National Plant Board
Trails & Greenways Committee
Minutes from the December 3, 2003 Meeting
Respectfully submitted by Barb Thelen
Please submit your corrections and additions to green@riva.net.
The meeting got off to a somewhat delayed start due to a misunderstanding about the start time. Some thought it was 6:30, others 7:00. Since there was no one to take minutes when the meeting started at 6:30, I wrote down what I could. If anyone has more detailed notes, please submit them, so I can flesh out the minutes.
Fred Shafer from Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission was our featured speaker.
Barb Thelen gave a brief update about the web page, the Yahoo! group and current on line discussions, including asking about the Jug Bay Sanctuary Proposal. She then asked if anyone had additional information regarding the Sunday Hunting Sub group that had met earlier in the year.
Jacquie Cowan was able to tell us that Roger Skullin was not able to host the group any more due to other commitments, and that the group right now is in search of a capable leader. The underlying discussion is that the approach to fighting the Sunday hunting issue remains two fold. First, deer population management is a real issue and second that the recreational rights of other Maryland citizens are infringed upon unfairly when Sundays are added into the allowed hunting days.
It was mentioned that this might be something to mention at the planned legislative event.
Royce Herman said that the Sunday Hunting effectiveness was to be reported upon by the DNR in February, and at that time, a decision should be made as to whether it was truly an efficient method of population control. It might be best to wait until the DNR report is issued, so that there are numbers to work with.
Gail Clark_Brodt requests that folks feed her interesting tidbits that she can include in the Trail Bits columns she publishes. Any sources you send to her should be with permission of the copyright holder, or whom she can contact to obtain copyright publishing permission. We don't want to use any pre-printed documents without that permission.
Fred Shafer spoke for the majority of the meeting and gave us a very good overview of the planning process used in his county, and how his talk will be focused at the Maryland Horse Expo.
Suggestions he offered include:
Talking to the Land planners about the area Master Plan
Get in on the Long term Master plan when it's due for updates in your area
Contact other user groups, so that you have more people presenting a united front when you ask for trail preservation and placement. Address user conflicts and needs.
Identify the Trail priorities, is it more offroad, or more urban trail?
Fred also passed out the most recent version of the Technical Bulletin he put together with well researched topics such as suitable footing, armoring, bridges, soil stabilization, documents included, as well as resources that can be contacted for additional information.
Fred told us to be aware of the Public Hearings about projects in our areas. He told us that frequently, by the time public input is solicited, that project is already planned, you need to get involved early on, in the planning process to ensure the trail meets your user group needs. Public Hearings are published in the papers, but we must be proactive with the planners to really be effective.
We must ask for useable easements, a slanted trail berm with park benches and trees planted down the middle is not the optimal for equestiran use. Neither is it acceptable for the trail path to be paved in asphalt if its intended users are horses. You can ask for more enviornmentally friendly surfaces, like crushed stone dust in lieu of asphalt. Many trail planners are not horse people, and as such do not fully understand what makes a trail horse friendly and what does not.
Address parking for the trail heads, too. Unless someone lives near the trail head and rides there on horseback, they'll need to park horse trailers, which tend to require more parking space and more maneuvering room.
Get community buy-ins for the trail. Talk to neighbors that will be using the trail, too, help them to understand that a trail connecting other trails that may run through thier neighborhood isn't a bad thing.
Trail planning is a long process, from the beginnins of the planning itself to the priority list to the public hearings until the first ground is broken. It usually takes years.
There is a Maryland State Planning Assn. which consists of 25 different organizations.
Carol Swanby offered some additional suggestions about the upcoming legislative event that we would like to host to interest more people in the horse industry in Maryland.
Several locations have been suggested for this event, including Wye Island, Rosaryville, Fair Hill, Tuckahoe and the Audobon location South of St Michaels. She suggested that these locations be scouted out with an eye towards giving carriage rides, pony rides and having our members ride out alongside. She planned to attend the next meeting at Tuckahoe herself.
Carol suggests that we ask the Maryland Farm Bureau to join us in putting on this event. It was generally agreed that this is an excellent idea. Other organizations that might be included are the DelMarVa Driving club, large animal practitioners, and farriers, since all benefit and are part of the Maryland Horse Industry.
Carol also suggested we need someone to register as a lobbyist. She planned to look into it.
Royce said he'd check with the Executive Council regarding insurance for the event.
A brief discussion was held regarding funds for printing more trail brochures, Doreen mentioned that she might be able to look into one of the MHIB grants.
Jacquie talked briefly about the need to educate the non riding public about horses. She does an excellent job on her own, and suggested that we take the time to talk to people on bikes, or out walking so that the fear of the horses can be reduced.
Barb brought up the idea of establishing a phone tree to quickly contact horse people that may not have email, or that may not belong to any particular organization. This would be used for quickly notifying folks about important issues heading their way, not for regular communications.
Rumor control was discussed and the need to make sure that we don't allow rumors to become self fulfilling prophecies.
The meeting ended at 9:00 PM, with the location of the next meeting being the Dough Roller, Feb 4, 2004 at 6:30 PM
E-mail Trails and Greenways at green@riva.net