The Ag Reserve Stories of 2021

12/31/2021

In another very different year, MCA once again found success on a number of fronts in protection of our critical resources. As is true this and every year of our 20 year history, our tenacious advocacy and some notable successes are the result of local support. Put plainly... we cannot do what we do without you.

We would be honored by your end of year tax-deductible gift.

On this final day of the year we thought we would roll the tape on a few notable things we accomplished together this year.

Large scale solar can now be sited responsibly in the Reserve- while protecting farmland, forests and watersheds. MCA is going further to connect residents with resources to install solar. (Our Next Solar webinar is 1/24 - Join us!)

Flags of Zimbabwe and the US hang in farmer Tanya's very productive greenhouse in Gaithersburg. Land Link helped find land for Tanya's Passion to Seed Gardening. (Elia Griffin, Bethesda Beat)

Land Link Montgomery, MCAs program linking new farmers to local landowners has made 20 farmer matches. What's missing from that figure is the stories, sights and sounds of these partnerships. Bethesda Beat shared profiles of a few different farms and a primer on the program for interested landowners and farmers. Maryland Farm and Harvest captured the infectious joy of Dodo Farms. MoCo Cable caught the meeting of minds that sparked Beauty Blooms Farm.

Our Re-leaf the Reserve program continued - with 20 acres of forever forest now planted. Our partners at Planning did a video profile of the program and two farms hosting forests along stream buffers. Pictured - 2019 when a 3rd grade class had a ball doing aftercare of a fall planting. We can't wait to host volunteer groups again, hopefully soon.

It was another different year for the Ride for the Reserve Bike Tour but cyclists enjoyed the routes of their choice and all the Reserve's rustic roads had to offer. Follow along on the 40 mile route with some of our riders in this video.

We spent much of the year watchdoging the County Planning Department and Council regarding the massive Thrive 2050 County Land Use Plan to ensure that environmental protections are delivered equitably to all. ( There is still more to do! Thrive 2050 is inexplicably silent on protection of our water supply - take action here.) Photo: Erick Pedersen - the mighty Potomac, not meaningfully mentioned in Thrive 2050.

All the while, the sun shone, the rain fell and MoCo's farmers continued to do what they have always done - albeit requiring big pivots to keep customers and staff safe. Local food demand continues to grow and no wonder- the tastiest, freshest food can be found at your local market or through a Community Ag Share directly from your farmer. We give thanks year round for the essential work and herculean efforts of those who tend the land and feed us.

While we turn the page to 2022 with guarded optimism, it’s clear there are challenges ahead. MCA has spent 20 years rolling up our sleeves and “digging in,” often in collaboration with partner groups. We have once again been called "one of the best" small nonprofits in the DC region. Our work depends on local support. We would be honored by your gift!

Rewilding and Native Plants - Your Small Green Space is Nature's Best Hope

12/30/2021

Gorgeous Goldenrod lines the edges of fields at One Acre Farm - making the honey from Joe Long who tends hives there that much sweeter. (photo:one acre farm)

When we think about habitat loss, an image comes to mind of acres of imperiled wild forest on a mountain side somewhere. While protecting the wilderness we have left is important, the world is increasingly made up not of vast wild acres of land but many, many smaller green spaces. There are things we can do to protect the slightly more tame outdoor spaces close to home as they are critical to the wildlife in our midst and our survival as well.

North America has lost some 3 billion breeding adult birds since 1970, with every biome impacted. As is often reported, pollinator decline is a real and pressing problem with impacts on the global food system. The solution to these challenges is the same - plant more of the plants that these creatures need for food and shelter and plant them in as many places as possible. Pest pressures go down, soil health and drought tolerance goes up and even neighboring cultivated crops benefit. You do not need to own a pristine mountain forest for your outdoor space to be part of the solution.

Meadow or prairie strips on farms are benefiting large scale producers across the midwest. Here in the mid-Atlantic, farmers are 'stacking' the benefits of pollinators and native plants like the photo above from One Acre Farm. Beekeepers and farmers work to mutual benefit when field edges are home to native plants like Goldenrod.
This native revolution is happening on Swiss Embassy land in the District and just announced this month, 20% of London's green spaces will be rewilded.

Whether it is a windowbox, a few pots on the patio or a whole lawn - giving over some of your green space to natives makes you part of the solution to habitat loss. Read on for resources and let us know if you have some to share.

Resources:
How to Rewild your Garden in 10 steps
Planting Native Helps the Bay
MD Extension Native Plant Guide
MD Native Plant Society
Montgomery County Beekeepers
"Nature's Best Hope" by Doug Tallamy an in depth look at why and how to plant natives at home

The Promise of Solar that Preserves Farmland and Forests

12/15/2021

A recently completed array in Carroll County

In February of 2021, Montgomery County passed a ZTA 20-01 that balances solar generation with large scale solar generation on farms in the Ag Reserve by siting solar on less productive soil in the Reserve and away from stream buffers and steep slopes. (Thinking about Solar on your farm? Join us for a webinar.) Yet still we hear that this balanced approach amounts to a moratorium that stymies progress toward carbon reduction goals.

The growing consensus is that a sole focus on open "undeveloped" lands for renewable energy generation gobbles up another dwindling climate solution resource- farm and forest land. As multiple reports from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have highlighted farms and forests are short sighted places to site solar projects. CBF has released guide for large scale renewable energy generation siting called Principles and Practices for Realizing the Necessity and Promise of Solar Power the guide calls for prioritizing marginal lands before viable farmland and forests.

More and more projects are finding ways to overcome the oft cited obstacles to large scale solar on roofs and contaminated lands.

Parking lots, for example, are being retrofitted with solar canopies, conveying multiple benefits including reducing the heat island effect in the urban areas where large parking lots are often found.

An 8MW parking lot array at Rutgers University in NJ

The article from the Yale School of the Environment quotes a study that finds the typical 5 acre parking lot at a Walmart can host a 3 MW array to power the store and cars parking there or surrounding homes. WAMATA has recently partnered to build this sort of canopy at 4 metro stations.

Also close to home, there is the Montgomery County Oaks landfill project - the largest all low income community solar project in the Country and Caroll County's ginormous warehouse rooftop project that the Secretary of the MD Energy Association praised for "protecting our farmlands."

While there is promise in "Agrivoltaics" where pollinator feed and even vegetables are grown under panels - farmers need more certainty about this new field before literally betting the farm on a technology that may occupy a field for over 25 years. Thankfully, a pilot program is ongoing in the Reserve in partnership with UMD.

There is no doubt that we need to transfer our grid to renewable energy - but a holistic approach to how our de-carbonization goals are achieved is the smarter long term solution.

MCA took a lead role on balancing solar generation with farmland and forests in Montgomery County. Our advocacy continues as we connect residents with the resources they need to install solar. Our award winning advocacy and local focus rely on local support. We would be honored by your tax-deductible end of year gift.

Thrive 2050- Where Is the Focus on Water?

12/3/2021

Ed Reed

The Short Story: Thrive 2050 is speeding toward approval at the Council with little to say about how we ensure clean water resources now and with future climate challenges. Until it offers clean water solutions, the plan is incomplete. Take 2 minutes to write the council before 12/14. Read on for more....

Thrive 2050, the County’s general plan update being considered by the Council, is troubling many residents regarding myriad shortcomings and inconsistencies. A central concern remains - the significant overhaul by MC Planning of the draft that was crafted with public input (we breakdown the striking differences between the plans here)- a move that relegated any discussion of how we meet environmental goals and climate resilience into an Non-binding appendix of suggestions.

And yet the plan seems to be speeding toward approval at the Council.

There is one glaring omission from the plan that should give the Council pause.

Why does Thrive barely mention water resources - the one most critical resource we can't do without?

We can't emphasize this problem better than supporter Amanda Farber did on Facebook:

How Thrive Fails on Water:

In a plan meant to chart the future of our community- what you focus on is what you get more of - so where is the focus on the most essential resource we need? The plan points to a 2010 functional water resources plan for guidance - that plan is both dated and expires in 2030.

Thrive Omissions:

The plan makes no mention of: "Chesapeake Bay" , "Potomac River", or "Patuxent River" and passing mention of the sole source aquifer that supplies most of the Reserve. The plan seems willfully disinterested in where our water comes from or where it is ultimately going.

Unlike the plans of surrounding jurisdictions , Thrive contains no watershed maps or stream quality maps and thus no discussion of their import.
The plan makes no mention of projections from the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin that by 2040 we will have severe droughts where demand will far exceed supply, even with the 4 proposed new reservoirs.
The Thrive draft moving toward approval already has 60% fewer instances of the word "equity" than the draft created with public input. Water is an equity issue. The quality of the water that flows from the tap and through our streams matters to all neighborhoods. Like other green infrastructure like canopy cover, stream mapping would show that poorer neighborhoods have disproportionate water quality deficits with the associated public health issues.

So Now What?

The Council can not responsibly pass Thrive 2050 unless it includes a comprehensive vision of how we secure and distribute our water resources.
Restoring the environmental chapter that was relegated to the appendix would go a long way to meeting this need.
Take 2 minutes to let the Council know your thoughts before the next listening session on December 15:

Take Action

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