Maryland Horse Council
Trails & Greenways Committee
Trails & Greenways Committee
Maryland Horse Council > Trails & Greenways > Minutes 10-1-2003 Meeting
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Hurricane Isabel, trail closure rumor – Royce Herman
Barb researched the rumor of trails being closed to equestrians for the rest of the year – and it was just that – a rumor. Check the Md. State Parks web site for a list of parks that have re-opened. The parks need your help to clear downed trees. Look for information on Work Days posted on our Yahoo Discussion Group.
Kent Island Trail, re-electing our supporters – Barb Thelen
The vote went well for the Kent Island Trail. There was some unhappy feedback from neighbors opposed to the trail threatening to vote the elected officials who supported the trail out of office this fall. She suggested that we demonstrate out support of “trail friendly“ politicians by making sure they are re-elected.
Wye Island – Barb Thelen
The DNR prepared “Land Use Proposals” for each property. In October there will be a public meeting to discuss the use of Wye Island. Visit the DNR’s web site and follow the link to “Current Projects” for more information.
Idlewylde WMA – Barb Thelen
The DNR has set up a focus group to discuss equestrian use of the area. Royce Herman, Joyce Bell, and Barb Thelen are members.
Trail Database & On-line Discussion Group - Barb Thelen
You will find a link to our on-line discussion group at http://mdhorsecouncil.org/T&G. The on-line discussion group is up and running. Quite a few people have joined including some not in our committee – which is good news.
Web Pages & E-mail Lists - Peggy Bree
Visit our T&G Web Pages at http://mdhorsecouncil.org/T&G. A copy of our main web page was available to look at during the meeting. Comments were requested.
Sunday Hunting Subcommittee Meeting
Jacquie Cowan reported that the Sunday Hunting Subcommittee met and decided to work on pro-active legislation. It will be in two parts. The first will be a bill on deer population management. The second will be aimed at the hunters giving up a day in the week or a Saturday to get a Sunday.
Trail Bits Column - Gail Brodt-Clark
No report
Legislative Relations Event - Carol Swandby
The legislative event will be a combination trail ride, carriage rides, lunch, and hay ride. It is tentaltively set for a Sunday in April while the legislature is in session. All Maryland legislators and their families will be invited. The representatives from the area of the event will be invited to co-host the event and their names will be listed on the invitations as such. Two sites were discussed as possibilities. The Shehan Audubon Site on the Eastern Shore (south of St. Michaels) was suggested. Also Rosaryville, near Upper Marlboro, was suggested. The group was more inclined toward Rosaryville as it is closer to Annapolis.
The invitations will be printed and should be hand delivered in January by folks in riding attire. It will be important to find sponsors for the event. Carol has a lot of ideas and is contacting them, including The Farm Bureau. Two representatives of Mountain Bikers who use and support Rosaryville suggested that if that is the site that is selected, they would be interested in going in with us. That was a tentative offer and they may wish to have a separate event.
Trail Stewardship - Doreen Hill
No Report
Our speaker for the evening was Theresa Moore with Md. DNR. The Greenways Program started in 1980 under governor Shaffer. The objective was to create State-wide plan to preserve our green spaces. The State Greenways Commission worked with individual counties to identify and map potential greenways for both recreation and conservation. These areas have been documented in the MD State Greenways book, which is also available on-line.
Teresa works with the local county planners trying to set up links between county trails. She also works on interstate trails. She had a map of current and proposed greenways and trails, which she left with us. She also discussed 2 surveys taken by the state of recreational usage. The DNR will use these surveys to plan what type of recreational facilities to build
Each county makes its own decision about preserving its greenways. It’s up to us to track the progress of our counties. We must lobby our local county officials if we want to see the greenways protected from development.
Maryland Horse Expo: What do we want to do?
Mary Snyder volunteered to lead the expo effort. We discussed sponsoring a seminar with a speaker from Md. DNR or one of the counties to talk about trails and greenways in the state.
Fundraiser: Should we build a "T&G War Chest?"
No decision was made on this.
Slot Legislation – A public meeting will be held in Baltimore County on October 7th. We have an opportunity to lobby for profits from slots to be channeled to non-racing interests. There is a threat of cutting the money that was budgeted to support the Maryland Horse Industry Board.
Mountain Bikers - We had 2 representatives from the mountain bike community join us for the evening – Scott Scudamore and Todd Brooks. They have 300 members – 200 in Virginia and 100 in Maryland and support 122 trails. Thet are active in trail building and maintenance and passed out a brochure for a “trail building” seminar and a list of MORE liaisons for 22 parks in the DC area.
E-mail
the Trails & Greenways Committee at green@riva.net.