by Linda | Jul 26, 2018 | Blog Posts
ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY AGREEMENT
NW Communications Sustainability Division, (GreenFrederick), is committed to keeping any and
all personal information collected of those individuals that visit our website and make use of our
online facilities and services accurate, confidential, secure and private. Our privacy policy has
been designed and created to ensure those affiliated with NW CommunicationsSustainability
Division of our commitment and realization of our obligation not only to meet but to exceed most
existing privacy standards.
THEREFORE, this Privacy Policy Agreement shall apply toNW CommunicationsSustainability
Division and any subsidiary company listed below , and thus it shall govern any and all data
collection and usage thereof. Through the use of www.greenfrederick.org you are herein
consenting to the following data procedures expressed within this agreement.
Subsidiary Company:
N/a
Collection of Information
This website collects various types of information, such as:
• Voluntarily provided information which may include your name, address, email address,
billing and/or credit card information etc., which may be used when you purchase products
and/or services and to deliver the services you have requested.
Please rest assured that this site shall only collect personal information that you knowingly and
willingly provide by way of surveys, completed membership forms, and emails. It is the intent
of this site to use personal information only for the purpose for which it was requested and any
additional uses specifically provided on this site.
It is highly recommended and suggested that you review the privacy policies and statements
of any website you choose to use or frequent as a means to better understand the way in
which other websites garner, make use of and share information collected.
Use of Information Collected
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division may collect and may make use of personal
information to assist in the operation of our website and to ensure delivery of the services you
need and request. At times, we may find it necessary to use personally identifiable information
as a means to keep you informed of other possible products and/or services that may be
available to you from www.greenfrederick.org and our subsidiaries . NW
CommunicationsSustainability Division and our subsidiaries may also be in contact with you
with regards to completing surveys and/or research questionnaires related to your opinion of
current or potential future services that may be offered.
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division does not now, nor will it in the future, sell, rent or
lease any of our customer lists and/or names to any third parties.
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division may disclose your personal information, without
prior notice to you, only if required to do so in accordance with applicable laws and/or in a
good faith belief that such action is deemed necessary or is required in an effort to:
• Remain in conformance with any decrees, laws and/or statutes or in an effort to comply
with any process which may be served upon NW CommunicationsSustainability Division
and/or our website;
• Maintain, safeguard and/or preserve all the rights and/or property ofNW
CommunicationsSustainability Division; and
• Perform under demanding conditions in an effort to safeguard the personal safety of users
of www.greenfrederick.org and/or the general public.
Children Under Age of 13
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division does not knowingly collect personal identifiable
information from children under the age of thirteen (13) without verifiable parental consent. If it
is determined that such information has been inadvertently collected on anyone under the age
of thirteen (13), we shall immediately take the necessary steps to ensure that such information
is deleted from our system’s database. Anyone under the age of thirteen (13) must seek and
obtain parent or guardian permission to use this website.
Unsubscribe or Opt-Out
All users and/or visitors to our website have the option to discontinue receiving
communication from us and/or reserve the right to discontinue receiving communications by
way of email or newsletters. To discontinue or unsubscribe to our website please send an
email that you wish to unsubscribe to Lindam.norris@comcast.net. If you wish to unsubscribe
or opt-out from any third party websites, you must go to that specific website to unsubscribe
and/or opt-out.
Links to Other Web Sites
Our website does contain links to affiliate and other websites.NW
CommunicationsSustainability Division does not claim nor accept responsibility for any privacy
policies, practices and/or procedures of other such websites. Therefore, we encourage all
users and visitors to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy
statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. The
aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement applies only and solely to the information collected
by our website.
Security
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division shall endeavor and shall take every precaution to
maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and
information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access,
disclosure or modification of the user’s personal information under our control.
Changes to Privacy Policy Agreement
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division reserves the right to update and/or change the
terms of our privacy policy, and as such we will post those change to our website homepage
at www.greenfrederick.org, so that our users and/or visitors are always aware of the type of
information we collect, how it will be used, and under what circumstances, if any, we may
disclose such information. If at any point in time NW CommunicationsSustainability Division
decides to make use of any personally identifiable information on file, in a manner vastly
different from that which was stated when this information was initially collected, the user or
users shall be promptly notified by email. Users at that time shall have the option as to
whether or not to permit the use of their information in this separate manner.
Acceptance of Terms
Through the use of this website, you are hereby accepting the terms and conditions stipulated
within the aforementioned Privacy Policy Agreement. If you are not in agreement with our
terms and conditions, then you should refrain from further use of our sites. In addition, your
continued use of our website following the posting of any updates or changes to our terms
and conditions shall mean that you are in agreement and acceptance of such changes.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Privacy Policy Agreement related to our
website, please feel free to contact us at the following email, telephone number or mailing
address.
Email: lindam.norris@comcast.net
Telephone Number: 2403158876
Mailing Address:
NW CommunicationsSustainability Division
9227 Baltimore National Pike
Middletown MD 21769
10/23/2017
by Linda | Jul 12, 2018 | Blog Posts, Green Living
It’s mid-March, the sun has gone down and the air is heavy with the feel of cold + moisture–snow. More than foot is in the wings.
It’s time to think back to a warm summer weekend in a sweet, small town. Let’s head to Pocomoke City on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Bring your Flannery O’Connor or Jan Karon novels. This is the closest Maryland gets to Mayberry and small-town Southern living.
You’d better be up for some outdoor recreation, though, or you will find yourself looking for things to do.
Camping: The Best View
First, set up camp at Pocomoke River State Park. We stayed in the mini-cabins at Shad Landing, which are equipped with a bunk and a single bed, and can accommodate a family of 4-5 or a couple. They are a bit pricey at $75 a night including fees, but they do have heat and a room air-conditioner and are a good way to lure people used to hotel life into the outdoors like my husband, who was glad the single bed had room for the blow-up mattress because the thin camp mattress on plywood is something to be prepared for.
Tent sites and group camping is also available along with a campstore with a small grill with limited breakfast, lunch and dinner hours (hot coffee for those who need one in the morning before firing up the campfire/campstove).
You’re in for several treats when you camp at the park. Its situated on the 66-mile Pocomoke River, which begins up in southern Delaware. Local people like to claim Pocomoke means “dark water” referring to its upper reaches that leach out to the Big Cypress Swamp, but it really is Nanticoke Indian for “broken land”.
Canoeing/Kayaks/Paddleboats
You can rent many ways to float through the beautiful cypress trees and loblolly pines right at the campground, where there is a dock that makes for a nice place to sit with a bottle of wine, a book or a morning coffee.
LXLMS
Ore, you can head into town and book a guided trip, or rent gear at the
Pocomoke River Canoe Company, in Pocomoke City. Its worth poking your head into just to take in the beauty of the rustic paneled building filled with canoe gear.
Once you’ve canoed the river and fixed a relaxing camp lunch, hop on your bicycle and meander the5 miles to the town of Snow Hill. When we did this in August, we were delighted to happen upon a town festival featuring in an Antique Car Show at Byrd Park tucked up alongside the Pocomoke River. The festival isn’t listed yet for this year’s schedule, but
concerts and even a tragic night of Hamlet (Shakespeare in the Park) are something to look forward to in the warm nights ahead of us.
We biked around the city and were disappointed during daylight hourshours to find few options for lunch, but we had packed our own, eating it on the front steps of the
Blue Dog Cafe which was closed, but promises a WWII band that plays 40s music on Friday and nights. Let us know how it is if you go!
Spend some time wandering the streets of Snow Hill, where there are a number of bed and breakfast inns if you prefer the city life. Numerous churches and federal style homes will give your eyes something to drink in as you wander, or return to bike, walk or canoe along the Pocomoke River that centers this entire region.
You’ll forget any thoughts of snow and city life after a trip east.
by Linda | Jul 3, 2018 | Blog Posts, Green Issues, Green Living
What is Biochar?
Biochar is an ancient human agricultural practice, largely forgotten until recent decades. Ancient biochar has been discovered in the Amazon basin, where it is known as “Terra Preta.” Fertile soil infused with biochar
provided food for millions of Ancient South Americans in a region otherwise challenged by low soil fertility.
“Terra Preta” biochar soil remains rich and fertile to this day. Biochar is the carbon which remains after plant or animal matter is baked or “pyrolized” at low temperatures, in the absence of oxygen. It is a natural process that occurs during forest fires. Carbon is a natural component of healthy living soil. The ancients augmented this naturally occurring soil carbon by producing biochar in a process similar to charcoal-making. Modern biochar pyrolysis is an efficient, tightly engineered process which generates biochar and valuable by-products cleanly, with energy self-sufficiency, and is carbon negative.

How does Biochar work?
1. Production. Biochar, when property produced via pyrolysis, retains the microscopic cell structure of the plant or animal material from which it was made. A handful of biochar contains many square miles of surface area and billions of cellular cavities. Biochar comes out of the pyrolysis process sterile.
2. Inoculation. Sterile biochar is “inoculated” with beneficial biological life. The easiest method is by incorporating biochar into an existing compost operation. Beneficial microorganisms, fungi, and bacteria take up residence in the vast network of biochar cell cavities, where they flourish, reproduce, compete and generate plant-available nutrients. This can take 3-12 weeks.
3. Use as Soil Amendment. Inoculated Biochar compost is introduced into agricultural fields or lawn soil. There, it improves virtuous nutrient cycling, increases water retention, accelerates the building of soil organic matter, and filters out mineral fertilizers and toxins that would normally run off into streams.
Biochar Advantages

• Biochar helps build soil organic matter (SOM), soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil biological activity. Compost alone is a good method to sequester carbon into soil (thus removing it from the atmospheric stock of CO2.) However, compost oxidizes in a few years, returning its carbon into the atmosphere. Biochar is soil carbon which remains stable in soil for hundreds or thousands of years, while also benefiting soil fertility.
• Biochar enhances the rainwater infiltration capacity of soil. Less run-off means reduced nutrient management issues, increased drought tolerance and reduced stormwater management costs.
• Biochar acts as a large-scale “carbon filter,” absorbing surplus mineral fertilizers, pesticides and toxins prior to stormwater carrying them into waterways. • Biochar turns agricultural waste into a valuable farm product. Chicken litter, diseased trees, manure, invasive species biomass, municipal wood chips… All can be pyrolyzed into sterile biochar.
• Biochar production is energy self-sufficient and can generate excess energy for resale into the grid, to heat greenhouses or otherwise displace conventionally-produced energy. • Biochar production is clean, exceeding California emissions standards.
• Biochar production generates valuable by-products. Depending on the feedstock biomass that is being pyrolyzed into biochar, the process can yield valuable quantities of waste heat, syngas, wood vinegar and other high-value products.
• Biochar helps restore essential soil carbon levels and biological biomass levels, which have been depleted by intensive agriculture. Biochar is NOT a waste product, it is carbon mad from organic feedstocks, which augments a natural soil-building process that is millions of years old.
• Biochar is particularly effective in accelerating the conversion of “conventional” agricultural fields, domestic lawns and municipal greenways to organic practices.

Richard with biochar that is being blended with his compost.
Richard Jefferies operates Utica Bridge Farms, a chemical-free farmstead which grows 50+ varieties of heirloom vegetables, berries, fruits, nuts and grains, using practices which build healthy biologically-active soil, support biodiversity and produce nutrient-dense food. This work is taken from a presentation he made at a
Future Harvest CASA conference.