The consultant preparing the Takoma Park Public Spaces Management Plan presented the plan’s draft recommendations at a community meeting, August 23, 2022. These recommendations included many ideas from the input which 20 FONTT members submitted following the previous community meeting.
Below is a comparison of FONTT members’ suggestions versus what the consultant put in the draft recommendations for the plan
FONTT Suggestions
Consultant Recommendations
- Provide sufficient budget for vegetation maintenance in public spaces
- Remove invasive plants
- Create an improved maintenance strategy and identify a revenue source for city-owned forest and open space with a focus on removing invasive species
- Support and supplement the City maintenance efforts to improve erosion control and control of non-native invasive species.
- Increase native plants through more green stormwater infrastructure in public spaces. On the surface, green stormwater infrastructure harnesses the power of native plants to control stormwater through infiltration.
- Implement more green stormwater infrastructure in public spaces, reduce impervious surfaces where possible
- Increase native plants in public spaces: Plant more native trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, grasses, and sedges.
- Make dedicated native plant gardens in parks and in small public spaces along streets. Mark with interpretative signage explaining the importance of native trees and plants to protecting habitat.
- Incentivize homeowners to plant native gardens in right-of-way strips
- Increase native plants in public spaces and create incentives for property owners to plan native plants in right-of-way strips
At least 10 FONTT members submitted individual comments to the city about the draft recommendations. The gist of some of these comments appear below.
Friends of Native Trees in Takoma 