News and Events

Save the Dates: Friends of Ten Mile Creek & Little Seneca Reservoir Invites You to Our Annual Meeting, Sunday, Oct 19, and Autumn Watershed Walk on our New Land, Saturday, Oct 25

As we review FOTMC’s work and activities over the last couple of years, we are reminded of why our mission to serve as guardians of Ten Mile Creek and its watershed began. We remember the urgent need to protect what has been called “the last best stream” in Montgomery County by protecting the forests, tributaries, and wetlands of the Ten Mile Creek watershed. Ten Mile Creek is the 2nd largest, and the cleanest, tributary flowing into Little Seneca Reservoir, the back-up drinking supply for 5 million people in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area.

The mission of Friends of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir is to serve as guardians of Ten Mile Creek and its watershed, preserving and protecting this unique place and ensuring that Ten Mile Creek continues to provide clean drinking water to Little Seneca Reservoir – a backup drinking water supply for the Washington, DC Metropolitan region and an important recreational resource. Ten Mile Creek is the cleanest of three main streams – Little Seneca Creek, Ten Mile Creek,  Cabin Branch – that feed into the Reservoir.

FOTMC has been leading annual Spring Watershed/Wildflower walks to introduce people to the unique flora of the Ten Mile Creek Watershed and to enjoy the beauty of the surrounding forest and streams. On beautiful spring Day in April, a group of 20 intrepid explorers gathered at the Cinque’s, where Jay ferried our group on the tractor-pulled hay wagon to our starting point, across the Ten Mile Creek Ford, to where our exploration of the Watershed and Wildflowers began. This Spring outing was special because it took place on the 50-acre tract of land that Norman Mease gifted to our organization.

Since 1997, volunteers with Nature Forward have been monitoring two sites on Ten Mile Creek four times a year to assess the health of the creek. One site is on the “mainstem” of the creek just upstream of the ford on West Old Baltimore Road, and the other site is on the tributary that runs alongside West Old Baltimore Road.

FOTMC members are always working to keep the Ten Mile Creek area trash-free. As a participant in the  “adopt-a-road” program, we regularly haul away trash dumped along West Old Baltimore Road, and our hardworking volunteers also remove a lot of trash from the Creek at the stream ford… 

 The western portion of the Ten Mile Creek watershed is part of the 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve, “the country’s most successful farmland preservation program,” established in 1980.

Save the date:
The Friends of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir will hold their Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 19 beginning at noon @ the Cinque Farm. It will be a PotLuck. FOTMC will provide appetizers and refreshments.

All are welcome! More to come.   

 FOTMC members have been participating in the formulation of the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan since 2023. Our goal has been the preservation of forests, protection of streams and wetlands, and safeguarding the water quality of Little Seneca Lake Reservoir, the region’s back-up drinking water supply.

Since 2023, FOTMC members have been actively participating in the formulation of the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan. Our goal has been the preservation of forests, protection of streams and wetlands, and safeguarding the water quality of Little Seneca Lake Reservoir, the region’s back-up drinking water supply.

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.

All are welcome to come to our annual meeting. It will be held on Oct 14 (rain date, the 15th) at the Cinque Farm (22300 Slidell Rd, Boyds) at 1:00pm.

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.

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.

Water, the elixir of life, is an essential component of our existence. It is a fundamental resource that sustains all forms of life on Earth.  Indeed, we can live without a house or clothing for months, we can live without food for weeks, but to live without water is measured in terms of days and hours. 

Ten Mile Creek is teeming with life. As you peer into its waters, you might see fish, perhaps some small darters or sculpin. In the spring, larger fish swim up from Little Seneca Lake to spawn in its quiet pools.

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.

On Sunday, April 16th thirty-four eager adventurers attended our first Ten Mile Creek wildflower walk. We began the hike from the Cinque Farm on Slidell Road walking downhill through Ten Mile Creek Conservation Park to a tributary - one of seven main tributaries of Ten Mile Creek - of Ten Mile Creek. RG Steinman and John Parrish pointed out wildflowers and other plants along the way.

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.

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.

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.

The Miles Coppola development plan was revised to comply with the Ten Mile Creek Master Plan recommendation for an alternate alignment of the MD 355 Bypass in order to avoid impacts on a large wetland in the headwaters of Ten Mile Creek, reduce forest loss, grading of steep slopes, and direct impacts of new infrastructure.