Success Stories in Habitat Protection

Invasive Plant Removal

• Every month, Sierra Club volunteers remove invasive plants from the Blue Mash Nature Trail in Laytonsville, Rock Creek Park in Chevy Chase, and the Underground Railroad Experience Trail in Sandy Spring to ensure the survival of native trees and plants and to restore these parks to their wild and natural state.
• In 2009, a partnership was created at the Blue Mash Nature Trail with the County's Department of Environmental Protection and the Montgomery County Bird Club to observe the relationship between bird diversity and habitat, remove invasive plants, and return the area into a birding hot spot.
• On January 19, 2009, 120 volunteers from 10 states—including Congresswoman Donna Edwards—heard President Obama's call to service and joined us on the National Day of Service. The ground was frozen, and it even snowed while we were there, but our volunteers really made a difference by removing massive oriental bittersweet vines from the park's native trees.

Lobbying and Legislation

• The Sierra Club lobbied hard for the establishment of the County's Legacy Open Space program. This program purchases property in the County and protects it from future development. Its creation in 2000 was a big success! But the work is not over—these days, we lend our support to specific acquisition requests, when natural habitat is in danger. Right now, we are asking the program to acquire two properties in the headwaters of Paint Branch, and two acres of mature forest owned by the County on Edson Lane in North Bethesda.
• Using funds the County received from the state in exchange for land it transferred to create the Intercounty Connector, our efforts led to the acquisition of property in the vicinity of Fairland Recreational Park and McKnew Local Park.
• The Sierra Club helped to advocate for the County Council Forest Conservation Law (FCL) penalties resolution (Resolution 15-1271), which passed December 13, 2005. Resolution 15-1271 raises the civil penalty for clearing forest in knowing violation of the county's Forest Conservation Law to $9/sq. ft. and the fee in lieu of reforestation to $.90/sq. ft. This action was prompted by Washington Redskin's owner Dan Snyder's decision to clear-cut trees on his property, near the C&O Canal.
• As one of the loosely affiliated Stormwater Partners, the Sierra Club supported a small increase in the Water Quality Protection Charge to fund $1.25 million in storm water retention devices such as:
  • Rain gardens
  • Bioretention cells
  • Green roofs
  • Rain barrels
  The money will provide grants, incentives and staff to assist and encourage public and private landowners to manage rainwater where it falls, rather than have it run through our streets, become polluted, and then enter our irreplaceable waterways. The initiative funds the Department of Environmental Protection's Rainscapes Rewards Program, which began January 1, 2008. The Rainscapes Rewards Rebate Program is available to County property owners outside of the municipal limits of the cities of Gaithersburg, Rockville and Takoma Park. Programs available to property owners in these municipalities are given in the sidebar.
• Also as a Stormwater Partner, the Sierra Club helped to create a list of proposed standards and requirements for the Clean Water Act stormwater discharge permit that the Maryland Department of the Environment must issue every 5 years to Montgomery County. Many of these proposals were incorporated into the new permit, largely due to the extraordinary energy and tenacity of the "Partners'" organizer Diane Cameron!
• Sierra Club, in partnership with other groups working to preserve the Agricultural Reserve, achieved a total ban of water and sewer hook-ups in the RDT (Rural Development Transfer, or Agricultural Reserve) zone (except for septic field permits). Previously, Private Institutional Facilities (PIFs) had enjoyed case by case consideration and frequent exemption from the general ban. While such institutions were once small, the current requests are for complexes including parking lots, amphitheaters and housing.
  The Sierra Club continues to lobby for an end to the abuse of the "child lot" exemption and to the use of alternative septic systems in the Ag Reserve, and for an effective Building Lot Termination program.

Public Outreach and Education

• Since the fall of 2008, we have visited a restored landfill with personnel from the County's Division of Solid Waste Services, examined stormwater problems and solutions, and took a tour of native plant and environmental gardens at Brookside Gardens.
• Our winter 2010 lecture program will feature leading experts on sustainable landscaping, storm water management, integrating native plants into landscapes, invasive species management, and options for resolving land use and environmental issues.
• In the fall of 2008, nine Montgomery County Public Schools planted a total of 50 trees in our Trees for Schools project. This project is a Sierra Club project with TREE-MENDOUS MARYLAND. As part of this program, the Sierra Club also donated five trees to the Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center for a native plant garden. This garden serves students in grades K-12 through daytime activities and a three day residential program that provides hands-on environmental education to the total sixth grade population.

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