If action is hope - we've been giving you plenty of opportunity...

Responding to climate change is an urgency. In Montgomery County there are divergent views on how we move forward to address this challenge together - particularly the role of farmland and the need to preserve our forests and fields.

There are three bills in Annapolis that would better fund regenerative agriculture and promote local food across the state - promoting buffer re-forestation, pollinator protections, flood mitigation and carbon sequestration. These practices maximize climate change mitigation and yields at the same time.

Conversely, unwilling to wait for a soon to be completed taxpayer funded comprehensive climate change plan that will address equitable energy production - the Council is proposing taking 1800 acres of the Agricultural Reserve for industrial scale solar arrays. The power generated would go to other states with weak/absent protections for the forests/soils/habitats where they are sited in MoCo.

So, please take action below to support the farms you want to see. Farms can be part of the climate solution in a way that increases local yields, protects water and habitat or we can rush to irrevocable action in absence of a comprehensive plan. We have to do something - but we have to get it right.
. Large Solar Arrays on Productive Farmland? No Protections For Forests? Power Generated Sold to Other States?
This is not "Community Solar"
Climate Change is an emergency - let's meet this challenge with a comprehensive plan.

Councilmember Riemer's Office has released proposed   Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 20-01   that would allow industrial solar on up to 1800 acres in Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve. While we do need to enact a wide variety of solutions, including solar, to meet the County's ambitious (but necessary) goal of no net carbon emissions by 2035 , a careful review of solutions by a taxpayer funded   Climate Change Working Group started in July 2019 and is about to wrap up.
Local climate activists and MCA have asked that this ZTA be shelved to allow this more collaborative and holistic process (that we have all paid for) to finish. Join us by taking 2 minutes to contact the Council here.

This ZTA is not just preemptive, it is also incomplete . Solar farms are not farms - they are an industrial use. They are incompatible with agriculture - compacting and washing away topsoil on the ground and drastically changing the fragile balance of economic factors that allow farms to thrive ( read more here ). This ZTA would site an industrial use in the only area zoned for agriculture in opposition to the Master Plan with no protections for forests, fertile soils, watersheds or habitat. Nothing in the ZTA prevents clear cutting forests to site panels.
Also, the power is not even staying in MoCo. So... these (nearly 2000 Reserve acres) would be commercial facilities whose power can be purchased by other States and would not provide for local access to affordable energy. As the County's own legislative analyst responded when asked " there is no requirement in ZTA 20-01 that the new solar generator be in the state’s community solar program." This is not a community solar project. The impacts are felt here, the benefits travel elsewhere.

Important questions remain:
-Were the county convened experts from the Working Group consulted in crafting this ZTA?
-If not, who drafted the ZTA and in consultation with whom?
-Was mapping of all available locations for solar arrays, including buildings, parking lots/garages, brown fields, industrial/commercial sites... with an eye toward existing power infrastructure undertaken and completed?
-The ZTA is weak/silent on forest, water and farm soil protection... why ?
-Was an economic impact analysis conducted?
-Why did the Planning Board sidestep all of these concerns while also acknowledging that they have little expertise in this area?

Yes, Our climate crisis is an emergency and solar energy is part of the solution- among the others the Ag Reserve is implementing - but in an emergency, you plan solutions calmly, with stakeholders. We have to act now, but we also have to get it right. Please take 2 minutes to share your concerns with the council (by 3/1).

Farms Can Grow Food and Heal the Planet
Let's Better Fund Regenerative Ag in MD

Our friends at Future Harvest, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Fair Farms are tracking bills in Annapolis that would increase funding for regenerative agriculture practices . Taken together, these practices increase crop yields and promote livestock health all while mitigating flooding, promoting pollinator habitat and sequestering tons of carbon. Farmers that are interested in these proven regenerative practices need be to given incentive to put these long-term solutions into use across the state at a large scale - the way the state has reaped great water quality gains by incentivising annual cover cropping. This is not the farming of the future - this is the farming that ensures a future for local farms, our water supply and those that depend on them (i.e - all of us).
Take two minutes to write your state legislators in support of Regenerative Agriculture.
Good News:
Did you catch the article about Land Link in the Washington Post Metro Section ? The new year has brought lots of new farmers and landowners into the program. We are growing the next generation of farmers right here. Learn More. This is just one part of the initiatives we are undertaking to fight climate change and bring resilience to the region - Learn More.
Every Minute, 3 acres of farmland is lost in the US, in Montgomery County we have the chance to protect 100,000 acres of farms and open space on Metro's edge - thanks for your support!
With Appreciation,
Your friends at Montgomery Countryside Alliance
Montgomery Countryside Alliance | 301-461-9831 | info@mocoalliance.org MoCoAlliance.Org