12/5/25 Holiday Party and Meeting Agenda

6:30 - 8:30 pm

Location: The home of Melissa Holland and Mike Maxwell

14716 Exbury Lane Laurel, MD 20707

Agenda

  • Mingle with our members and hear what we've been up to and what we have planned for the new year.

  • Learn how to sow seeds for the winter!

    • Many native seeds require a period of cold stratification to germinate, making winter the perfect time to start them. We'll show you how to do this and send you home with some seeds to add to or start your native garden in the spring. Save your milk jugs and bring them to the party!

  • Participate in a letter writing campaign!

    • One of the best parts of Laurel is the Patuxent Research Refuge, which is facing reduced access and staffing issues. Ours is the only national wildlife refuge specifically dedicated to wildlife research. From protecting endangered species to uncovering the dangers of DDT, it’s been at the heart of conservation breakthroughs for nearly a century. And now it’s down to just one day of public access per week on the North Tract—while Refuge System-wide staffing has been gutted. Let's tell Congress to fund our wildlife refuges, protect the science, and keep the public connected to nature.

12/5/25 Minutes

Attending this event were Tom Dernoga, Michelle Garcia, representatives from Howard EcoWorks, Laurel for the Patuxent board members and volunteers, and guests

Summary of this year’s accomplishments - 

  • Two litter cleanups

  • Four new cohort gardens through the Laurel Native Habitat Program

  • Ten public garden maintenance events at Sweitzer garden, the museum, and Sturgis Moore native garden

  • Arts programs including a poetry workshop and a poetry plaque installation at Sturgis Moore park

  • Raised $20,000 for the Chandler Robbins mural project, completed the creation of the mural and held a community celebration to introduce the mural

  • Applied for and received a Prince George’s County Council grant

  • Created t-shirts

  • Worked on vine mitigation at Riverfront Park

  • Sponsored a double-sized booth at the Main Street Festival

  • Jimmy participated in several events as a speaker promoting native planting in the community

  • Winter seed-sowing demo at December meeting

  • Postcard writing campaign in support of Patuxent Wildlife Refuge

Ideas for next year - 

  • Vine mitigation will continue

  • Partner with the Laurel History museum to do a year-long project on bird conservation

  • Create a native garden at Riverfront Park

  • Advocate for pervious surfaces at the city level.  The city could encourage new construction to include pervious parking lots, etc.  Perhaps we could bring it up to the sustainability group.

  • Expand LNHP to create native plantings in commercial dead spaces

  • Self-guided walking tour of local native gardens

  • Advocate for city to apply for Community Solar

  • Poetry workshop and installation in April

  • Goat Gobble research continuation - lots of bureaucracy/trying to get permission to work on the Howard County side of the river

Thanks to Mike Maxwell and Melissa Holland for hosting our December Holiday celebration.  Enjoy the evening and see you in the new year!