Forest Advocates Rally to Change MCPS Plan for McKenney Hills Trees

The McKenney Hills Forest Preservation Group (MHFPG) sponsored a “Save The Forest” rally on the site of Montgomery County Public Schools' McKenney Hills elementary school and the surrounding forest. The school will be built in an open field at the south end of Hayden Drive, but portion of the land is forested.

The McKenney Hills Forest is a 50-acre publicly owned forest located in Forest Glen. MCPS’ forested parcel consists of eight acres, including sections ecologists have called “the best of the best” within the McKenney Hills Forest, with many trees 100 to 200 years old and 100 feet tall.

The rally included identifying each of the trees MCPS plans to cut down or will likely be seriously damaged by the cutting and construction.

The group recently ramped up their campaign to prevent cutting portions of the existing forest after seeing the final conservation plan in mid-February. They say the Memorandum of Understanding MCPS agreed to in October lead them to believe that the forest had been saved, but there were changes between the initial and final conservation plan.

The final forest conservation plan includes specific trees that will be cut and others that will likely be damaged and removed later.

While the conservation plan has passed both the Planning Board and the Board of Education, residents say they will continue fighting for MCPS to scale back the cutting plans until “the chain saw cuts down the last tree.”

While MCPS plans to reforest a portion of the site, advocates for forest say that the trees that will be cut down will be among the oldest in the forest. MHFPG says the school is needed, but many of the trees scheduled to be cut are not necessary for the construction of the school.