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Below is a list of our active projects. >> For each there are Project Pages <<CHEARS projects are conceived, developed and implemented by volunteers. Jump to current CHEARS projects and/or contact their participants by selecting a link below.
Jump: CHESTORY, Arts Workshops, GCAN, GreenmanFestival, Permaculture Design, Reel and Meal, Stone Soup Music, Three Sisters Garden, Flows 
CHESTORYProject Homepage — http://www.chestory.org/index.htm Project Coordinator — Joan Clement As the year 2000 opened, a group of Chesapeake artists, scientists, and citizen activists, educators, poets, writers and waterfolk gathered around a hope: That it is possible to change the quality of the story driving us and our culture toward a deeper, more joyful and life-giving relationship with the place in which we live.
 
Arts Workshops — Eco-Nature Arts WorkshopsProject Homepage — Unknown Project Coordinator — Marcia Freeman Facilitate artistic expression through nature arts workshops
GCAN — Greenbelt Climate Action NetworkProject Homepage — Unknown Project Coordinator — Steve Kane Educate residents about climate change, how they can change their behavior and take political action.
GreenmanFestival — Greenbelt Greenman FestivalProject Homepage — http://greenbeltgreenmanfestival.org Project Coordinator — Steve Kane The Green Man Festival in Greenbelt started in May of 2005 and was originally planned to be just a small to medium picnic to celebrate spring and the environment. The festival has been held on Mother's Day Weekend for the last five years. The Green Man, the spirit of nature and earth, is a concept that can be found in nearly every culture on earth. He is the symbol of nature's rebirth in the spring, he is the guardian of the forests, he is the protector of the wild places. The foliate head and the Green Man are traditional forms that represent irrepressible life, with the forces of nature merging with humanity. In Europe, foliate heads are carved into the very structural bones supporting the cathedrals. Below are some reference links to the deep and abiding history of the Green Man that is the heritage of all humanity.
Permaculture Design — Permaculture Guild Study GroupProject Homepage — Unknown Project Coordinator — Joel Cahalan The word "permaculture" was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren. It is a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture." While not easily defined in a few words, Mollison notes that "Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments." It has also been defined as: "the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing, appropriate technology, and community development. Permaculture is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting with the environment in mutually beneficial ways." (The Permaculture Drylands Institute, published in The Permaculture Activist, Autumn 1989). Some key principles of permaculture as listed by Holmgren, are:
Reel and MealProject Homepage — Unknown Project Coordinator — Robert Cahalan Begun in the fall of 2007, CHEARS is partnering with 7 other Greenbelt environmental and social justice orgranizations in this project. Monthly films are shown at the New Deal Cafe combined with an optional vegan meal. Reel and Meal at the New Deal © is a non-profit partnership project with a threefold mission: 1) to foster co-learning and community of endeavor among participants about timely environmental and social justice issues; 2) to foster cruelty free, local and sustainable food alternatives among participants; and 3) to support and fund raise for local, national, and international endeavors that are consistent with member organization goals.
Stone Soup Music — Stone Soup MusicProject Homepage — http://sites.google.com/a/chears.org/projects/Home/stone-soup-music Project Coordinator — Richard McMullin Music that celebrates and enlightens about the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Three Sisters Garden — Three Sisters Diversity-Circle Demonstration GardensProject Homepage — http://chears.org/gardens Project Coordinator — Maggie Cahalan On a per acre basis, urban runoff contributes twice the excess nutrient and toxic load to the Bay that agrcultural areas contribute. Aided by Permaculture principles a CHEARS strategic objective is to significantly reduce urban and suburban run off by changing our dominant monoculture lawn-based form of landscaping.
Flows — Water Quality TracingProject Homepage — http://chears.org/flows Project Coordinator — Robert Cahalan Place Based Education and Research Project---Follow the water from a spring on Wild Meadows Farm near the Eastern Divide in Pennsylvania as it joins Bobs Creek, then observe its transformations as it joins successively Dunnings Creek, the Juniata River, the Susquehanna River, the Cheseapeake Bay, and finally the Atlantic Ocean.
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