Catonsville neighbors in University of Maryland, Baltimore County say they were blindsided by a $27 million project paid for out of a UMBC capital improvement budget that included clear-cutting nearly 3 acres of trees and bulldozing a creek valley and wetlands at the old Spring Grove Hospital Center.
“What a waste of $27 million — the cost of a new school — to destroy an extensive forest and drain natural resources and save nothing,” Jim Himel, a retired forester and executive director of the Spring Grove Arboretum, told The Baltimore Sun.
In a written statement, UMBC officials acknowledged to The Baltimore Sun that they could have done better outreach.
“Engaging local community members in our future planning process is a major priority for our leadership in the UMBC Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs,” the statement said. The university says its plans include a multi-pronged tree protection plan with a study of “exemplary trees” with trunks wider than 30 inches, a one-for-one replacement of felled trees, as well as additional tree plantings and a five-year commitment to ensure the survival of the new trees.
In addition to angering residents, the project violated state laws protecting wetlands, including Herbert Run and the area fed by an active spring above the creek, according to Maryland Department of the Environment inspection documents obtained by The Sun.
Inspections cited the project for several instances of silt fences crushed by construction equipment, unstable slopes, temporary roads crossing tributaries, construction materials and equipment parked in the stream bed and other gaps that lead to increased erosion.
“How can you miss a wetland that’s 2 to 4 acres in size,” Himel said. “Because they didn’t identify the boundaries of the wetlands, they ended up driving their trucks over tree roots and right over a spring head. In a few places, it was so soft they had to put down mats to keep the trucks from getting stuck.”
Catonsville residents, including current and former officials, said the university failed to reach out to the community before bringing in bulldozers and chainsaws.
The project demolished an area designated by the community as the Spring Grove Arboretum, where neighbors and volunteer organizations helped plant 1,000 trees in 2021 with state funding. In addition to the acres cut along Herbert Run, most of the trees planted by residents around a county ball field on Wade Avenue were bulldozed for space to park heavy construction equipment and store piles of building materials. Fewer than a dozen of the saplings planted by volunteers remain.
UMBC purchased the Spring Grove Campus from the state of Maryland for $1 in 2022. The agreement includes a 10-year contract for the state to continue operating the hospital at the site, renewable for two 5-year periods or until Maryland develops replacement facilities elsewhere. In addition to serving volunteer patients and conducting groundbreaking research in schizophrenia, Spring Grove houses court-ordered criminal patients.
UMBC officials told The Sun in an emailed statement the school has budgeted $27 million in state funding for “restoration, stabilization and remediation of portions of the site.” Plans filed by the school in November 2024 describe work to be done along more than 4,500 feet of Herbert Run and two unnamed tributaries, as well as repairs to Elm Street.
“As part of this project, we are restoring the west arm of Herbert Run to revitalize many of the site’s natural features and address the negative effects of streambank erosion, which has contributed to non-vegetation, near-vertical stream banks, loss of trees adjacent to the stream, exposure of utilities, and degradation and/or failure of concrete in the stream,” university officials said. “We are installing several stormwater drainage improvements to stabilize, preserve and protect the creek, land and existing buildings from flooding and erosion caused by excessive stormwater runoff. Our work will ensure bridges and roads are safe.”
Herbert Run water quality is affected by “bacteria, ions, metals, nutrients, pesticides, sediments, flow alterations and toxicity (selenium),” project documents claim.
Foresters who spoke to The Sun disputed the school’s characterization of Herbert Run.
Clearing the trees and flattening the valley is more likely to degrade the Herbert Run streambed than stabilize it, Himel said.
“It was stable, full of huge trees with trunks over 12 inches in diameter, their root masses armoring the creek banks,” he said. “Why would you cut down all those huge trees and open the whole valley to erosion? They might as well have put a four-lane highway through it, because they’ve changed the whole environment of that creek valley. I don’t think it’s going to hold up when the next heavy rain comes.”
Himel said the creek already flows over bedrock, limiting erosion, and survived Beltway development without significant erosion or flooding before this project began.
“I’m kind of blown away,” Himel said. “If they’re doing a riverbed restoration project here, it seems really pointless. Even in the 1,000-year floods that ravaged Ellicott City, the Herbert Run riverbed didn’t leave its channel.”
The contractor also placed logs and other debris in wetlands fed by that spring, licensed forester and Catonsville resident William Rees told The Sun.
“You can’t put fill in a wet area,” he said. “They put fill and logs in the wetland.”
The project runs counter to regional efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay, Rees said, and no restoration plan can replicate the natural forested streambed that once existed there.
“This wetland around Herbert Run is ultimately why we spend billions of dollars protecting the Chesapeake Bay,” he said. “This riparian forest growing near streams is the most prized ecosystem in the state.”
Degradation and erosion in rivers like the Herbert Run eventually dump silt into the Gulf, harming wildlife and overshadowing the sea grass that fish, crabs and other species need to survive. Environmentalists have identified silt and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen as the biggest threats to the Bay’s health, surpassing the impact of street drugs and other chemicals that seep into waterways.
The Maryland Department of the Environment visited the Spring Grove site in December and January, issuing more than 30 violations, according to inspection documents reviewed by The Sun.
“We have conducted three recent site inspections,” department spokesman Jay Apperson told The Sun. “These inspections found the site non-compliant with environmental regulations and included instructions for corrective action. We continue to monitor activities there to see if the site comes into compliance.”
Many of those violations remained uncorrected since an inspection on January 15, but work continues in Herbert Run, as The Sun recorded by flying a drone over the snowy site.
The heart of the community
The wholesale demolition of the Spring Grove Arboretum hit community volunteers who helped plant 1,000 tree saplings around a new county ball field in August 2021. The arboretum’s long-term effort included public service volunteer efforts from local Boy Scouts, Fort Meade soldiers, UMBC fraternities and officials, including fraternities and public officials Del. Sheila Ruth and Eric Ebersole and retired Judge Susan Souder, an active leader of the Catonsville Tree Canopy Project.
Days after their 2021 planting, a county contractor cut down many of them, according to news reports, despite several signs that read “Tree Conservation Area, Keep Out.”
This winter’s cutting of bulls and trees by UMBC was a complete shock and disappointment, Souder told The Sun.
“I was personally devastated to see some of our hard work undone,” she said. “There’s been no outreach that I’m aware of. I haven’t heard anything about their plans. . . . I’ve had very high hopes for a long time that the state would realize how important this property is to the heart of Catonsville. It provides so much value to our community. A lot of people live in Catonsville because we enjoy being outdoors.”
Souder said she hopes the university will work harder to incorporate the input and efforts of local tree enthusiasts like herself to benefit the community and campus.
“I think everyone in Maryland can be proud of UMBC,” she said. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t be open to a nonprofit volunteer organization like ours providing an arboretum. To me, it seems so obvious how it would benefit UMBC, their students and visitors.”
Got a news tip? Contact Karl Hille at 443-900-7891 or khille@baltsun.com.