[IHHAAC Update] ***SPAM*** IHHAAC Action Alert

[IHHAAC Email Newsletter]

FOR IHHAAC MEMBERS & FRIENDS




Action Alert!

 

Please vote for the health of Mattawoman Creek at this website: 

http://www.charlesdems.org



At the lower right corner of the webpage is a poll where you can vote. 

 

As you know, the Cross County Connector is a new divided highway that would push Mattawoman over the brink to serious degradation by leveling its forests with sprawl development.  In addition, it is “required,” according to county planning documents, to convert the one-stoplight town of Bryans Road into a new city of over 20,000 that drains to prime fish-spawning grounds. 

 

Please take a moment to vote. It is easy!

 

*****************

 

Action alert! Please contact Governor O’Malley

 

Our Public Forum on November 4 was a BIG success!

Thank you for coming!

 

Over 300 people packed the largest meeting room at the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata. We learned of the impacts of the proposed Cross County Connector and of viable alternatives that would protect Mattawoman and improve the quality of life in Charles County. 

 

You can read a news article here.

 

You can read about important points covered at the forum in the report Trouble Ahead  here. 

 

A summary of the forum appears at the button “Forum Report” at our website, www.mattawomanwatershed.org

 

>From the applause thundering at the Forum, we all heard the roar of the future. 

 

Now, let’s take it to Governor O’Malley

 

Please ask the governor to publicly support Smart Growth alternatives to the proposed Cross County Connector. 

 

A personal letter is most effective (see sample below)

 

The Honorable Martin O’Malley

One State Circle

Annapolis, MD 21401
 
Or call or email: 

 
governor at gov.state.md.us

 

 

1-800-811-8336

 

Dear Governor O’Malley,

 

            I write to ask that you publicly support Smart Growth alternatives to Charles County’s proposed Cross County Connector. This highway would promote sprawl development that would level Mattawoman’s forests and seriously degrade what state fisheries biologists deem to be Maryland’s “best, most productive tributary to the Bay.”  Here is a perfect opportunity to put into action your Smart Growth principles to protect the Chesapeake Bay by saving one of its best but threatened tributaries. 

 

            You have called forests the most strategic of natural resources, noting their role in protecting water quality. Mattawoman is the Chesapeake Bay’s best fish nursery and largemouth bass fishery in large part because its extensive forests filter, cool, and moderate stormwater runoff.  But the highway is proposed to run through a forested region and would open vast forest tracts to sprawl development. 

 

            We are pleased that you have reopened the Office of Smart Growth which seeks a new, less damaging way to grow. This Charles County highway is part of an outmoded approach that facilitates sprawl throughout a mostly forested area that is intentionally 30% larger than Washington D.C.  And by inducing more growth in this valuable rural area, the safety on local roads would be compromised.  

 

            You have also emphasized the importance of transit-oriented development to saving our farms and forests by focusing growth in pleasant, walkable communities. Charles County’s urban core, Waldorf, is in need of revitalization and is ideally suited to your smart-growth ideals because it is on a rail line that could connect to Washington’s metro, but requires the political will to launch rail transit now rather than building new highways.

 

            Mattawoman is at the acknowledged threshold for degradation because pavement and rooftops now cover nearly10% of its watershed.  It’s living resources cannot sustain the projected forest loss and increased impervious cover this highway would induce with new development. By supporting alternatives to yet another sprawl inducing highway, you can help usher Charles County into the 21st century and tangibly demonstrate a commitment to restore the Bay. For how can you save the Bay if you permit its gems to slip away?

 

Respectfully, 

 

your name and Address

 
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