State, outdoors community blaze new path at first summit
At a BWI-area motel, Maryland’s outdoors community had an enormous coming out party today at the first Trails Summit, organized by the Department of Natural Resources to draft a blueprint for a network of footpaths and paddling routes to tie one side of the state to the other.
DNR Secretary John Griffin announced the creation of a Trails Development Office to spearhead the effort and develop “a trails system second to none in the nation.”
The office will be responsible for maintaining a new interactive trails web page, beginning work on new off-road vehicle trails and establishing a Citizens Trail Advisory Group. The page will be on line this afternoon and accessible through the DNR home page. It will include a list of clubs and organizations, a mapping program, suggestions for trail use and a link to camping reservations.
A standing-room crowd of 200 trails users, outdoors gear suppliers, hospitality industry representatives and regional experts spent the day expanding on a series of summer round-table discussions to improve DNR’s approximately 1,000 miles of trails and connect them to school yards and federal, county and city public lands.
Griffin called the summit “long overdue” and noted that trailblazing has come a long way from the days when the state met opposition during the creation of the Northern Central Rail Trail for hikers and bikers.
“We hung in there and gradually we answered all of the concerns of Baltimore County. It has become so popular that it is now oversubscribed,” he said.
Griffin said a network of trails would have “countless benefits” for residents, tourists and the O’Malley administration initiative to get more children outdoors.
“I’m glad this day has finally come,” Griffin said.
Later in the day, paddlers, cyclists, hikers and other trail users made regional lists of places where trails could be connected. Baltimore area users asked for new paths to connect the NCRR -- renamed the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail -- to city parks and to rail trails in Anne Arundel County.
Other attendees suggested:
-- Extending trails near expanding Fort Meade to the Bowie area.
-- Closing gaps in Patapsco Valley State Park trail system to make it easier to get from one area to another.
-- Widening road shoulders on rural Howard and Carroll county roads to make them safer for cyclists.
-- Eliminating liability issues so that utility corridors can be used by the recreational community.
-- Taking advantage of the Great Allegheny Passage connection from Pittsburgh to Washington to create opportunities in Western Maryland state parks and forests.
-- DNR's John Wilson, point man for the trails initiative, promised more meetings to refine the lists and set priorities.
-- "We view this as a long-term conversation," Wilson said. "This is just the beginning...We need to build a coalition. You folks are going to help us do our jobs."
Comments
Sounds like a nice idea but can the State afford such a venture at these times? Should the state be spending money on this sort of thing? And the O'Malley initiative to get kids outside? Please, give me a break. Bad attempt at a plug for O'Malley.
Posted by: leon | October 19, 2010 12:24 PM
Leon:
Many states are not only counting on the sweat equity of use groups to build trails but also financial contributions by corporations that see a business opportunity to be involved. For example, the sponsors of this summit include The North Face, one of the world's largest outdoors gear suppliers, and REI, the gear store with three outlets in Maryland and soon to add a fourth.
It makes sense for the folks who make and sell gear to want to expand and promote the outdoors.
As for the "plug" for the O'Malley initiative, I can say that there were lots of summer programs for kids that were part of DNR's No Child Left Inside push.
Politics aside, it's just a fact. I attended some of them.
Posted by: candy | October 19, 2010 12:45 PM
What a great gathering of people that not only know the importance of the outdoors in people's lives, but live that ideal regularly.
As someone fighting to keep a green space green - the Capital Crescent Trail - from the developers' and wayward politicians' bulldozers, it was good to know that there are so many in MD and the surrounding states that value time in the woods. Can't wait for the next summit.
www.SaveTheTrail.org
Posted by: Ajay | October 25, 2010 9:33 PM