predators due to the pools’ temporary nature) to mate and lay eggs, and for those eggs to hatch and develop into a new generation of adults. Just like last year, one of GreenVest’s Vice Presidents, Brian Cramer, did…

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Log jam With each new stream restoration project, we employ a variety of techniques to bring the stream and its surrounding ecosystem back to health. For the Bacon Ridge Branch Stream Restoration Project, we used a ‘lighter touch’ approach that leveraged on-site materials to create structures that raised the water surface elevation and reconnected the stream to its floodplain. With these higher water elevations, the stream can once again access the floodplain, spreading out and slowing down storm flows while ‘rehydrating’ the previously drained soils and historic wetlands adjacent to the stream channels. Our nature-based approach to stream restoration greatly…

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On April 4, GreenVest Managing Member, Doug Lashley, spoke on a panel in Ashville, NC at the Spring Meeting of the Environmental Council of States (ECOS). The panel was moderated by Ben Grumbles, who serves as both the President of ECOS and the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Environment. Doug Lashley on a panel at the Spring Meeting of ECOS The panel discussion dealt with how States can strategically engage in and address pressing environmental challenges, including how to take advantage of innovative financing functions and public-private partnerships. Specific points of interest included game-changing federal investment in infrastructure programs,…

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GreenVest was proud to present at Prince George’s County Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM’s) recent workshop providing information to prospective 2022 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Assistance applicants. GV, a certified Prince George’s County-Based Small Business was invited to speak by the agency after assisting the County’s Department of the Environment with developing several of these grant applications in 2021. GV presented on the Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA). We introduced its basic concepts and discussed the BCA process, illustrating our presentation with the results of two real-world projects. This workshop provided information on requirements and guidance to those who…

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