Conservation Blog
Climate Crisis
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Montgomery County’s BYO-Bag Bill
February 12th, 2025 Update On February 11th, 2025, Montgomery County Council passed Bill 24-24, Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Bill. Nature Forward has been working with Councilmembers since last summer to ensure that Montgomery County passed a bill that protects our waterways and our most vulnerable communities. Thanks to our members and supporters, we sent 121 letters… Read more
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Nature Forward Opposes Project Pipes III
This is a special edition blog post by Sally Winthrop, Conservation Department Volunteer at Nature Forward. In July 2023, Jamoni asked me if I would be interested in joining zoom meetings with Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) on electrification efforts in DC. I’ve been searching for ways to get more involved in climate activities, so… Read more
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Data Center Frontiers Summit Recap
Screenshot from the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit 2024 Website – note the sold out sign. Source: https://www.dcftrends.com/2024/home In early September 2024, Nature Forward Conservation Director Lydia Lawrence and I attended the Data Center Frontier Trends Summit in Reston, Virginia. Thankfully, I was on week three of my new role and was fully prepared to… Read more
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Speak up for a stronger Data Center Zoning Ordinance
UPDATED 8/5/24 Join us on September 10 @ 4:30pm: testify for stronger protections! The Data Center ZOA public hearing was held on July 16 and the Board deferred their decision until July 30. On the morning of July 30 however, it was reported that, due to a clerical error regarding a change in state law… Read more
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Virginia’s General Assembly: some wins and a long road
How did the 2024 General Assembly go? In this year’s General Assembly, Nature Forward selected a handful of bills to track dealing with natural resources / trees, solar energy, and data centers (read our prior blog post for bills and details). While there were some wins on the bills we tracked, overall, Virginia has a… Read more
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Data Centers in Maryland
Data centers are large buildings that store computers to process and store data. There are many different types of data centers, and each one specializes in storing or processing data based on who owns the facility. These large computer and cable-filled structures end up taking up vast amounts of space and using lots of energy… Read more
