The Muddy Branch Alliance is working hard to protect the Muddy Branch stream for people and wildlife. Here’s what we accomplished between our annual meeting in September 2022 and our subsequent gathering in September 2023.
Not even a full week after the 2022 annual meeting, we hosted a tour of our meadow at the Izaak Walton League national headquarters. Though the group that day was smaller than what we had seen at earlier similar events, our attendees were highly engaged and asked lots of great questions as we walked around the meadow and the lake.
The week after that, we tabled at the open house event of the Izaak Walton League’s Rockville Chapter. We talked to lots of visitors about compost, native plants, Salt Watch, and the Muddy Branch Trail.
In October of 2022, we tabled for MoCo Epic. From our location at the corner of Turkey Foot and Query Mill Roads, which is an access point to our trail, we served over 400 bike riders as they enjoyed outdoor recreation in our watershed.
In January we started off the new year by hosting a trash clean-up around Lake Varuna, in honor of the Martin Luther King Day of Service.
In February, Seneca Creek Watershed Partners distributed a sign-on letter regarding the redevelopment proposal for the Lakeforest Mall. We supported this effort to protect streams and forests in the Seneca Creek watershed on the north side of Gaithersburg. At least 34 advocates signed the letter and sent a copy to the mayor and council.
In March we held another successful tree giveaway event, sending over 400 young trees to new homes in our watershed.
In April we won an Environmental Achievement Award from the City of Gaithersburg. This award was specifically for the “Wild Wanderers” project, an initiative led by our director and communications chair Julia Rasnake. “Wild Wanderers” encourages families to get outdoors, explore the watershed, and learn about interesting native plants.
Not to be outdone, our director Karl Van Neste won an Individual Achievement Award for his work on road salt, and our long-time member Kevin Misener won an Individual Appreciation Award for his work leading stream monitoring initiatives, organizing trash clean-ups, and serving as a Weed Warrior. We also recognize and celebrate the Watts Branch Watershed Alliance, who won an Appreciation Award for a salt monitoring project they did in partnership with us.
Moving on through the spring, in May we hosted our fourth annual native plant sale. This year we engaged about 115 people in native plant gardening and welcomed 1,269 native plants to our community. This was made possible through the hard work of 19 volunteers, some of them members of the Muddy Branch Alliance and others pitching in on behalf of partner groups. We thank our two official partner groups, G-PARC and the Wild Ones, for their invaluable contributions to the success of our event.
This past spring also brought a new edition of the seasonal “Wild Wanderers” activity books from Julia, while in the summer our director and treasurer Mary Hlavinka led three Weed Warrior events in Malcolm King Park. We also took action on the proposed redevelopment of the historic missile site on Muddy Branch Road, which sits just above a stretch of our stream.
Rounding out the summer, we corrected a longstanding oversight and became an official partner in the Izaak Walton League’s Salt Watch program. Throughout the year, we had been monitoring at Route 28, Quince Orchard Road, Great Seneca Highway, and Lake Varuna, among other sites. In November of 2022, we submitted a memo asking the City of Gaithersburg to collect salt use data in terms of pounds per single lane mile, and in early 2023 we rapidly gathered over 300 signatures on a petition making a similar request. We will continue advocating for all of these priorities.
Finally, in August we submitted a grant application to develop a replicable process to help HOAs get started with native plant gardening. We look forward to a decision in December. That grant, if successful, would augment the healthy organizational funding we already have.
In the coming year, we’ll continue to pursue many initiatives to protect the health of our watershed and promote outdoor recreation around our stream. Your support makes our work possible!