Newsroom

Jun 9, 2015

The great outdoors serves as the office for our region’s foresters, farmers, horticultural, and landscape professionals, and tick-borne diseases like Lyme pose a threat to these field personnel. However, an improved understanding of tick-borne Lyme disease has helped them to better recognize the risks and protections needed when performing field work.

Jun 9, 2015

Every three years the Transportation Planning Board carries out a regional vehicle "census" to determine the year, make, and model of nearly every car and truck registered in the Washington region. The analysis yields important information about the changing age and make-up of the region's vehicle fleet that helps the TPB refine its forecasts of future vehicle-related emissions of key air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

Jun 3, 2015

COG Director of Environmental Programs Stephen Walz joined WAMU's Martin Di Caro and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Robert Puentes on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show for a discussion of local and national infrastructure needs.

Jun 3, 2015

By day, you will find COG Environmental Planner Aubin Maynard wading in a local stream performing water quality analysis or a fish survey. In the evenings, he works alongside citizens living in and around the Anacostia watershed, arming them with the data and knowledge needed to clean up and better access their river.

Jun 2, 2015

Ozone season is underway in the Washington region. That means that area environmental agencies together with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments are monitoring concentrations of the harmful pollutant and issuing alerts for days when concentrations are expected to exceed healthy levels. Summer is the peak season for ground-level ozone because of the abundance of direct sunlight as well as more stable weather patterns, which can lead to greater air stagnation.

May 26, 2015

In May, the COG Board recognized the 2015 Foster Parents of the Year for opening their hearts and homes to children in need. The honorees from Charles County, Stephan and Gilda Clifford, joined COG's Kamilah Bunn on NBC 4 to discuss foster care in Metropolitan Washington and their motivation for becoming foster parents.

May 20, 2015

A study by The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) identified 25 underutilized Metro, MARC, or VRE rail stations across the region and more than 3,000 potential bicycle and pedestrian improvements to support increased ridership at those stations.

May 15, 2015

Outstanding foster parents from 10 jurisdictions around metropolitan Washington were honored May 13 by the COG Board of Directors as the region’s 2015 Foster Parents of the Year. A reception for the foster parents followed a ceremony held before the Board’s May meeting.

May 15, 2015

Commuters swapped gas pedals for bike pedals in the metropolitan Washington region as 17,500 cycled to work for the annual Bike to Work Day (BTWD) event, breaking event records Co-organized by Commuter Connections and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA), the event was celebrated at 79 pit-stops within the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.