BALTIMORE — Coastal monitoring stations along Calvert Cliffs, new trail markers at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, and invasive-plant removal at Annmarie Garden are among seven Calvert County environmental projects that will share in Constellation’s latest round of community grants.
The Baltimore-based power company announced Oct. 21 that its third annual Constellation Leading Environmental Accelerators Network, or CLEAN, Environment Awards will provide $2.1 million to 64 projects in the six states where it runs power plants: California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Individual grants range from $5,000 to $125,000.
Eight Maryland projects will receive a combined $452,400. Seven are listed under the community around the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, which Constellation operates. The company did not release individual award amounts, so it is not clear how much of the Maryland total stays in Calvert.
The Calvert projects
Annmarie Garden will begin a multiyear effort to restore the understory across its 30-acre property in Solomons by removing invasive plants, thinning the canopy, improving soil and supporting native habitat. A rainwater-capture system at its Arts Building and volunteer workdays are meant to show visitors conservation techniques they can use at home.
The Calvert Marine Museum Society plans five monitoring stations along Calvert Cliffs that will pair time-lapse photography with rainfall, wind, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and solar radiation data. The long-term record is intended to support research on erosion, shoreline change and fossil exposure, and to feed museum exhibits and online education.
Friends of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum will install maps, directional arrows and trail markers along walking paths at the 570-acre state park and museum in St. Leonard, which has 2.5 miles of shoreline and more than 3 miles of trails. Recycled-plastic posts will be used where feasible.
The Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust will advance three efforts: conservation easements to protect about 205 more acres in the Huntersville Rural Legacy Area, a Weed Warrior volunteer program to clear invasive plants from 8 to 12 acres, and a Green the Neighborhood initiative to restore 5 to 8 acres of neighborhood common space with native plantings.
The Calvert Environmental Trust for Youth will support the Calvert County Envirothon, which trains students in aquatic ecology, forestry, soil conservation and wildlife management through field work and competition.
The Morgan State University Foundation will fund paid undergraduate internships with the Blue Crab Survey at the university’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory, a monitoring program that has tracked blue crab size and abundance for six decades.
The Chesapeake Bay Trust will place one young adult, age 18 to 25, with a nonprofit or government host in Calvert County for a stipend-supported year of environmental service through the Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps.
The eighth Maryland grant goes to the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center in Anne Arundel County, which will restore two connected ponds used as an outdoor classroom for fourth-grade aquatic studies. Constellation lists that project under several plant communities, including Calvert Cliffs.
Part of a larger footprint
Since the program began in 2024, the CLEAN awards have provided a combined $4.2 million to more than 100 nonprofit projects, according to the company’s announcement. The grants are paid through the Constellation Foundation, which also supports workforce development and clean energy education.
David Dardis, the company’s senior executive vice president and chief external affairs and growth officer and president of the foundation, said much of the most meaningful environmental work happens at the local level, led by groups that know their communities best.
The awards come as the plant draws new attention. The Chronicle has reported on an Amazon deal behind a planned $3 billion upgrade at Calvert Cliffs and on a zoning dispute over 800 acres near the plant.
The release described all eight Maryland projects as planned work. Constellation did not give timelines for when each would be completed.
