Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan
BENEFITS of ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Green infrastructure provides us many benefits free of cost, including multiple services of which we often become aware only after they are lost. The benefits of maintaining natural areas as functioning ecosystems generally far exceed those we might get from putting the same domain to other uses. In Cheverly these ecosystems are at work primarily in the five natural areas, our streams and the three wetlands, assisted by the trees, shrubs and other vegetation in the built-up parts of the town. Green infrastructure resources providing these free benefits are discussed in subsequent sections; a sampling of the more significant ones follows. Click here for a more detailed list.
● Forests and other vegetation generate the oxygen we breathe, cleanse air of pollutants, keep temperatures within a range we can tolerate, buffer us from heavy winds, regulate local hydrology, rainfall, humidity to maintain a stable climate without extreme fluctuations. Plants remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause climate overheating. In urban areas trees reduce surface temperature ameliorating heat island effects created by sun-heated asphalt, bricks and concrete. Plants recycle waste, convert and store nutrients necessary for continuation of life. Trees also buffer the force of heavy rain reducing soil damage and erosion. Water is held on site by vegetation and leaf litter, preventing runoff and gullying, until it percolates into the soil.
● A naturally operating water cycle recharges our aquifers, regulates water flow and velocity to minimize erosion and excessive silting. As water cycles through the atmosphere, soil, vegetation and bodies of water, it is filtered, oxygenated and cleansed of contaminants and cooled. During this cycle it also picks up and transfers organic nutrients that support aquatic and other life. Healthy streams and wetlands in Cheverly, in addition to providing local benefits, help restore the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay.
● Animal life, ranging from microbes and insects to birds and larger animals, run and regulate our ecosystems from energy capture, nutrient transfer, waste management, pollination, fertilization, seed dispersal and maintenance of balance among species through population control, herbivory and predation, so that none become overly dominant to the detriment of the system. This process generates and maintains the biodiversity that in turn generates the ecosystem services that benefit us.
● The economic benefits of these free ecosystem services are enormous and many of them are beyond our current ability to replicate. When we destroy or degrade our environment and are forced to supply or substitute services such as water and air purification, cleanup of contaminated soils, flood control, assuring a reliable supply of water, removing greenhouse gases and storing carbon, cooling and regulating the humidity of our buildings, waste removal, pollution abatement, pollination management, fertilizing soil, and many others that nature performs much more efficiently, they cost us billions of dollars.
Plan implementation will also demonstrate how individual and community actions that protect, restore and preserve environmental assets also foster community vitality and help to cost-effectively guide many policy decisions. And because protecting and enhancing our green infrastructure is much cheaper in the long run than major and repeated capital expenditures to achieve the same ends, it also makes economic sense. Implementing green infrastructure strategies are real investments in our future health and happiness that will help ensure that our community becomes even more livable and sustainable.
Cheverly has the opportunity to implement green infrastructure policies and practices that result in real and meaningful improvements for the environmental, economic and social well being of all its residents and the community as a whole. These actions will also extend benefits to neighboring towns, the county and the larger Chesapeake Bay region. Comprehensive implementation of the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan will serve as a positive example of citizen initiative and wise government in Prince Georges County and the region.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity includes all organisms, species, and populations; the genetic variation among these; and all their complex assemblages of communities and ecosystems. -- Ecological Society of America