Need Help Managing Your Open Space? We Have the Answer.

NeighborSpace is proud to announce the completion of  The Open Space Guidebook. The guidebook will act as a tool providing the best practices and resources for open space management. The hope is that this guidebook will help everyone from our stewardship partners looking for resources to community members wondering how to improve community land.

The project started last year when we received a grant from the Maryland Environmental Trust’s Keep Maryland Beautiful grant program, which was used to fund the project. The idea came from the City’s Green Pattern Book (GPB) which was a collaborative effort between City agencies, the Growing Green Initiative and the USDA Forest Service. 

The Open Space Guidebook is built on a similar foundation to the Green Pattern Book but beyond that, it looks quite different. We borrow heavily from the Green Pattern Book’s idea of identifying different open space management types, however, where the GPB uses eight different management types, we only use four: (1) Community-Managed Open Space (2) Pedestrian Trail (3) Stormwater Management (4) Urban Forest & Buffer; which are all based on our previous land identification system.

Beyond the management types, we expand off the Green Pattern Book’s foundation in a few key ways: (1) We provide a “Sources of Funding” list to help you locate relevant grants to support the improvement of open space. (2) We have a “Tree Directory & Map” to help you find tree and plant nurseries in your area. (3) We provide you with an expansive volunteer section with maps (shown left) of potential volunteer groups in your area and an extensive “Volunteer Directory” to be updated biannually in order to give you the relevant information for scouts, churches, nonprofits, schools and universities in your area.

We hope you find The Open Space Guidebook, interesting, enjoyable and, most importantly, useful. It is available to the public on the Resources Page of the NeighborSpace website. Please reach out to patrick@neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org if you have any questions or suggestions.