The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan

MISSION OF THE CHEVERLY GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

Preserve, restore and sustain the natural environment of Cheverly and surrounding areas as intact and healthy ecosystems, through a community participatory process, balancing the fulfillment of human needs and protection of the natural environment.

 This plan will help guide future development, redevelopment, and investment policy decisions in a proactive and sustainable manner within and around the Town of Cheverly.

The Full Text of the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan



Final narrative long.pdf

The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan in Brief

Click on the image to read the plan summary.

CGIPS FINAL w links 11-10-11.pdf

The Natural Areas Network Updated

The Natural Areas Network of the Green Plan has been updated to incorporate newly acquired or annexed property. The Boyd Park - Cabin Branch hub now includes land transferred to the Town of Cheverly following a long-standing agreement. This land is also a Woodland and Wildlife Conservation area. Kilmer Street Park is a new hub that may find a future connection to the Cheverly East Park hub. Kilmer Street Park is intended for ecological education and non-intensive activities and will be managed as an arboretum.

The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan.mp4

Rain Check Rebates -- Conservation Landscaping

You’re probably aware that our yearly county property taxes include a Clean Water Act fee. Did you know that we can get that money back?


Yes, Prince George’s County encourages us to install green practices on our property through the Rain Check Rebate program, funded by the Clean Water Act fees. We can get rebates for installing rain barrels and rain gardens, or swapping your concrete or asphalt driveway for permeable paving. These green practices help improve water quality, reduce pollution, and improve local stream and river health.


That may be old news to many of us. But here’s what’s new. Soon we will be eligible for rebates for conservation landscaping, a more comprehensive way to get benefits for our property and the environment as a whole. With rising concerns about climate change, it is good to learn that gardens that replace grass with native plants will help keep us cool. Did you know that lawns are as hot as pavement?


There will be several ways to get the rebates, from gardens featuring plants native to the mid-Atlantic region, to edible gardens with native plants to support beneficial insects, to forest or meadow restorations. The overall aim is to change how we think about land cover.  


Don’t know how to begin? This program will provide homeowner audits to help with project design. The conservation landscaping practice has been okayed by the county council but still has to go through further levels of approval. 


Interested? Sign up to be notified when the applications are under way.

Find more about the Rain Check rebate program at https://cbtrust.org/grants/prince-georges-county-rain-check-rebate/. 



The Air We Breathe: Cheverly's Air Quality Monitoring Project

Statewide air quality monitors may not adequately capture local conditions. The Cheverly mayor and Town Council have partnered with University of Maryland scientists for air quality monitoring in Cheverly and its environs.

Check out the special air quality monitoring project web page.




Water Woes? Have Your Say

Did you miss the opportunity to describe water problems at the H2O, Friend and Foe workshop on November 9, 2019? Do you have other water issues to report? Here is your chance to voice your concerns. If you have more than one issue to report, you may submit more than one survey.

How Can You Work with the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee?

The committee meets the first Monday of the month at 7:30 PM in the conference room of the Cheverly Community Center or via Zoom. Drop by to learn what we are working on. A summary of the agenda is published in the town's News and Announcements.

For a list of current activities, click here.

Let us know of your interest by completing this survey.

Light the Ground, Not the Sky

We could not do without artificial lighting. But outdoor lights that direct light downward, and not toward the sky, are better for wildlife, better for safety, better for our own health, and save energy. Dark-sky lighting may even allow us to see more of the stars of our universe. Read more.

No, No Nandina!

This winter many of us may be planning our gardens for the spring, so let’s talk about one plant that should not be in your garden.

Nandina domestica, commonly known as nandina, heavenly bamboo or sacred bamboo, is a species of flowering shrub from Asia. It is not really a bamboo. It is evergreen, has bright red berries, and is used widely as an ornamental. It grows well in our planting zone, is shade-tolerant and deer-resistant.

So what’s not to like?


What can we plant instead?

Winterberry holly (Ilex verticilata) is an evergreen shrub native to our area, provides berries that last all winter that are good food for birds, and is a host for pollinator species. You will need both male and female plants to get berries.

Remember, it is best to look for the true native plants rather than cultivars.

Bay-Wise Certification

Maybe this is your yard already. Maybe you need just a little encouragement.

Using the University of Maryland Extension’s Bay-Wise Maryland Yardstick you can get credit for your environmentally-friendly landscape practices, even a cool sign for your yard.

The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee and Maryland Master Gardeners are helping promote the Bay-Wise program right here in Cheverly.  Click here for more about the program.

Let’s make Cheverly a Bay-Wise community. How many of our Cheverly yards can we certify?  

Be wise, be Bay-Wise!

Bay-Wise Cheverly is off to a great start! So far 13 yards have been certified, and more are on their way.

Ward Four is now ahead in yards certified.

In Search Of -- Bamboo!

Help the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee identify stands of invasive bamboo in Cheverly. Bamboo on private or public lands -- yards, paper streets, along highways -- knows no boundaries. It spreads easily onto neighboring properties, and may be considered a public nuisance in Cheverly.

You can help show us the bamboo in your own neighborhood or wherever you explore in Cheverly. Just complete the simple form.

The form can be filled in anonymously, or you can provide your e-mail address in case we need to contact you for clarification.

The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee will use the information to help the Cheverly Town Council understand the nature and extent of the bamboo population.

The invasive bamboos are the Common bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), Golden bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea), and Arrow bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica). Bamboos can form very dense thickets that displace native plant species and create dense shade that makes it difficult for seedlings of native species to survive. Bamboo is extremely difficult to control or eradicate.

Here is a map of the bamboo locations in Cheverly, based on the survey results so far.

A Meadow Comes to Cheverly Right of Way

If you see Pepco contractor trucks mowing in the “Wayne Street” right of way about the end of January, it will be the beginning of a new meadow in Cheverly. Update: Pepco has postponed the project to 2019.

This is the right of way running from near Magruder Spring to Parkway extended, parallel to route 50 and a stretch of Woodworth Trail. It runs along Wayne Street, a paper street.

In the past Pepco has mowed the right of way about every five years, to make sure trees do not interfere with its power lines. Now, with Pepco, the Town of Cheverly, and the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee working together,

Pepco will now manage the area as a natural habitat -- a meadow, or low-profile shrub/scrub plant community. That should mean no more mowing in the future.

Meadow management of the right-of-way is among the recommendations of the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan adopted by the Town of Cheverly in 2011.

The first stage of the project will be an initial mowing of existing vegetation to one-foot high. The area to be mowed is shown in pink cross-hatching on the map above. The mowing will be done in winter to protect ground nesting birds and

other wildlife. This will be the only part of the project to require vehicles. Any further maintenance will be done on foot. No mowing will take place on the banks of the step pools created at the outfall near Magruder Spring. Instead,

Pepco will cut the tall growing trees out by hand, leaving the viburnum, a low growing plant compatible with the power lines. That area is shown on the map in green cross-hatching.

What happens next? Each Spring, probably in May, herbicides will be used selectively to suppress the growth of trees which typically grow tall. The plan is to promote the growth of forbs, grasses, and shrubs in place of trees. Pepco will

prescribe an aquatic herbicide mix which is safe to use in wetland areas with standing water and just treat only the tall growing tree species that start coming back up. After a few cycles of the application, once the tall growing tree species

have been managed, longer periods will elapse between applications. Invasive shrubs, such as Autumn Olive, will be removed. Vines growing on power-line poles and guy wires will be treated. Pepco will do no planting. Invasive

herbaceous plants will generally not be treated.

The intent of the project is to encourage a low-growing plant community that will not have to be disturbed periodically. Among the locally rare plants found in the right of way are Maryland meadow beauty (Rhexia mariana) and yellow

passionflower (Passiflora lutea). Fuller inventories of plants in the area.

Cody Hesseltine, Pepco arborist, will supervise the operations. So if you see him working, stop by and say hello.

Streaming Cheverly

2017 Photo Contest -- Cheverly's Streams, Springs, and Wetlands, and all who live in, on, or near them.The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee invites you to celebrate the richness of life in Cheverly and help inspire its protection and conservation.  

This year the focus was on Cheverly’s streams, springs and wetlands – and all that live in, on, and around them.Contest winners and slide show.

Learn more: Cheverly's Streams


Help Put Our Green Practices on the Map

Green Infrastructure Committee Meetings

The Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee meets the first Monday of the month. See the calendar above for upcoming meetings.

7:30 PM, Cheverly Community Center, large conference room or via Zoom

All meetings are open. We  suggest you contact sheila.salo (at) gmail.com to request a  copy of the agenda.

All are welcome at any of the meetings

We Implement the Cheverly Green Plan

The Back Story

If you want to follow the development of the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan in detail, you will find some of the background reports here.

Learn about the outreach and education activities that involved the steering committee, community organizations, the Cheverly Town government and staff, and Cheverly citizens in creating the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan:

Presentation of the Cheverly Green Plan

On June 23, 2011, a summary of the proposed Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan was presented to the Town Council. This was the second such presentation.

A Bit of History

June 12, 2008, announcement of the formation of the Cheverly Green Plan Steering Committee