Change in Baltimore policy regarding reservoir upkeep

As you may or may not know, the properties surrounding three of Baltimore's major water supply reservoirs (Liberty, Loch Raven and Pretty Boy) belong to the city, not to the counties in which they reside. Baltimore is apparently changing its policy with regard to trail maintenance around Liberty reservoir; I don't know about the other two, buy can't imagine it would be any different. At any rate, Garden N Clay passed on some data in an image that I don't know how to pst here but I did find some data (I think) on the "Friends of Liberty Reservoir" Facebook page (I am not a victim of Facebook, so I can't read the page). You can check that out here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Environmental-Conservation-Organization/Friends-of-Liberty-Reservoir-384917249013180/

The basic gist is that Baltimore is decommissioning some fire road/trails to any recreational use (horseback riding, biking, hiking, fishing) and will treat such use as trespass with citations. The trails will either be planted or allowed to return to their natural state over time.

In short, there is a meeting of this group at the Goddard school building in Eldersburg (next to Smokey's BBQ) at 2028 Liberty Rd. this coming Thursday, August 15th at 7:00 P. M. (1900). Anyone who has caches in Liberty, or concerns about the impact of this policy change might consider attending.

Frankly, not clear to me what influence anyone who is not a resident of Baltimore can have, as they are not constituents of the politicians who control the budgets required for maintenance. That being said, it might be interesting to attend just to get a grasp of what the Friends of Liberty intend to do.

Thanks for the heads-up. I shared the posts on Friends of Liberty Res' FB page to our page so folks can see the information directly.

Hello all,

The Friends of Liberty Reservoir is reaching out to your geocaching group with an invitation to join our cause. Our mission is to work in conjunction with the City of Baltimore and the Liberty Reservoir watershed staff to protect our drinking water and preserve the fire roads/trails surrounding the reservoir for the safety and enjoyment of all. Many fire roads are being decommissioned preventing access to hikers and other user groups.

The 89 miles of trails on the reservoir is open to a vast array of activities such as, but not limited to, geocaching, hiking, biking, fishing, hunting, and horseback riding. These activities promote not only a healthy lifestyle, but home sales.

Fire roads/trails are being decommissioned without public input jeopardizing the safety of users, surrounding homes and farms (from wildfire).

Questioning the Baltimore Dept. of Public Works results in threatening letters of trespassing and the standard reply “DPW had made the decision to discontinue maintenance of many of the woods roads with the intent of rebuilding the forested buffer for improved water quality at the reservoir.”

Please ask the members of your groups to consider joining our cause for the benefit of all users.

We have a meeting tomorrow, August 15. Check our Facebook page below.
Thank you!

Visit Friends of Liberty Reservoir on FACEBOOK
Phone: 410-970-4581
E-mail: [email protected]

I attended the meeting last night. I arrived a late due to work and family commitments and found more than a full house when I arrived. I wasn't sure what to expect, this event was attended such that it overflowed the scheduled room about 3 times its capacity. Even the hallway was standing room and there were people in the parking lot. Passions were definitely running high while I was there.

I would characterize this session as public comments. Somebody from the Baltimore City DPW was there and was trying to make the case that it was solely about water quality. Based on the comments and work that has been done to document this, I would wager it is more about cost to maintain the trails and fire roads. As I understood it, the City is claiming water quality issues but hasn't had the tests and studies done to document the impacts to water quality. Apparently the City pays three Full Time Employees to do the maintenance.

There is another Friends of Liberty Res meeting scheduled for the 19th of September and they are looking for a larger venue to accommodate the public interest. The City seemed like they might be open to further discussion but I wouldn't say that any serious commitment was made to have future negotiations about access. It is quite possible that the City will continue to close roads and access without any input from the community or concession for public access.

It does seem like there is room for MGS to have a role in this cause. If an member is interested in attending and participating for MGS, I would be happy to discuss it further.

There was an article about this in the Baltimore Sun today:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/c ... story.html

The article's title is a bit misleading, as it (as well as a few other online sources I've seen) implies that ALL of the fire roads are being shut down, when as I understand it, it's just a few of them. Not quite as bad as some are making it out to be... but that said.. I've hiked literally all over Liberty, and the trails and fire roads are all interconnected, and many are not mapped. If certain areas become off-limits, it's going to be really hard to figure out where you're allowed to hike, as it's entirely conceivable that you could wander into a forbidden area from another trail without even realizing it.

Liberty is also an active hunting area in the fall and early winter, and the hunters help to keep the deer population from exploding. It's hard to believe that they would put a complete stop to hunting in the area. Seems like this whole thing has not been well thought-out.

There was also a page one article posted in the Carroll County Times o 18 Huge 2019. It can be accessed here:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/news/cc-liberty-reservoir-decommission-20190816-mahb2dcyc5blxb4lemo32jjvyi-story.html

Note that this may be the same article referred to above that was in the Baltimore Sun, as the two papers are apparently co-owned.

It would be interesting to know if any Carroll County politicians attended the meeting discussed above, or if the Friends of Liberty Reservoir have made any attempt to get them involved. While this issue may be about water quality, it will almost certainly be about money regardless.

There was also a page one article posted in the Carroll County Times o 18 Huge 2019. It can be accessed here:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/news/cc-liberty-reservoir-decommission-20190816-mahb2dcyc5blxb4lemo32jjvyi-story.html

Note that this may be the same article referred to above that was in the Baltimore Sun, as the two papers are apparently co-owned.

It would be interesting to know if any Carroll County politicians attended the meeting discussed above, or if the Friends of Liberty Reservoir have made any attempt to get them involved. While this issue may be about water quality, it will almost certainly be about money regardless.

I took a quick look and yes, it does look like the same article that was posted in the Baltimore Sun. They also own Howard County Times, Capital/Gazette, the local Harford County paper, and probably others as well. It can be confusing correlating articles between all of the various sources with everything being on essentially the same web site.

Same misleading wording in the headline here also, implying that everything is going to be shut down, when in fact it is just a few fire roads. The potential that more areas may be shut down is a bit worrisome, but I don't think we're there quite yet.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the future of caching in the area. There has never been an official policy, but I get the feeling that if there ever were to be one, we might not like it...