Re-Leaf the Reserve started in 2019 with one acre on a sheep farm by the Little Monocacy River. 2 years later and the young trees have had endured biblical flooding, hungry deer and dry spells, 75% of the trees (which were overplanted to ensure survival) made it through the most tenuous stage in the life of a forest. 

Trees planted earlier this year are leafing out after surviving their first winter in the field at Shepherd's Hey Farm. 

This past spring saw the planting of 5 more acres, bringing the total new planted forest to 17 acres!

We want to thank board member and Re-Leaf coordinator Carole Bergmann, the properties hosting the forever forests and of course the expert tree wrangling of Garth and Amy Seely of Gardens by Garth who provide top notch care to these new trees at every stage. ​

If you would like to host a forest on your property in the Reserve or make a donation to get more acres planted - learn more here.  
​Volunteers will be needed for future plantings after a pause for the pandemic. If you'd like to be contacted when we start volunteer days again, get on our list here. 
No worries, down county residents, the Reforest Montgomery program through the county can help you host trees too.  

When you think of cattle, you probably picture cows in a field of grass. In truth, most cattle are raised not on pasture and instead fed a mostly grain diet and live indoors, not on grass. 

The products from grass-fed operations have a number of benefits for the consumer, the animal's health, the farmer and our shared environment:

The Farm and Farmer: When a farmer is not locked into buying or growing grain for their animals it benefits their bottom line. Rotational grazing, moving livestock from pasture to pasture as each field is allowed to rest between grazing, builds healthy soil that can then host healthy crops or more healthy pasture. It is a feedback loop - grazing done right creates even more nutritious pasture for healthier animals and a better farm operation. 

Our shared water, air and climate: Properly managed pastures with deep rooted vegetation growing year round keep soil in place, preventing runoff that degrades water quality and locks carbon in the soil. Rotational grazing is a key tenant of regenerative agriculture - a collection of farming practices that taken together are a powerful climate, water quality and farm profitability solution that has been gaining adherents in the past few years.

Laurie and Kevin Savage of Savage Acres raise grassfed cattle near the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain in Northern Montgomery County. 
Laurie explains why their farm is grassfed, "raising cattle on a grassfed diet is good for us and good for the planet. Cattle eat grass that we as humans cannot digest and turn it into high quality protein for our own diets. In addition to grass, our cattle are supplemented with distillers grains that we receive from a local distiller, which is a great way to recycle, and not waste, a byproduct of this process."

Much more about grassfed meat, dairy and eggs can be found in the Amazing Grazing directory from Future Harvest CASA. The following MoCo farms also offer grassfed items: 

With ZTA 20-01 passing earlier this year, new opportunities for solar have come to the Ag Reserve. Farmers and homeowners may be considering installing solar. MCA is here to help - check out our quick survey on solar and resources for farmers and homeowners. 

We are teaming up with the Montgomery County Green Bank to help MoCo residents navigate decisions on solar (or geothermal) installation - be it a large scale community solar array on a farm or a smaller roof-mounted array on a home or barn. The Green Bank is a publicly chartered non-profit dedicated to accelerating green energy implementation in the County, using funds from the Pepco/Exelon merger to leverage funding options for renewable energy projects. 

Please join us for a virtual solar installation info session on May 4th at 7pm on Zoom. 

Our partners at the Green Bank will explain how to begin seeking quotes for solar, finding reputable installation pros and, of course, financing a new solar system and getting all available tax benefits. If you have been considering installing solar, this session will demystify the process and set you on the right course. 

An Action Alert from our friends at Clean Water Action - a powerful partner in our successful push to balance farm protection and solar siting in the Ag Reserve with ZTA 20-01. With as much solar as will need to be built to reach our climate goals, the State does not have a comprehensive solar siting study. The lack of a study designating the smartest place for solar, forests and farms are attractive options to the solar industry - to the detriment of local food systems and water quality. Ramping up solar production needs to happen but forest and farmland loss can be minimized or eliminated and climate justice can be given the consideration it is currently lacking (powerful op-ed on this point from the youth MD Sunrise Movement) . 

Sign their action letter here (Takes 1 Minute) or read on for more info. 

For years, Clean Water Action and allies across Maryland have been advocating for the state to conduct a comprehensive study on siting solar power. Where the solar industry builds, and how the government policies put in place to incentivize  solar, has enormous impacts on how our local communities use and preserve their land. In the absence of policies to the contrary, farmland and forest will be attractive and profitable for the solar industry - and in the past several years, we've seen communities from Charles County to Montgomery County fight hard to save critical farmland and forests from large-scale solar projects. (Check out our testimony in Montgomery County for more on how siting too much solar on farmland and forests can cause environmental and economic problems.)
We do need to build a lot of solar power, quickly - and with smart policies and incentives guiding it, we can minimize damage to our farmland and forests, and maximize solar development on impervious surfaces and marginal land. A 2019 report by the Abell Foundation, "An Opportunity to get Solar Siting Right," found that Maryland could and should find ways to preserve the best agricultural lands for farming, while steering solar power toward contaminated lands, large rooftops, and sprawling parking lots through smart, proactive planning. A 2020 report by Chesapeake Conservancy, "Optimal Solar Siting for Maryland: A Pilot for Baltimore County and City," found that if just 8.6 % of such optimal sites proved viable for solar, it would be enough to meet Baltimore County and City’s share of solar energy needs. And smart solar siting policies, like the one just approved in Montgomery County, can allow some community solar projects on less-productive farmland while preserving the most productive farmland for agriculture.
On April 1, the House adopted many weakening amendments to the "Climate Solutions Now Act" - and one of them thrusts Maryland in the wrong direction on solar siting. It would create a "Blue Ribbon Solar Land Use Commission," tasked with determining how much solar each county in Maryland should build - based on how much agricultural land that county has, with a bias toward ground-mounted solar on farmland. And the composition of this work group is outrageously unbalanced, excluding land preservationists and environmentalists focused on land use, agricultural policy, and water quality. This commission is set up to move Maryland in a destructive direction on solar siting without a preference for marginal land first.
But it doesn't have to be this way. In 2019, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would have created a "Commission on the Development of a Blueprint for Solar Energy in Maryland," with a truly balanced and holistic approach to siting solar projects to minimize their environmental and economic impacts; that year, the House never took it up. Unlike this year's eleventh-hour amendment, this bill went through an extensive stakeholder process and was heavily amended to ensure a balanced approach. (Read the bill here.) But time is short: tell your representatives to reject the House amendment on solar siting, and pass a balance solar siting study to fit Maryland's needs.