Ten Mile Creek Watershed-Wildflower Walk, April 13, 2024
It was a beautiful, cool and breezy Saturday, on the 13th of April, for our annual Friends of Ten Mile Creek & Little Seneca Reservoir Watershed and Wildflower Walk. Jay Cinque ferried our group on the tractor-pulled hay wagon to our starting point at the Beck Farm, which is now part of the Ten Mile Creek Conservation Park. From there, John Parrish, widely known for his botanical expertise and intimate knowledge of the area, led an intrepid group of about 15 people on a 1.5-mile circuit through the forests and floodplains of the Ten Mile Creek Watershed. There were some challenging creek crossings, slippery slopes, thorny thickets to navigate, and hilly terrain – and we all made it through relatively unscathed!…
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Ten Mile Creek Watershed & Wildflower Walk
The Friends of Ten Mile Creek & Little Seneca Reservoir will be leading a Watershed and Wildflower Walk on Saturday April 13th from 12:00 to 4:00 pm. If it’s raining, we will postpone it to Sunday April 14th at noon.
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Creek Watch
As earth moving begins on Pulte's Creekside at Cabin Branch development the stream is likely to become cloudy after rainstorms and sediment will be most visible to the public at the stream ford. FoTMC members have also noticed more instances of illegal dumping at the ford and along West Old Baltimore Road. Read more for links to report any violations you might witness.
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Upcounty Transportation Forum Oct. 12 at Blackrock Center for the Arts
Very important meeting!! Please try to come and SAY NO to more highways in Clarksburg!
Please come—and help show that the political winds are not all in the direction of pro-highway advocates. These highways, including M-83 and Observation Drive Extended will have huge costs to the creeks which flow into the Reservoir.
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Development of the COMSAT building site threatens Little Seneca Reservoir
Designed by the world-renowned master architect Cesar Pelli, COMSAT Laboratories was an early example of the type of building that dominated research corridors in Montgomery County and across the United States.
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Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan is on a Fast Track
We are very concerned about the extent of the development of the 200-acre historic COMSAT property, as well as proposals to build new roads, including the Clarksburg By-pass, the extension of Observation Drive, the extension of Little Seneca Parkway, and plans to construct a new I-270 interchange.
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Rare and Beautiful Drinking Water Creeks in the Upcounty Are Worth Fighting to Protect
Both Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir are located within Seneca Creek watershed, Montgomery County’s largest watershed and a designated drinking water supply. The major threat to these waterbodies is urbanization (a.k.a. sprawl) from proposed development projects. During urbanization, developers take down forests and farms, then they grade, compact and pave-over the land; the resulting runoff over time erodes streams, and silts-in lakes and the Chesapeake Bay with sediment.
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Ongoing Vigilance to Protect Headwaters of Ten Mile Creek
When a conceptual development plan was submitted to the County Planning Board in June 2021 it did not abide with the recommendations of the 2014 Plan.When the Planning Board did not heed our advice, FoTMC wrote to the County Executive expressing the same concerns. As a result, Executive Elrich directed the Department of Transportation to adhere to the 2014 road plan. We thank the Executive Elrich for acting in a timely manner.
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The Pulte development saga: Judges ruled in favor of Planning Board and the developers, to the detriment of Ten Mile Creek.
FoTMC testified on behalf of the Ten Mile Creek watershed at Montgomery County Planning Board hearings in December 2020 and again in September 2021. Nevertheless, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the Pulte plan, in violation of the language, intent, and spirit of the Ten Mile Creek Area Limited Amendment adopted in 2014.
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Wildflower Walk, Sunday, April 16th at noon
The Friends of Ten Mile Creek will be leading a wildflower walk on Sunday, April 16th at noon. We hope to see such early spring wildflowers as Trout Lilies, Bloodroot, Hepatica, Dwarf Ginseng, Wood Anemone, Rue Anemone, Toothworts, Spring Beauty, Early Saxifrage, and Violets! Another highlight of our walk includes uncommon County trees – the Eastern Hemlock and Shagbark Hickory. In the event of heavy rain, our rain date is Sunday, April 23rd.
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Action Alert: County Council to hold hearing on Planning Board recommendation to allow increased impervious surfaces, weakening Clean Water protections
Update 1/26/2023: On January 24, 2023, the County Council voted unanimously to withdraw ZTA 22-12.
On January 17, 2023, the Montgomery County Council will hold a hearing on a Zoning Text Amendment, ZTA 22-12, that would exempt the impervious surfaces of master-planned bikeways from being counted toward the impervious limits that protect the Ten Mile Creek watershed. Please email members of the Montgomery County Council and ask them to reject this ZTA, which vio/
lates the Ten Mile Creek Limited Master Plan Amendment and its main enforcement regulation – the limits to imperviousness established in the Clarksburg Environmental Overlay Zones.
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2022 Year-End Recap
It has been another busy year. As we await a day in court which will determine whether the Pulte Plan for development in the Ten Mile Creek watershed will need to adhere to the 2014 Ten Mile Creek Amended Master Plan, we take this opportunity to provide you with a recap of what has been made possible with a little help from many of you, the Creek’s Friends.
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Hear Directly from County Executive Candidates on the Environment
Please join Friends of Ten Mile Creek and 7 other environmental organizations at the 2022 Green Forum for Montgomery County Executive Candidates, which will be moderated by Kathleen Matthews. Wednesday April 6th at 7:00 PM at the Silver Spring Civic Center and on Zoom.
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Take action to strengthen the MoCo Forest Conservation Law
While forests in the Ten Mile Creek watershed are designated for protection under the 2014 Ten Mile Creek Amended Master Plan, neighboring watersheds, which also drain to the Little Seneca Reservoir, are hotspots of deforestation in the County and are a source of high sediment pollution to the Little Seneca Reservoir. As a partner in the Montgomery County Forest Coalition, Friends of Ten Mile Creek is also working to strengthen the County Forest Conservation Law. This post has links to an Action Alert you can use to show your support and send a letter to the Montgomery County Council asking them to introduce and support a bill consistent with the Coalition’s principles.
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Press Release: Montgomery County Planning Board decision violates the Clarksburg Master Plan
BOYDS, MARYLAND - Friends of Ten Mile Creek & Little Seneca Reservoir (FoTMC) has filed a petition seeking legal review of a recent Montgomery County Planning Board decision approving the site plan for a residential development in the Ten Mile Creek watershed in Clarksburg.
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Please Email Planning Board Before Thurs, Jan 28th
We have just learned that the Planning Board without adequate notice has put our Petition on its Agenda for Thursday. We urgently need your emails to the Planning Board before this Thursday, January 28th.
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Action Alert for Friends of Ten Mile Creek
The Planning Board hearing for the proposed Pulte Development is now scheduled for December 3, 2020. This hearing will determine the development plans that Pulte has put forward. Your letters and support for the preservation of the Ten Mile Creek Watershed are truly needed if we have any chance of reducing this poorly conceived development.
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How Do We Respond to Climate Change Urgency?
We advise that we act guided by careful planning that integrates the role advancing technology with the stewardship of our invaluable natural systems, our productive lands. We trust that the health, the resilience of our local food/fiber system will feature in this plan now being developed and nearing completion by a range of knowledgeable stakeholders and paid contractor.
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Sewer Plan
On December 17, 2014, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) held a public meeting announcing a set of potential options for providing sewer service to the limited amount of development allowed in the Ten Mile Creek watershed.
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