Mo-Co Alliance
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • A Brief History
    • Board & AC
    • Staff & Volunteers
    • Contact
    • Buy MCA Gear
  • About Ag Reserve
    • Growing Legacy Film
    • History of the Ag Reserve
    • Benefits of the Ag Reserve
    • Agriculture Education
    • Farm Facts
    • Threats to the Ag Reserve
    • A Place with Purpose
  • News
  • Events
    • Local Events
    • Royce Hanson Award
    • Ride for Reserve
  • Support Local
    • Agricultural Guide
    • Local Food Connection
    • Good Fences Grant
    • Community Supported Agriculture
    • Restaurants & Retail
    • Artists of the Reserve
  • Community Resources
    • Land Link >
      • Labor Link
    • Re-leaf the Reserve
    • PLENTY Magazine
    • Producer's Resources
    • BIPOC Farmer Guide
    • Directory of Local Services
    • Friends of Ten Mile Creek
  • Membership
    • Sponsors and Partners

News

Maryland Emancipation Day Celebration - 10/31 at Button Farm

10/26/2020

 
Picture
Maryland Emancipation Day Celebration
At Button Farm Living History Center

Saturday October 31, 2020 @ 12-3PM
Celebrate the day in 1864 when Maryland changed its constitution to abolish slavery six months before the end of the Civil War. This outdoor, open-air, event includes an emancipation-themed, self-guided tour of the farm and Slave Cemetery accessible by your phone through our QR portal. Scavenger hunts, farm animals, "safe" hands-on history and musical acts will help to round out the day. Fresh air, masks and social distancing protocols will be in place. 

Royce Hanson Award 2020 - Sugarland Ethno-History Project

10/23/2020

 
Picture
MCA's Executive Director Caroline Taylor, Dame Judi Dench and Sugarland Ethno-History Project President Gwen Reese. Some church scenes in the 2013 film "Philomena" were filmed in St Paul Community Church - the center of the historic Sugarland Community.
This year's Royce Hanson Award honors a rich history, lovingly preserved. MCA is proud to award the 2020 Royce Hanson Award to the Sugarland Ethno-History Project and the tireless work of their President, Gwen Reese.  

The Sugarland Ethno-History Project (SEHP) began in 1995 to document the African American community of Sugarland, founded by freed slaves in Montgomery County Maryland. SEHP promotes and highlights the experience of the African American from slavery to present day. To date the organization has collected more than 1,000+ artifacts and documents- some of which now live in the National African American Museum.  Locals will know the lovingly maintained St. Paul Community Church on Sugarland Lane. Though the original church burned down in 1871, the current structure has been standing since 1893. The extensive information on the SEHP site states, "the current structure stands as a testimony and tribute to our heritage and the founding families of the community."
The history of the Sugarland Community is profiled in a new book by the Sugarland Ethno-History Project "I Have Started for Canaan" - read more and buy your copy here. 
When leading tours of the Ag Reserve, St Paul Community Church is a fascinating stop. Gwen ​has been gathering the stories of the many families that founded the community and kept it going with its own store, post office and school for many decades. 
In lieu of the usual in person celebration, we are planning for the planting of a sugar maple at the church and a plaque to honor SEHP's decades of work.  This dedication will take place in December, stay tuned. 

Montgomery's History: "I Have Started for Canaan" from the Sugarland Ethno-History Project

10/22/2020

 
​The Sugarland Ethnohistory Project has published their book  "I Have Started for Canaan" detailing the history of the Sugarland Community. The Sugarland Ethno-History Project (SEHP) began in 1995 to document the African American community of Sugarland, founded by freed slaves in Montgomery County Maryland. SEHP promotes and highlights the experience of the African American from slavery to present day. To date the organization has collected more than 1,000+ artifacts and documents- some of which now live in the National African American Museum.  Locals will know the lovingly maintained St. Paul Community Church - the heart of the Sugarland Community. 

Picture

Visit the Sugarland Ethnohistory Project to Pick up your copy!

The Myth and Harm of the Maryland Solar Array Pollinator Certification

10/19/2020

 
Picture
ZTA 20-01 would allow commercial solar on 3 square miles of productive farmland in MoCo's Agricultural Reserve. The ZTA is deeply flawed on many fronts. There are scant protections for forests or water quality - all while sending power not to the State Community Solar Program - but to the wider grid where it can be sold by 3rd party companies that are under investigation for predatory practices. Full Fact Sheet here.
​

Boosters of this proposal have touted the (suggestion) of  co-location of agriculture (i.e - grass that may or may not be grazed) and the requirement for certification under Maryland's Solar Pollinator Certification. This part is also deeply flawed and everyone who relies on pollinators (i.e - everyone) should be deeply concerned. 
Testimony from our friends at Audubon Naturalist Society and  Clean Water Action:

"This ZTA relies on Maryland’s solar pollinator requirements, which have been strongly protested by the beekeeping and pollinator community. As the Central Maryland Beekeepers and Maryland Pesticide Education Network have previously raised, the existing state standard allows for a solar facility to qualify as exceeding pollinator habitat standards while routinely spraying pesticides. This is unacceptable. This effectively invites pollinators to visit the habitat while poisoning them. 
​
No pollinator habitat should be certified that allows the routine spraying of pollinator-killing pesticides. While the state program is flawed, Montgomery County should reject it and create their own that does not allow for the routine spraying of pesticides."

Currently, though stakeholders were assured of a task force process that would better involve farmers, the Council has instead chosen to send the proposal back to the same committee that approved it in the first place without adding substantive amendments, chaired by the sponsor of the measure - Councilmember Riemer. The potential harm to pollinators of this bill is just one of many, many issues that still need to be worked through. Please stay tuned as we navigate this process to get solar right in Montgomery County. 

What happened with ZTA 20-01 (Solar in the AR) at the Council?

10/14/2020

 
Get caught up- ZTA 20-01 would allow commercial solar on up to 3 square miles of the Ag Reserve with scant protections for productive soils, forests or water quality. Fact Sheet Here.  Along with many hundreds of residents both up and down county urging caution, our partners at Audubon Naturalist Society and Clean Water Action have added  their list of concerns in testimony here. 
A broken commitment to providing the means toward getting solar right through meaningfully committee/work group process... a process that would have addressed the concerns and suggestions from those most affected by the proposed zoning change... farm businesses. 

Council President Katz had a great opening statement on how Ag Reserve land was being considered for this project because it was cheaper and instead of the ZTA going too far he thinks it did not go far enough in getting solar arrays throughout the county, including downcounty. He raised the important point that holding these meetings by zoom and on you tube was leaving out the very people that live in the Ag Reserve and through no fault of their own have no access to broadband. In calling for a task force, he was joined by Craig Rice and Nancy Navarro. Councilmember Navarro related the story she told us on our Zoom call with her some weeks ago about the empty shelves she found on trips to the grocery store early in the pandemic while shopping for her family and how the Ag Reserve has a role to play in food security. 

​Then the waters got muddy, Council President Katz was asked to give shape to the Task Force he was proposing and Councilmembers seemed to get hung up on whether the work would be done in 2 months or 4 months and how many people would be on the committee. Councilmember Hucker, a co-sponsor of this ZTA had told us in a zoom call previously that a Task Force was the way to go as the Council was mired in so many other things at the moment. He then joined the  other councilmembers curtailing the length and breadth that task force could take until it was not a task force at all. The Council began to move away from the idea of a formal task force, Councilmembers teased amendments they had to the ZTA that were forthcoming, consensus seemed to move toward a listening session with stakeholders and then to just returning the ZTA to the committee that voted for it’s approval in the first place who would hold 3 sessions with stakeholders – probably over zoom.
​

The end result of the 180 turn from better involving stakeholders to just informally returning the issue to the same committee again to reconsider a flawed proposal caused consternation on the part of Councilmember Friedson who asked staff to weigh in on whether a vote was needed. Hearing it was not he expressed surprise and dismay that this decision could be made with out a vote.

​The bitter irony is that in watching this part – our staff in the Reserve was unable to follow the discussion as youtube kept freezing – because, again, broadband internet is not available. The same thing happens on zoom or any other internet-based platform. Calling the phone line to listen to council meetings yielded – silence. When we tweeted at the Council about this, the reply came back that the meeting was also on cable. We, like many, many other residents do not have cable. This means the meeting could not be seen or heard (and many will have issues watching the recorded version) for the very people this proposal would impact most. 
​While in-person public meetings are not safe right now and MCA is not advocating they take place, the way that civic engagement has moved online has left out the Reserve community right at the time that a potentially disastrous proposal impacting farm economics, forest protection and water quality is speeding toward passage with the entirety of the Reserve community and a broad coalition of downcounty organizations vehemently opposed. 
​
​Where things now stand:  The ZTA will now proceed back to the committee chaired by Councilmember Riemer, the sponsor of the ZTA. We are not optimistic that CM Riemer will consider substantive changes from farmers to his proposal, if the online platform was even working to make those suggestions. At this worksession council meeting, the only non-county employees on the zoom were a solar industry representative and a representative of Sierra Club an ardent backer of this ZTA despite its impact on forests, water quality, etc. Though neither were given time to speak, there were no representatives of the farm community and the head of the office of agriculture, Jeremy Criss was not given time to speak.
It leaves us with a question – why aren’t we taking a few more months to get solar right? Why aren’t we waiting for the Climate Action Resilience Plan (CARP) due out next month that was bankrolled by the County to tackle just these sorts of legacy climate solutions?
Thanks to the many, many people who have written the council on this issue.  Please stay tuned as this new phase develops. 
MCA is the lean, tenacious and award winning organization born of and for Montgomery County's Ag Reserve. Since 2001 we have been the boots on the ground focused on the protection of the small farms in the Ag Reserve, local food production and the protection of our shared water supply. We would be honored by your financial support. ​
Picture

Learn More About the First Peoples of Montgomery County

10/13/2020

 
Picture
“The people where the rivers blend”
“...we have grown weary of the general public’s surprising lack of knowledge about who we were and who we are. Now, we have an opportunity to change that state of affairs―to tell our story through the eyes of the Piscataway and not from another’s opinion of us―to interface with the archaeology communities as well as other sciences of the world―to speak of our ways, life, purpose, and tribal structure that forged the alliance of the different communities of the Piscataway People―to go back in time and speak on different time lines, cycles, and events that permit us the Piscataway People to be here today at this forum―to again let it be known, ‘WE ARE STILL HERE!'”
-Francis Gray, Tribal Chair or the Piscataway Conoy Tribe at the inaugural meeting of the Through Piscataway Eyes Partners, May 6, 2016

Read more about the First Peoples in Montgomery County and southern Maryland and throughout the region.
The Piscataway were a Confederacy of Tribes under the premier authority of the Tayac or Emperor. The Confederacy extended between the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay to the watershed of the Potomac River in the area now known as Virginia, and all land from the southern tip of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, north to include Baltimore, Montgomery and Anne Arundel Counties, Maryland, to include Washington D.C.


​Bethesda Beat profiles this area's First Peoples

Solar ZTA 20-01 Needs a Task Force - Let's Get Solar Right

10/1/2020

 
Picture
Fall - Susan Petro
Quick Update: 10/12 - The Council will take up ZTA 20-01 10/13 starting at 2:45 (you can find the link to watch on you tube here) - we understand that this will just be a discussion, not a vote. The full packet is here. 
There continue to be many, many problems with this ZTA - the lack of water quality and forest protections (full fact sheet here) all requiring the stakeholder involvement that will be brought by the Task Force Council President Katz will be proposing at this work session. 
Specifically, fans of pollinators (which should be everyone) should note that a landowner can still get the "Pollinator Friendly Certification" required by this ZTA by regularly spraying insecticides on the carefully chosen plants allowed by the program and actually gain points for use of herbicides (p. 27 of the packet linked above).
Update 10/6: We will get to what happened at the Council on commercial solar but first - Thank You to everyone who has been following this issue and writing in to express their concerns. We now have a few more days to make the case for getting solar right in Montgomery County.
We've been asking that folks reiterate the need for a task force to take on this issue in light of the fact that the ZTA's backers are still insisting this proposal go ahead without the broader stakeholder engagement necessary to balance solar and forests/water quality/productive soils. 
The pandemic is just one of many other issues packing the Council's overflowing agenda and this ZTA will now be taken up next Tuesday (10/13). In delaying taking up the ZTA, Council President Katz announced he plans to make a resolution for a task force and ZTA sponsor Councilmember Riemer announced his position that a task force was the wrong way to go.
We brought a coalition of farmers, water quality defenders and civic groups on to zooms with the Councilmembers on this issue over the past weeks. Councilmembers expressed broad support for a task force that can chart the siting of renewable energy carefully - including incorporating the more holistic Climate Action Resilience Plan (CARP) written for the County due out in a matter of weeks.
However, proponents of the ZTA are still insisting that the measure go ahead without delay or further discussion with stakeholders, calling solar on productive farmland a moral imperative to make solar affordable for low income residents in Montgomery County. This stance is being taken while the 3rd party electrical suppliers pushing this ZTA are under investigation for predatory practices in these same low income neighborhoods. (fact sheet here).
 
Take 2 minutes to make your voice heard (again) right here before Tuesday 10/13.  
Update 10/5: Though many of the Councilmembers we spoke with last week are pushing to pause this ZTA so a task force can work on getting solar right in Montgomery County- the proponents of ZTA 20-01 are still instant on pushing this proposal that still lacks protections for soils, forests, water quality and regulations that would govern the cost of the resulting energy.
Please let the council hear from you yet again today before they possibly vote tomorrow - a task force is the way to make progress toward renewable energy generation that balances natural systems and food production.
We also just heard from our friends at Sugarloaf Citizens Association that the solar experts they had look over the ZTA have just published their findings - only about 4% of the energy produced under this proposal would stay in the County. (p. 8 Executive Summary)
Breaking news: ZTA 20-01 ( up-to date amended version) would have allowed 3 square miles of commercial solar arrays in the Ag Reserve without protections for productive soils, forests or water quality. Council President Sidney Katz shared news with us last Friday that the zoning change will now be taken up through participation of a task force.

Deep gratitude to all the action takers that shared their concerns with the Council. Make no mistake - the hundreds of emails sent provided the needed oomph to make our case before an understandably otherwise occupied Council. You were fact based, respectful and tenacious.

We are grateful for CM Katz's leadership in ensuring public process thoughtful and collaborative outcome. This process will afford stakeholders, notably farmers, a voice in how best to advance solar while not supplanting agriculture and damaging our critical natural resources.

While this is a welcome opportunity to get solar right in Montgomery County, concerns remain about how we balance growing food and ground mounted commercial solar.

Please take two minutes to thank the council and reiterate your concerns about this proposal.

There are many ways this ZTA lacked protections - scant protections for forests, productive soils, water quality, etc. It also lacked equity as the same 3rd party electric suppliers that would sell this power are under investigation for predatory pricing in low income communities. To take a deeper dive into all this, please see our fact sheet here. 
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Barnesville Oaks/Greentree
    Bike
    Climate Change
    CSA
    Development
    Education
    Energy
    Events
    Fun!
    Growing Legacy
    Land Link
    Local Food
    Master Plan Update
    Mega Church
    Montgomery Council
    News
    Open Space
    Outer Beltway
    Parks
    Planning
    Potomac Bridge
    Racial Justice
    Recent Accomplishments
    Recipes
    Reducing Waste
    Regenerative Ag
    Releaf
    Rocklands
    Rural Schools
    Sewer
    Solar
    Take Action Now
    Ten Mile Creek
    Thrive 2050
    Transporation
    Water

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010

ABOUT US
What We Do
A Brief History
Board & AC
Staff & Volunteers
Contact
​​Buy MCA Gear
ABOUT Ag RESERVE
History of the Ag
Benefits of the Ag
Farm Facts
Threats to the Ag
​A Place with Purpose
NEWS
EVENTS
Local Events
Ride for the Reserve
Royce Hanson Award
SUPPORT LOCAL
Ag Guide
Local Food Connection
Community Supported Agriculture
Restaurants & Retail
​Artists of the Reserve
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
​Land Link
Producer's Resources
Directory of Services
Picture
Montgomery Countryside Alliance
P.O Box 24, Poolesville, MD  20837
301-461-9831  •  ​info@mocoalliance.org
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
MCA is proud to announce that we have been recognized for a third time as one of the best small charities in the D.C. region by Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. A panel of 110 expert reviewers from area foundations, corporate giving programs, and peer non-profit organizations evaluated 270 applications.

​MCA is known as an effective and innovative non-profit whose efforts to preserve and promote Montgomery County’s nationally recognized 93,000 acre Ag Reserve have brought increased public and governmental support of local food production and farmland and open space preservation. Most importantly, MCA’s efforts are putting more farmers on the ground and keeping them there.
COPYRIGHT © MONTGOMERY COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE 2008