Greenbelt Day 2018
At the Public Works Open House last Saturday people could get up close to the equipment staff uses every day to serve the citizens of Greenbelt. Tony Finley demonstrated backhoes, sweepers, tractors and lawn mowers for street cleaning and lake clean-ups and for park, playground and athletic field upkeep. Mike Barnes helped kids climb into a bucket attached to the cherry-picker, to give them a sense of how city employees hang banners across streets, trim trees and change lights.
Inside the Public Works Building, Sustainability Coordinator Luisa Robles talked about the importance of recycling with a focus on the new Terra Cycle bins for non-recyclable waste. Ethel Dutky, Advisory Committee on Trees, had a timely pest alert. The spotted lanternfly, a non-native invasive insect from Asia that is currently causing harm in Pennsylvania, feeds on the tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), a non-native invasive plant made famous by the 1943 novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; controlling the tree-of-heaven could help mitigate the impact of this insect when it arrives in Maryland. The Forest Preserve Advisory Board also displayed other non-native invasive plants that occur in Greenbelt.
Read more of this story in the June 7 News Review.