News and Events

REMINDER: Calling all Lovers of Nature, Wildflowers, Birds & Critters

Join The Friends of Ten Mile Creek on our Annual Spring Watershed and Wildflower Walk

When: Saturday April 18th, 10am-2pm.

Where: Meet at 10am at the Cinque Farm 22300 Slidell Road, Boyds, MD. From there we will drive to our starting point, the Beck Farm, a mile away.

West Old Baltimore Road is our adopted rural rustic road. Let’s clean up the road!
We will meet on West Old Baltimore Road at the Ten Mile Creek Ford at 11:00.
Best to park on the East side of the Creek where more parking is available.
We will provide garbage bags for collecting the trash.
Jay Cinque has offered to load the trash collected into his truck and take it to the dump.
For more information contact John Parrish, lifeonearth@verizon.net

Save the Dates: Friends of Ten Mile Creek & Little Seneca Reservoir Invites You to Montgomery County Executive Candidates Green Forum, Monday evening March 1 6, 7 to 8:30 pm; Trash Clean-up, Saturday March 21st, 11 am to 2 pm; and Annual Watershed-Wildflower Walk, Saturday April 18th, 10 am to 2 pm.

On January 21, 2026, Friends of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir (FoTMC) testified before the Montgomery County Council on the Planning Board Draft of The Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan. Over our 2 ½ years of engagement with the Planning staff to help craft the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan (CGSP), our primary focus has been to protect and restore the health of the streams, conserve the forests, and ensure clean drinking water by protecting Little Seneca Lake Reservoir, the region’s back-up drinking water supply.

Despite the lack of responsiveness to our concerns for the forests and the waters, we will be sending comments to the County Council in advance of the planned Council vote on March 24th. We invite others to do the same.

ACTION ALERT!!

SPEAK UP FOR THE FORESTS, STREAMS, AND CLEAN DRINKING WATER
OF LITTLE SENECA RESERVOIR

A hearing on the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan is coming before the County Council on January 21, and  we need your voice to help protect the Little Seneca Lake Reservoir.

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.