MCA is so grateful for the expertise and engagement of our board of directors and advisory committee. In taking on all the issues we do, many hands make light work and allow us to be both informed and responsive.
We are excited to announce a new addition, Katherine Nelson recently retired from Montgomery County's Planning department.
Katherine has over 30 years of experience in land use planning with a focus on forest conservation, stream water quality protection, water supply/wastewater planning, and GIS database development and management.
Katherine was among the first Arborists to be certified by the International Society of Arboriculture in 1988, and she is a Certified Natural Resource Expert with the American Forestry Association.
Katherine helped develop the 1993 Patuxent River Functional Master Plan and served for many years as the Montgomery representative on the multi-jurisdictional Patuxent Reservoir Technical Advisory Committee and Patuxent River Commission. In 1995 the Commission provided County grants which Katherine used to develop and manage the Patuxent Demonstration Project - one of the first GIS data-based studies in the County to evaluate the relationship among watershed imperviousness, watershed forest cover, and stream water quality.
Katherine developed the Planning Department’s forest planting program using developer mitigation funds to reforest stream valleys on Parkland. This has resulted in over 30 acres of newly planted forest in previously denuded sensitive areas. She also developed and managed an associated volunteer program that facilitated individuals and conservation groups to care for these newly planted forests that can be vulnerable to deer predation and invasive species. For this effort she received the Izaak Walton League of America National Honor Roll Award in 2009.
From 2006 to 2010 Katherine led the effort to convert the Planning Department’s paper forest conservation records and hand-drawn maps to a digital system of geodatabases. These included forest conservation plans, forest cover, conservation easements, forest mitigation banks and forest planting. This greatly enhanced the Department’s on-going data analysis capabilities and made it possible for the Department to develop Geographic Information System (GIS) web applications that made this data easily accessible to the public. For this effort the team received the ESRI Special Achievement Award in 2011. Katherine oversaw the management of these databases until 2018.
Katherine served on the County Forest Conservation Advisory Committee from 2010 to 2020. She was also part of MWCOG’s Community Forestry Network and was on the team that developed the Regional Urban Forest Canopy Analysis. In 2009 Katherine was instrumental in developing the County’s first Tree Canopy Analysis with the University of Vermont.
Katherine provided the environmental analysis and recommendations and the water and sewer service recommendations for many master plans, including the original Rustic Roads Functional Plan (NCAC Merit Award 1996), Friendship Heights (NCAC Merit Award 1999), Sandy Spring/Ashton, Ten Mile Creek, Potomac Subregion (NCPC Merit Award for the Environmental Analysis 1999), Damascus and Vicinity, Burtonsville Crossroads, Sandy Spring Village, Westbard (nominated for the Bethesda Green Award 2019), and Fairland and Briggs Chaney.
We are excited to announce a new addition, Katherine Nelson recently retired from Montgomery County's Planning department.
Katherine has over 30 years of experience in land use planning with a focus on forest conservation, stream water quality protection, water supply/wastewater planning, and GIS database development and management.
Katherine was among the first Arborists to be certified by the International Society of Arboriculture in 1988, and she is a Certified Natural Resource Expert with the American Forestry Association.
Katherine helped develop the 1993 Patuxent River Functional Master Plan and served for many years as the Montgomery representative on the multi-jurisdictional Patuxent Reservoir Technical Advisory Committee and Patuxent River Commission. In 1995 the Commission provided County grants which Katherine used to develop and manage the Patuxent Demonstration Project - one of the first GIS data-based studies in the County to evaluate the relationship among watershed imperviousness, watershed forest cover, and stream water quality.
Katherine developed the Planning Department’s forest planting program using developer mitigation funds to reforest stream valleys on Parkland. This has resulted in over 30 acres of newly planted forest in previously denuded sensitive areas. She also developed and managed an associated volunteer program that facilitated individuals and conservation groups to care for these newly planted forests that can be vulnerable to deer predation and invasive species. For this effort she received the Izaak Walton League of America National Honor Roll Award in 2009.
From 2006 to 2010 Katherine led the effort to convert the Planning Department’s paper forest conservation records and hand-drawn maps to a digital system of geodatabases. These included forest conservation plans, forest cover, conservation easements, forest mitigation banks and forest planting. This greatly enhanced the Department’s on-going data analysis capabilities and made it possible for the Department to develop Geographic Information System (GIS) web applications that made this data easily accessible to the public. For this effort the team received the ESRI Special Achievement Award in 2011. Katherine oversaw the management of these databases until 2018.
Katherine served on the County Forest Conservation Advisory Committee from 2010 to 2020. She was also part of MWCOG’s Community Forestry Network and was on the team that developed the Regional Urban Forest Canopy Analysis. In 2009 Katherine was instrumental in developing the County’s first Tree Canopy Analysis with the University of Vermont.
Katherine provided the environmental analysis and recommendations and the water and sewer service recommendations for many master plans, including the original Rustic Roads Functional Plan (NCAC Merit Award 1996), Friendship Heights (NCAC Merit Award 1999), Sandy Spring/Ashton, Ten Mile Creek, Potomac Subregion (NCPC Merit Award for the Environmental Analysis 1999), Damascus and Vicinity, Burtonsville Crossroads, Sandy Spring Village, Westbard (nominated for the Bethesda Green Award 2019), and Fairland and Briggs Chaney.
