The Muddy Branch Alliance is working hard to protect the Muddy Branch stream for people and wildlife. Here’s what we achieved together between our annual meeting in September 2023 and our subsequent gathering in June 2024.
Shortly after our previous annual meeting, we released the Fall 2023 edition of “Wild Wanderers.” “Wild Wanderers,” an initiative led by our director and communications chair Julia Rasnake, encourages families to get outdoors, explore the watershed, and learn about interesting native plants.
Also in September of last year, we were invited to table at the open house event of the Izaak Walton League’s Rockville Chapter. Unfortunately that event was rained out by passing hurricane remnants. So instead, we created a LinkedIn page. We post about upcoming events, success stories, and fun things to know about our watershed. Be sure to follow us so you’ll see what we are talking about.
A little bit later in fall of last year, we got nationally famous when the Izaak Walton League featured a photo of our meadow in their Outdoor America magazine. That magazine reaches about 40,000 people across the country. If you haven’t seen our meadow, you are welcome to visit any time.
As 2023 rolled into October, we joined a sign-on letter. The Muddy Branch Alliance is a member of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, and we stood with our Coalition partners to comment on the Maryland Climate Pathway Report.
The weekend of October 7 and 8, we were very busy. Lauren Hubbard, the Alliance’s native plant consultant, and Janette Rosenbaum, the Alliance’s president, hosted a tour of the meadow. Despite another round of rain, 30 people showed up, and most of them stayed for two hours or more, enjoying a rare opportunity to see our water management systems in action. Meanwhile, Alliance director Katie Lucas was out tabling at MoCo Epic, where we provided snacks to folks enjoying bike trails through our watershed.
The following weekend we were out in the field again, hosting a trash pickup and weeding event at Malcolm King Park.
In November, we learned that a local resident, Benjamin Salb, had won an award for a wildlife photo he took along our trail. Then he wrote us a blog post about it. Next month he’s leading a workshop about it so more folks can learn how to find, identify, and take amazing photos of some of the smallest wildlife in our stream valley.
In December we set some exciting wins in motion. First, we joined another sign-on letter – this one from our neighbors, the Seneca Creek Watershed Partners – urging planners to incorporate native plants and restore native ecosystems in development projects. The final rule on that arrived in April of this year. It included requirements for federal officials to seriously consider…
- Avoiding development in floodplains or impacts to wetlands to the extent practicable
- Fostering protection of the natural environment by preserving ecosystems (including native ecosystems), avoiding development of green space, and promoting climate change adaptation planning
- And, advancing environmental justice and equitable development
That certainly is better than this rule could have been, and we are glad to have advocated for this one.
Also in December, we secured a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to work with HOAs and develop a replicable process for establishing conservation landscaping. This project builds on the success of our meadow, which was also funded by a CBT grant, and which was intended to serve as a demonstration of how to design and install a large-scale, low-maintenance native plant garden. Mission accomplished!
Shortly before we learned that we had won this follow-up grant, Lauren was already out talking to HOA Green Team leaders about how to establish pollinator gardens and other kinds of conservation landscaping. This spring, Lauren has been out in the community with Alliance director Roger Rasnake, visiting HOAs and creating concept plans for native plant gardens. The HOA boards are excited and we think they will commit to implementing those plans. This summer we expect to work with the HOAs to apply for another round of CBT grants that will fund the installation of the garden designs. Then this fall we will wrap up the current grant project by reflecting on our work with the HOAs and creating materials that other HOAs can use to more easily move through the process of planning and installing conservation landscaping. The ultimate goal is to fill our community with meadows that provide habitat, protect water quality, and fight back against invasive plants.
As the calendar turned over to 2024, Alliance director Guillermo Irahola and President Janette Rosenbaum were working on bringing our website up to date with the organization’s current priorities. Check us out and see what we’re working on! There are so many ways for everyone to get involved.
Among things you can do on our website, as of February you could find the Winter 2024 edition of “Wild Wanderers.” Those activity books are designed to download, print, and take with you as you explore our greenway.
Also in February, we joined no fewer than three sign-on letters from the Choose Clean Water Coalition. All three of the letters related to federal appropriation requests for Fiscal Year ‘25. In the first letter, we asked Congress to fund the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund from EPA, the Chesapeake WILD program from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Chesapeake Bay Science and Monitoring program from US Geological Survey, and the Chesapeake program under the National Park Service. In the second letter, we asked for full funding for mandatory agriculture conservation programs, $1.2 billion for agriculture conservation technical assistance, no decrease in conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, and fixes to the USDA inspection of wild-caught invasive blue catfish. Finally, in the third letter, we asked for funding for the Chesapeake Bay Office, which sits within NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In March, Alliance director and treasurer Mary Hlavinka led a Weed Warrior event at Malcolm King Park, and immediately followed it with a trash pickup event for fifth graders from Fields Road Elementary.
Also in March, we submitted a letter in support of a grant application from the City of Gaithersburg Environmental Services Department to fund an inclusive process for updating the sub-watershed plans.
Speaking of great things the City of Gaithersburg does, in April we received an Appreciation Award from the City. We believe we have won these awards every year since 2012, which is quite impressive, since we were founded in 2011, shortly after awards would have been presented in that year.
When presenting this year’s award, the mayor of Gaithersburg read this statement about our accomplishments in calendar year 2023:
“This past year, the Muddy Branch Alliance distributed 400 native trees and 1,000 native plants to members of the community. The Alliance continues to develop community education and engagement about the local ecosystem and wildlife through new installments of its Wild Wanderers program. The Alliance has also been instrumental in removing invasive species from local parks. Through its hands-on removal efforts and community engagement, the Alliance has raised awareness about the importance of invasive species management and helped stabilize areas of Malcolm King Park against non-native invasive plants. Furthermore, the Muddy Branch Alliance has played a vital role in monitoring salt levels in local streams. These monitoring efforts have provided valuable data that inform conservation strategies and policy decisions.”
Later in April and continuing into May, we kept right on doing the things the mayor had praised us for. Mary led two more weeding events at Malcolm King Park, while Roger, Lauren, and Janette pulled off the organization’s fifth annual native plant sale.
This year, we sold 1,507 native plants. For the fifth year in a row, that was all the plants we had. This helped 138 people in our community garden more sustainably. It was possible thanks to 16 volunteers, not counting the lead organizers, but including five students who gained SSL hours and valuable life experience. We also want to thank our partner groups, G-PARC and the Wild Ones.
On that note, we would like to thank our directors who are concluding their terms. Katie Lucas, Karl Van Neste, Donna Baron, and Ifor Williams have contributed to our organization throughout their time on the board, and we appreciate their service. Thank you also to everyone who showed up at the plant sale, the Weed Warrior events, the trash clean-ups, the tabling opportunities, and everything else the Alliance does throughout the year. You are the ones who make things happen.
How can you make more things happen in the coming year? As we refreshed our website, we created a new Get Involved page. Among other opportunities, we’re looking for volunteer scientists to monitor salt pollution in our stream, advocacy champions to talk to decision-makers about our priorities, and storytellers to write blog posts about why the Muddy Branch is important to you. All of these things help to advance our shared mission of ensuring that the surrounding streams, lakes, forests and parks are teeming with life, safe for families, pets and wildlife to enjoy, and that we have a community connected to preserving the area’s intrinsic beauty.