Save Mattawoman Creek

Campaign to Save Mattawoman Creek

Only 20 miles south of Washington DC, Mattawoman Creek remains “what a restored Chesapeake Bay would look like” says an expert task force. This freshwater-tidal estuary, river, and watershed teem with life, making it the 8th ranked for biodiversity among Maryland’s 137 freshwater systems. Its forests are hotspots for birds, amphibians, and reptiles. It hosts an abundance of water-dependent birds and mammals, largemouth bass, migratory fish, and rich freshwater-tidal marshes. What’s more, most of the watershed is in Charles County, which itself has the 2nd greatest amount of “targeted ecological area” of all counties in Maryland. 

Join our Campaign to protect the Mattawoman Creek from destructive development policies. 

Current Threat: https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/urgent-save-maryland-biodiversity-hotspot-from-airport-expansion

Please sign our petition to the Charles County Commissioners to protect residents by conserving the Mattawoman biodiversity hotspot. We want to keep environmental protections that prevent expansion of the local airport to protect the community and the creek. Please act today. Thank you for your support for this important cause.
Lily Fountain, Natural Places Chair, Sierra Club MD Chapter

INFORMATION

YouTube video of Sierra Club MD Program with Speakers Gabrielle Tayak, Dr. Richard Cook, Teresa Ball, James Lawson, Laurel Imlay, Ben Hance: https://youtu.be/cIH6zdp5Bqs 

 Video Interview with Dr. Richard Cook and Jim Lawson including lead threats from flights over schools:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSwWfL6wwjw

The Case for Protection of the  Watershed Resources of Mattawoman Creek: 
https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Documents/tredmanAlliance_Presentation.pdf

Proposed airport expansion endangers local community's health, welfare, and quality of life with threat to fish, wildlife, and bird habitat of local, state, and national renown:
https://www.bayjournal.com/news/fisheries/development-fight-erupts-over-protected-potomac-tributary/article_e183545c-c483-11eb-86aa-8b9185e739cd.html

Black children are disproportionately burdened by lead exposure nationwide. A majority of the 50 general aviation airports with the highest volume of lead emissions are located in communities of color:
https://grist.org/regulation/avgas-lead-epa-aviation-san-jose-reid-hillview/

 Contacts: The Campaign to Save Mattawoman Creek is coordinated by Sierra Club Natural Places Committee contact Lily.Fountain@mdsierra.org, and the Southern Maryland Group.

Take Action:  Environmentally friendly officials have been crucial to success in 25 years the Sierra Club has worked to Help us elect environmental heroes to protect Mattawoman Creek Watershed with a donation to the Sierra Club Maryland PAC with “WCD” in memo line. 

Join us to see the Creek check the calendar for an upcoming trip!

More about the Creek and the Campaign to protect it 

The Mattawoman has survived so far because forests in southern Prince George's and Charles Counties filter stormwater, keeping the river cool, clean, and alive.

Unfortunately, for decades Charles County has targeted much of the Mattawoman watershed for unchecked growth. The story begins with the perfect storm of a new sewage treatment plant and the Eastern Washington Bypass, a leg of the Outer Beltway. To exploit the proposed highways, land speculators ensured that Charles County’s 1990 comprehensive plan included a sewer-serviced “development district” bigger than Baltimore. In the plan was the new city of Chapman's Landing located on 2200 acres of forest stretching from the Potomac River to Mattawoman Creek. The Sierra Club successfully led the “Campaign to Preserve Chapman Forest,” which today is Chapman State Park, and Chapman and Mattawoman Wildlands.

As a result of the 1990 comprehensive plan, put in place when fisheries managers found that Mattawoman Creek was “near to ideal conditions,” the creek is now at the tipping point for irreversible decline because so much polluting pavement has replaced filtering forest. But just in time, a major victory occurred in July, 2016, when the elected Board of County Commissioners adopted a visionary comprehensive plan. The new plan, finally, responsibly directed growth and conserved natural areas.

Campaign Successes

Key to success is the Club’s sustained public outreach, voter education, and—unique among organizations fighting to save the Mattawoman—political involvement in elections. Two hot-button issues spanning two election cycles finally led to a majority of Charles County Commissioners who favored smarter growth solutions to the many problems facing the county. First, preceding the 2010 election, the sprawl-inducing and unpopular Cross County Connector became an important issue. (This highway was originally imagined to service Chapman’s Landing.) Second, in the 2014 election cycle, the comprehensive land-use plan became a hot-button.

The campaign, working with other state and local organizations, has achieved stunning successes in past. In 2017, a majority of Charles County Commissioners who had been endorsed by the Sierra Club, defended a visionary comprehensive land-use plan.

Over loud opposition led by the growth machine, the commissioners adopted the Watershed Conservation District (WCD). The WCD is a key element of the comprehensive plan and protects Mattawoman Creek by reining in a quarter century of sprawl development. Read about this  major victory here

The Cross County Connector (CCC): To oppose the CCC, the Smarter Growth Alliance for Charles County was formed in 2008 with the Sierra Club as a charter member. This association of two dozen local, state and regional groups saw the potential for Charles County to demonstrate smarter land-use policies that would enhance economic opportunities, conserve enviable natural areas, and stop the slide in quality of life caused by overcrowded schools, jammed commuter routes, and polluted waterways.  

The Sierra Club launched a strong grass roots campaign to educate citizens about the CCC with public forums, mailings, phone banks, and outings. Nearer the 2010 election, the Club publicized its candidate endorsements. For the first time ever, voters elected enough commissioners favoring smarter growth solutions to make a difference. One important result was a switch in the top transportation priority from the Western Waldorf Bypass to mass transit.  The CCC was finally stopped when state and federal agencies denied wetland permits in 2011 and 2012, a result of the overwhelming adverse impacts that were analyzed and publicized by the opposition. 

The Comprehensive Plan: The CCC was aimed at opening vast areas to development. The intense grass-roots effort to thwart it raised public awareness that land-use in general singularly affects the quality of life. By chance, the comprehensive land-use plan began a revision process in 2011 that included an admirable public outreach effort by Charles County. 

Citizens poured into public meetings around the county advocating for natural resources. Alarmed developers formed a well-funded lobby to counter the movement. The ensuing battle was topic number-one in the 2014 election cycle.

Again, Sierra Club added candidate endorsements to the mix. A majority of three commissioners without ties to the development machine were elected, two of which were new. The historic independence of this majority led to the adoption in July 2016 of an equally historic and visionary comprehensive plan that moves away from sprawl development. In particular, the conservation of Mattawoman Creek receives priority, a major victory. Other major waterways ]benefit as well with lower zoning densities in their stream valleys. (And the path of the CCC is designated as a hiker biker trail!) 

Sustained effort by thousands of citizens produced a remarkable new direction in land-use and conservation in one of the Maryland’s most biodiverse counties. To protect this major success, it is imperative to understand that implementation of the comprehensive plan will require continued public involvement, as it will surely be a contentious process to forge a comprehensive rezoning ordinance on the anvil of the plan. With perseverance, we can assure that Mattawoman Creek remains what the Algonquians called “where one goes pleasantly.”  

Learn More:

Mattawoman Creek issues and the comprehensive plan:  www.mattawomanwatershed.org

Charles County land-use issues: www.savecharlescounty.com

Statewide biodiversity at a glance: Bionet Factsheet

Trouble Ahead Report: Road Map to a Smarter, Greener, and More Prosperous Charles County - and Alternate Vision 6-2009
Important Bird Areas in Maryland (include the Chapman, Mattawoman, Zekiah, and Nanjemoy IBAs in Charles, a preponderance of those in the inner coastal plain):  http://md.audubon.org/ibas-maryland

Proposed Mallows Bay - Potomac National Marine Sanctuary 

Mallows Bay Marine Sanctuary

Thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of Sierra Club members and supporters who commented to NOAA in support of Alternative D for the Proposed Mallow Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary in Maryland in March 2017! The comments in favor of this more inclusive sanctuary soared thanks to your response. By midnight at the comment deadline on March 30th, a total of 1,069 comments had been submitted! 

We hope this proposal to have the first National Marine Sanctuary in almost 20 years and the first ever for the Chesapeake Bay will come to Maryland. We applaud the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration for this wonderful opportunity recognize the tidal Potomac River and we entreat our federal and state elected officials to support NOAA and it's mission.

More ideas to save Mattawoman Creek
Click here for more ideas about how to preserve the Mattawoman Creek Watershed and the Chesapeake Bay. 

References:

• Mattawoman Briefing Booklet 10-2009 (pdf)
• Trouble Ahead Report: Road Map to a Smarter, Greener, and More Prosperous Charles County - and Alternate Vision 6-2009 (pdf)
• Mattawoman Factsheet

Threats to the Mattawoman Creek 

Global Warming Coastal wetlands are threatened by global warming. They are important buffers against storms and other global warming effects. We can do our part personally and regionally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve these wetlands.