Green Towson Alliance celebrated 10 years of friendship, advocacy, greening and environmental education in 2025. Here are some of our accomplishments.
BUILDING A CLEANER, GREENER, MORE BEAUTIFUL TOWSON
Community Shade Trees
In the 11th year of partnership with Blue Water Baltimore, GTA helped coordinate the planting of 207 trees in 15 Towson neighborhoods in autumn 2025, including Anneslie, Campus Hills, Glendale, Greenbrier, Idlewylde, Knollwood, Lutherville,
Rogers Forge, Ruxton-RIderwood, Stoneleigh, West Towson, Wiltondale, and others. Trees ranged from long-lived, tall shade trees (Willow Oak, Shumard Oak, Swamp White Oak, Tulip Poplar, Honey Locust), to mid-sized Riverbirch and Black Gum, to smaller trees including Redbud, Fringetree, Dogwood and Serviceberry.
Stream Clean-ups
In the 10th year of GTA’s work to organize and support volunteers to clean local streams and tributaries of the Herring Run and the Jones Falls, 137 volunteers (including 20 children) cleaned trash out of the stream beds and banks and from the alleys and storm drains that funnel trash into the streams. Teams at 10 locations included Girl Scouts, Towson University students and staff, Grace
Fellowship church members, and local Greening Committees and residents.
Over 115 bags of trash and recyclables, and 18 bags of invasive ivy and garlic mustard, were collected. Supplies were donated by Baltimore County and Towson University. Many beverage containers were picked up (plastic, aluminum and glass), but very few plastic bags which was a great improvement compared to earlier years.
Habitat Restoration
Habitat Stewards of Overlook Park
Habitat Stewards of Overlook Park (HSOP) volunteers met weekly, February through June, to manually remove non-native invasive plants in the park. We cut ivy at the base of trees and cut back or pulled a variety of other invasives, including Porcelain-berry and Japanese Honeysuckle vines, wineberry, privet, and garlic mustard. Due to our work, native trees and shrubs in the section we worked on are thriving, and beneficial natives like milkweed, goldenrod, fleabane, and penstemon are able to grow, supporting a variety of native pollinators and building food webs. There was even a Baltimore Oriole pair nesting in the mature Sycamore at the park entrance this Spring. Many park users have commented that the park looks better too! The group plans to resume in the spring of 2026.
Ascension Lutheran Church parking lot
Almost 30 participants from GTA and the Yorkleigh community collected 3 bags of trash and disposed of a large piece of machinery from the Ascension Lutheran parking lot. GTA members trained adults and middle schoolers from the neighborhood in window-cutting English Ivy to prevent it from harming the existing trees. 1.5 trailers full of English Ivy were taken to the dump.
Towson Fireworks Clean-Up
In partnership with Towson Communities Alliance (TCA), GTA members collected many bags of trash and helped make the area around Loch Raven Technical Academy safe for summer students following the annual Towson fireworks.
ENCOURAGING NATIVE PLANTS
Native Garden Contest
Green Towson Alliance operated its fifth Towson Native Garden Contest, a project designed to celebrate local residents who plant native gardens in their yards to provide habitat for wildlife, and to protect our environment from pollutants and pesticides. In the past five years, members of the Homegrown National Park Workgroup visited more than 70 gardens in neighborhoods all over Towson. Our website is designed to inform our neighbors about how native plants support our local ecosystems and the wildlife that share our communities. nativegardencontest.com
Homegrown National Park Challenge
We have set a goal of creating 50,000 square feet of native gardens to be mapped on the Homegrown National Park Map. We encourage all of our members to reduce their lawn area and plant more native plants. As you increase the area of native plants on your property, and include the native trees already there, please go to the Homegrown National Park website, sign up for an account and follow prompts to put your property “on the map.” Be sure to then access the drop down menu in the upper right hand of the screen and access “Manage my organization.” There you can request to be included as part of the GTA group. If you have difficulty with this, please email Ray Heil at raymondheil@verizon.net.
Implementation of the Maryland Native Plants Program
GTA is a member of the implementation committee for the Maryland Native Plants Program, created by legislation we helped write and pass in 2023 (SB836/HB950). In addition to developing the Commercial Maryland Native Plant List with 650+ species, and Maryland’s Best Certified Native Plant Nursery List, the committee has just released the Maryland Native Plant Guide Piedmont Region. This Guide is the first of three planned guides that will cover each of Maryland’s level 2 ecoregions.
Biodiversity and Agriculture Protection Act SB915/HB979
GTA aided in the implementation of this 2024 law as a member of the Invasive Plants Advisory Committee (IPAC). Thirteen invasive plant species were assessed by the committee in 2025 and have all been added to the state’s “Prohibited Invasive Plant List” meaning they will no longer be able to be sold after the phase out period. IPAC plans to assess 20 additional invasive plant species in 2026.
Courthouse Gardens
GTA members met at the Baltimore County Courthouse Gardens this past summer to assess how the gardens could be improved with the addition of native plant areas. Six areas of interest were identified and proposed landscape plans are currently being designed for presentation to the county.
ACTC Gardens
Assistance Center of Towson Churches (ACTC) is in the process of moving to a building on the corner of Allegheny and Bosley. GTA members noticed the presence of invasive Japanese Barberry on the property and saw an opportunity for improvement. GTA assisted ACTC in applying for a $10,670 Baltimore County Community Improvement Grant, which was recently approved by the Department of Planning. This will fund removal of the barberry, creation of a BayScape to reduce stormwater runoff, and planting native shrubs and trees.
PARTNERSHIPS WITH BALTIMORE COUNTY/ADVOCACY
Work in Towson Parks
Radebaugh Park
The meadows have been expanded back to their original sizes, and many trees have been pruned. Several neighbors provided water to help the trees survive the summer’s heat and drought. The native plant gardens at the entrance at 11 Maryland Ave have continued to be maintained by Wiltondale garden club.
Yorkleigh Pocket Park
GTA supported the Yorkleigh community creating a pocket park with a mulched path, benches, and four new native trees. The 2 new Willow Oaks and 2 new Bald Cypress trees, complete with deer guards and green watering bags, will grow to provide shade as the nearby trees age.
Overlook Park
See information in the Habitat Restoration section of this report.
Advocating for a County Weed Warrior Program
The Baltimore County Green Alliance organized GTA members along with the Baltimore Sierra Club and Gunpowder Valley Conservancy to collaborate with the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks to formalize a “Weed Warrior”
program for county parks. Baltimore County Rec and Parks developed a volunteer invasive removal program in the Spring of 2025 to initiate or extend the work in 5 county parks: Cromwell Valley Park, Oregon Ridge Park, Benjamin Banneker Historic Park, Holt Park and Center for the Arts, and Lake Roland. The “Weed Warrior Program Team” will continue to work with Recreation and Parks to further develop this promising program.
Advocating for Proper Tree Care in Downtown Towson
While many of the trees that have been planted in downtown Towson in recent years are thriving, some have been over-mulched and some have died. GTA members have advocated with the leadership of the county’s Property Management team for better oversight of mulch contractors to avoid deep mulch or mulch touching the tree bark. A survey of the condition of the trees is ongoing.
Sanitary Sewer Capacity in the Jones Falls Sewershed
GTA discovered a manhole cover laying on the ground and sewage debris downstream of the manhole south of the dam in Lake Roland in August. The county’s consultant who was hired to evaluate the system and recommend corrective actions, predicted this very manhole would overflow 1 million gallons in an intense storm. This is the third time we have found a manhole cover dislodged after a storm since 2019.
Green Towson Alliance and 20 additional organizations have written to the Baltimore County Council asking for a public hearing after learning that outside council had been engaged to negotiate a modified Sanitary Sewer Consent Decree. As we understand it, the EPA and MDE allege that the County is violating the Consent Decree in a number of significant ways that endanger the environment and human health and have advised the County that the Consent Decree must be modified and extended to ensure that the violations are corrected before the Consent Decree is terminated.
EDUCATION AND BUILDING COMMUNITY
GTA 10th Birthday Party
On May 22, 2025 GTA celebrated our 10th birthday with a party at Central Presbyterian Church which generously hosts our meetings. The skies cleared just in time for our members and guests to enjoy a native plant swap and sale, photos from our years of work, a map displaying our areas and kinds of impact, then and now photos showing how trees planted in 2015 have grown, and a slide show of beautiful gardens from our annual native garden contest. Children created mandalas with natural items like leaves, stones, native flowers, pine needles and holly. Even our refreshments celebrated our commitment to creating a greener, healthier, more beautiful community! We served a birthday cake decorated with an oak tree in green and brown icing. A good time was had by all.
Towson July 4th Parade
In 2025, GTA, as in previous years, marched in the Towson July 4th parade. Our theme is “Nature’s Communties,” which celebrates the important relationship between native plants and the insects that co-evolved with them for millions of years. Marchers carried not only the wide GTA banner, but also props of trees, butterflies, bees and flowers. We are always a big hit at the parade. The kids along the route are especially enthusiastic about the bees and butterflies.
Nature Walk at Cromwell Valley Park
Master Naturalist and GTA member Adreon Hubbard led an early spring nature walk at Cromwell Valley Park. The group enjoyed working on winter tree identification, observing evidence of beaver construction and listening to the many frogs at a breeding pond.
Ladew Gardens
We had a wonderful summer outing at Ladew Gardens touring the Butterfly House, the native plant meadow and the Nature Walk.