SILVER SPRING – Montgomery County planners and a Potomac private school have joined forces to protect forest and create an ambitious environmental educational program featuring academic scholarships.
The Planning Board yesterday approved a forest conservation plan proposed by Connelly School of the Holy Child school officials as part of its application for changes in the school campus. As they construct a new athletic field to improve the school’s recreational opportunities, school leaders and planners have devised a strategy to maintain valuable forest and, in addition to the typical mitigation measures to ensure restoration and preservation of wooded areas, provide comprehensive environmental education and a life-changing experience for two students.
The field, which will measure 340 feet by 190 feet, affects a conservation easement on the property. The easement limits most activities to maintain a naturally regenerating forest. Storm damage and other activities have affected other wooded areas on the campus.
To rectify for forest loss, which typically draws a fine from the Planning Board, planners offered a deal: restore the forest but don’t pay a penalty by combining education with environmental restoration. In the end, the Connelly School will create 11 percent more protected forest on site, provide scholarships, and run environmental education classes.
Board members, assured yesterday that the forest mitigation required of school officials was consistent with the Forest Conservation Law, praised the planning staff for creating a long-term educational solution with lasting benefits in lieu of collecting the penalty.
The scholarships will grant full tuition for two underprivileged Montgomery County children from grade 6 through 12, creating the potential for life-changing experiences for these students to attend the prestigious faith-based school for girls. Nearly 40,000 students in Montgomery County come from low-income households.
School officials also agreed to create an educational program where students plant, monitor and maintain wooded areas on the school campus. The program will be designed as a hands-on, outdoors program to monitor and maintain forest from planting through full growth.
Planners will work side by side with students to advance their understanding about the connections between well-maintained forest and wildlife, water quality, air quality and overall environmental quality. By doing so, planners hope to lay the groundwork for young people to become good stewards of the environment.
Planning Director Rollin Stanley lauded Connelly School leaders for providing scholarships and the comprehensive forest management program to demonstrate how public agencies can encourage both environmental protection and broader goals like education.
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