Montgomery Countryside Alliance

Land and Water Protection: The fifth year of the Re-Leaf the Reserve program saw more acres along stream buffers planted to improve water and air quality - the program has now planted more than 3,000 trees. MCA partnered with Friends of Ten Mile Creek to maintain strong protections for our backup water supply. We partnered with other local civic organizations to ensure critical protections for farmland and our shared water supply through public testimony. We successfully pushed for a much needed revision of the county forest conservation law as a member of the MoCo Forest Coalition.We lent support to civic organizations in Frederick County navigating master plan changes with legacy impacts on Southern Frederick farmland and forests. MCA provided much needed outreach to residents on well and septic systems in the County during this year's prolonged drought. Work began on a multi-year effort to study the impacts of climate change on the sole source aquifer that supplies local wells in the upper-portion of the County.

Farmer Support: Since 2011 MCA has matched 38 new or expanding farmers with long term leases on local land through our Land Link program - now totaling over 500 acres of matches. 2023 saw 4 matches, including several that are growing some or all of their produce for food banks. This year we went further to offer support through our Good Fences Grant program for farm critical fencing on 7 diverse local farms growing for local food banks. In July 2023, our Land Link program and the diverse small farms it has helped to create were honored by a proclamation from Montgomery County highlighting the benefits of small scale sustainable farms to the Chesapeake Bay. We promoted local food products and CSA programs and continued to grow our producers listserve to help farmers share knowledge and equipment. We published a BIPOC farmers guide in partnership with the Office of Agriculture to connect diverse local producers to resources to grow thriving farms.

Education: We conducted tours of local farms and water quality monitoring sites for local high school students and welcomed the incoming Chair of the Planning Commission with a tour of local farms, streams, and reforestation sites. The 2023 Royce Hanson award honored the advocacy and resource protection of our partners at Sugarloaf Citizens Association in their 50th year. We partnered with Heritage Montgomery on a widely distributed video profiling the Ag Reserve and local farms. We produced the pilot episode of our new podcast, "Rooted in the Reserve." MCA, along with partners, organized informative listening sessions for residents on several emerging issues including agritourism and data centers.