Join us on Zoom on Monday, November 4 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and environmental progress and problems in Laurel city government

Come out to help protect the Patuxent River!

We will be cleaning up litter along Main St. and cutting invasive vines at Riverfront Park. Choose your own adventure! Or do a little of each!

• We’ll meet and great at the Avondale parking area.

• Trash bags will be provided, as well as some tools, but if you have your own, please bring them. Please bring gloves.

• Kids are welcome to come with their parents.

• Students are welcome to come for service hours, but you must have your forms at the event for credit.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, October 7 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

We are in need of 5 volunteers to help weed the new pollinator garden in Sturgis Moore Park. Please bring gloves and a shovel if you have them. The garden is across from the Monarch Mural adjacent to McCullough Field.

Join us for our monthly meeting at 310 4th St. You’ll hear updates on all of our projects and programs, learn about how you can support our mission, and join discussions concerning conservation, sustainability, and protecting the Patuxent River watershed.

Last fall, L4Per Jimmy received a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to build a native swale garden to stem the flow of storm water in his small HOA. Now the garden is growing in and needs a round of weeding to keep it looking sharp. Neighbors built this garden and they are asking again for our help. This will be the final polish before they’re featured on the Laurel Garden Tour!

You can learn more about the project here: https://streetcarsuburbs.news/native-gardening-with.../

Come on over for an hour or two and help pick weeds. They will have gloves and garden tools to loan, if you don't have your own.

Check out this event on Facebook!

Help us pull the weeds from the gardens around the Laurel Museum. We'll teach you how to identify the weeds (European non-natives) from our plantings (native to MD). We expect to finish a bit early, so those interested are welcome to head down the road (<5 mins by car) to the pollinator garden at Sweitzer Park. Both gardens are supporting our local wildlife and providing residents with an example to follow.

What to bring: Garden gloves, weeding tools, small shovels, etc (some gloves and tools will be available to borrow)

Please note: All volunteers must sign liability waivers for L4P, which we'll have at the work site. or you can find in the Forms section of the website. Students, including those needing community service hours, are welcome, but parents must sign waivers if under 18, and school paperwork should be provided on the event day.

Join us on Zoom for a presentation by Jennifer Greiner, Director USFW Patuxent Refuge, and Dan Murphy, USFW Manager Division of Habitat Conservation and Restoration about the Proposed Southern MD Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge (40,000 acres).

Help clean up Old town city blocks and alleys. We’ll meet at Sturgis Moore Park (across 8th St from the library) following the dedication of the Laurel Arts Council sponsored Metamorphosis Park Mural at 12:00 pm.

Grabbers and bags/buckets provided.  Bring your own gloves.  Students participating for community service hours, please bring paper work to be signed

Join us on Zoom on Monday, May 6 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

Within living memory, museums have favored stately, showy, sterile gardens. Expansive lawns were dotted with Asian specimen shrubs and flowers. Now, some museums have reimagined their gardens as an extra exhibit, using native plants to teach visitors about local ecology. In the fall of 2022, the Laurel Museum planted their existing beds with plants native to our region. Jimmy Rogers, garden project manager for Laurel for the Patuxent, will share how the design came together, how the plants function (both structurally and ecologically), and how residents can use the same approaches in their own gardens. This is a Zoom event.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, April 1 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

After our work in the garden, we’ll be heading over to Oliver’s for some fun and drinks. Come out to mingle with your fellow L4Pers or meet us for the first time and see what we’re all about! All our welcome. Hope to see you there!

Come help us get the Sweitzer Park native pollinator garden ready for spring! We’ll be weeding, cutting down stems, dividing, planting, and rearranging. You may even be able to take some plants home, so bring pots if you’re interested. Afterwards, we’ll head to Oliver’s for some St. Patrick’s day fun.

Although we’ll have some supplies, if you have hedge trimmers, weeding tools, or shovels, please bring them. Gardening gloves and work clothes are recommended.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, February 5 at 6:30 pm for updates on projects, events, and opportunities, and strategic discussion of conservation of environmental assets in Laurel.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, January 8 at 6:30 pm for updates on current projects and plans for L4P in 2024.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, December 4 at 6:30 pm for updates on current projects and plans for L4P in 2024.

Come out to help protect the Patuxent River!

We will be cleaning up litter and cutting invasive vines at Riverfront Park. Choose your own adventure! Or do a little of each!

• We’ll meet at the Laurel Municipal Pool parking lot at Ninth and Main Streets.

• Trash bags will be provided, as well as some tools and gloves, but if you have your own, please bring them.

• Kids are welcome to come with their parents.

• Students are welcome to come for service hours, but you must have your forms at the event for credit.

As a follow-up to our community meeting about livability in Laurel, we’ll be holding a strategic planning session open to anyone who is interested in promoting sustainable development in Laurel, even if you weren’t able to attend the community meeting.

When: Tuesday, November 14. 7:00 — 8:30 pm.

Where: Our Zoom room! Click on the link below to join.

Agenda:

• Review key items from the community meeting.

• Identify what we need to accomplish at the city, county, and state levels, and what our calls to action will be.

• Delegate further tasks needed beyond the meeting.

• Plan how to market to our community for these calls to action

Join us in person at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club/Phelps Center, 701 Montgomery St. Laurel or on Zoom

Laurel for the Patuxent will host a community meeting about the threat of overdevelopment to public health and green spaces in the City of Laurel. We will address solutions to on-going concerns about the City government's suboptimal transparency, notifications, and inclusive public engagement on public health issues including overdevelopment, increasing traffic, lack of green space, destruction of environmental assets, and negative impacts on public safety and livability.

Agenda:

6:00-6:10: Introduction by Laurel for the Patuxent. Impacts of overdevelopment on public and environmental health.

6:10 - 6:35: Katherine Wright, Ward II resident, will present about new proposed developments in Ward II that would replace some of the last remaining large green spaces in Laurel with dense housing which will further increase traffic, crowding and degradation of the environment. You can read Wright's recent article, "City’s Priorities Questioned in Ward 2" in Voices of Laurel, Vol 3, No.4

6:35 - 6:45: Q & A.

6:45 - 7:10: Tom Dernoga, Prince George County District 1 Councilperson and County Council Chair, will address concerns about public engagement on overdevelopment vs smart and sustainable growth, and suggest specific actions and solutions to help residents have greater role in shaping the future of our city.

7:10 - 7:20: Q & A.

7:20 - 7:30: Wrap up and next steps

Please join fellow community members who are committed to a more sustainable and livable Laurel.

Friends of Patuxent present the 2023 Pollinator Festival at the National Wildlife Visitor Center.

This very popular family-friendly event has something for all ages--information on how to attract pollinators to your yard or garden, kids' activities including the release of live monarch butterflies to continue on their incredible migration, live insects, beekeeping demo, pollinator hikes, free native plant giveaways and more.

L4P will have a table at the event. Please stop by!

This event has been postponed due to weather. Check back later for new date.

Tour the Patuxent Refuge Central Tract with the former refuge manager, Brad Knudsen, and learn about the history, ecology, and research of this beloved Laurel treasure.

This event has been postponed due to weather. Check back later for new date.

Join us on Zoom on Monday, September 11 at 6:30 pm to hear Brad Knudsen, former manager of the Patuxent Research Refuge, talk about the history of the National Refuge system.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

Sign up for any Saturday this summer to help water our trees in the restoration area of Riverfront Park. You must be able to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket from the river to the trees. Please bring a bucket if you have one. If we get enough rain during the week, we’ll notify you by text message if the event is cancelled.

This summer and fall, Patuxent Triangle HOA is building build a swale to redirect water from our parking lot into the nearby meadow area. We will be building the swale and planting out almost 800 square feet with native plants thanks to a grant from Chesapeake Bay Trust. This will be a beautiful and eco-friendly addition to the other gardens on Montgomery Street.

To kick things off, we need to first prepare the ground in four new beds by smothering the existing grass with arborist wood chips. Please come down and help us for a few hours so we're ready for fall planting!

Things to bring:

Plenty of water

Work clothing and a broad-brimmed hat

Gardening or work gloves

Shovels, pitchforks, and cultivators (we will have some to borrow)

We could also use an extra wheelbarrow!

L4Per Jimmy Rogers is giving a tour of his transformed yard, from turf to native habitat! Come learn all about the process, the plants, and the pollinator protection! The tour is free but you must reserve a spot by clicking below.

L4Per, ReMeadow.org founder, and City Horticulturalist Liz Humes welcomes you to her home to tour her thriving meadow.  Come hear about the process, the plants, and the pollinators.