To promote sound economic, land use, and transportation policies that preserve the natural environment, open spaces, and rural lands in Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve for the benefit of all Washington metropolitan area residents.

We envision a Montgomery County that reliably and permanently supports its rural economy, treasures its forests, fields and streams, and plans carefully for growth.

Goal One: Protection of Farmland, forests, water and air quality in the face of powerful development forces. Robust advocacy and building strong coalitions to safeguard natural resources.

Goal Two: Support for existing, expanding and entering farmers: overcoming hurdles to land access, serving as a resource clearing house and educating the public about opportunities to support local farms.

Goal Three: Education of the public, students and decision makers on the value of protecting farms on the metropolitan edge. We promote knowledge of water quality, local food and smart growth principles.

As a charity recognized by Spur Local (formerly Catalogue for Philanthropy) as "one of the best" small nonprofits in the DC region, staff takes advantage of webinars to hone nonprofit leadership skills.

We've undertaken a number of new actions in the last year and a half. -Food Insecurity / Farm Infrastructure Needs - Good Fences are a Win Win IN Montgomery County as across the country food insecurity was up 50% in the pandemic. In 2022 we received a matching grant from the Montgomery County department of Health and Human Services to pilot a Good Fences Grant program - this grant would go to farmers as cost share for new fencing projects that would then grow a substantial amount of food for local food bank and hunger relief efforts. In Spring 2023 we funded 7 fencing projects with a priority on diverse farmers growing culturally appropriate food. -New Land Use: Data Centers New Challenge: Drought In 2023 we have been monitoring new construction of Data Centers in our northern neighbor Frederick County and now a group of 10 data centers is proposed for the margin and potentially even encroaching on the Ag Reserve. These buildings are massive and are water hungry to cool their equipment. MCA is leading a coalition that is meeting and sharing concerns with the development applicant, decision makers and updating the public about this development. At the same time, the summer of 2023 has been extremely dry with moderate to severe drought persisting all season. MCA has been making the case that the science is clear that these drought events are part of a weather pattern that is here to stay - and our development plans and conservation measures need to adapt. -A return to in-person events in 2022, like much of the world, we returned to in-person events. For the first time in two years we held our Ride for the Reserve bike tour in person after a virtual ride in 2020 and 2021. We had a successful first event back and are again planning to hold the ride this year.