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April 2023
April 22 is Earth Day, a global event that began in 1970 and is now celebrated in over 190 countries. Montgomery County will be celebrating “Earth Month” this April with a series of events and activities designed to inspire action and a commitment to sustainability, conservation and environmental protection.
Montgomery County’s eighth annual GreenFest will take place at two different locations: “GreenFest in the Gardens” at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton on Saturday, April 22, and “GreenFest in the City” at Marian Fryer Town Plaza in Downtown Wheaton on Sunday, April 23. The events are free and friendly for the whole family.
Seneca Village in Gaithersburg will soon be the site of Montgomery County’s largest rooftop solar installation on an affordable multifamily property. I joined Governor Wes Moore, County Executive Marc Elrich and members of the Seneca Village Community to celebrate the launch of this exciting project. The project is supported by the Montgomery County Green Bank, which is a publicly chartered nonprofit corporation that leverages public and private funding to accelerate energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean energy investments. The Seneca Village project is the largest rooftop solar on such a property in the state, and is located in an Equity Emphasis Area of the County.
The Green Bank’s authority was recently expanded with the passage of the Green Bank Authority Bill 3-23 to add resilience activities to their clean energy mandate. This enables homeowners and businesses to obtain financing options for projects that support the infrastructure against the worsening effects of climate change.
I am pleased to share that the Council passed an updated forest conservation law (Bill 25-22) that encourages the planting of trees in sensitive areas like stream valleys, strengthens tree replanting ratios, and implements other measures to protect our natural environment. Since the Forest Conservation Law took effect in 1992, over 12,500 acres of existing forest have been permanently protected and more than 2,500 acres of new forest have been planted.
Learn more about the latest County's forest conservation law.
MCPS is hosting its second annual Youth Climate Summit on Earth Day. This summit will bring together middle and high school students to learn more about climate change with workshops and guest speakers. Participants will be mentored throughout the process and will help write a climate action plan for their school or community.
To take part, you can register as a participant or as a group.
Building on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize, the Wheaton Sustainable Innovation Zone (WSIZ) is strengthening economic development efforts and climate resilience while promoting innovation in the Wheaton community.
Through extensive community engagement, project partners are applying the international lessons of sustainable innovation to the curated needs of the community, creating a model for similar communities.
This project combines the nationally recognized entrepreneurial programming of Bethesda Green’s Innovation Lab model with One Montgomery Green’s proven community engagement and environmental outreach strategies in Wheaton.
When a large tree branch landed on her garage, an older Rockville resident called me to find out how to get it removed. My office contacted the City of Rockville and a crew was deployed to the resident’s home the same day. We also provided the constituent with the contact information for a senior center so that she could get connected with other local services.
Thousands of metropolitan Washington commuters will leave their cars at home on Friday, May 19, to take part in Bike to Work Day, boosting their physical and mental health and doing their part for the environment. The League of American Bicyclists began Bike to Work Day as part of Bike Month in 1956. Over the years, Bike to Work Day has grown into a widespread event with countless bicyclists taking to the streets nationwide in an effort to get commuters to try bicycling to work as a healthy and safe alternative to driving. In the metropolitan Washington region, Bike to Work Day has grown from a small group of a few hundred in 2001 to a pre-pandemic high of 18,700 participants.
Register at BiketoWorkMetroDC.org.
Please do not reply to this email. To contact my office, email me at Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov.
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