This just in. And essential.

The Howard County Economic Development Authority just announced the release of From My Backyard to Our Bay, a residential guide to help citizens in Howard and Montgomery counties improve our local environment and watersheds.

The guide, available for download here, offers tips for "living in harmony with the Chesapeake Bay. It provides ideas for how you can contribute to the health of your local watershed, maintain an environmentally friendly lawn, and manage storm-water runoff, wells, and septic systems--all in ways that will reduce the flow of nutrients and sediment into the bay."

As many of you are aware, excess nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment encourage the growth of algae that can be toxic to marine life - think Dead Zones - so it is essential that we learn how to care for and manage agricultural practices in our own communities and backyards as to not effect the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. It's as simple as proper waste disposal, cleaning up after pets, controlling weeds, and managing your water and energy use.

This guide, although focused on the Chesapeake Bay region, is applicable far beyond the borders of these two counties. Pages and pages of valuable information in here, folks.

(Thnx, Singleton. Big time. This is fantastic.)