On October 1, 1998, The Montgomery County Group of the Sierra Club held a facilitated Parks Forum to seek input from our membership and the

by Jim Fary

interested public on the future of our county park system. The forum was attended by over 50 people spanning a wide range of ages and points of view. We asked the participants to tell us what was wrong and what was right about our park system and the agency charged with stewardship of it. We asked what they wanted to see our public parkland look like in the future. We took the collective input from the forum, distilled and organized it. Several drafts were offered for review to the Conservation Committee, Executive Committee and people from the forum who expressed interest in the review process. Finalization included researching National Sierra Club policy for consistency. We tried to stay true to what the people at the Forum said. Many expressed spiritual connections to the parkland /they frequented and disappointment with The Park and Planning Commission's stewardship of parkland and responses to their concerns. This is intended to be a fluid document, a beginning. Our intention has been to create a pro-active foundation for protecting and enhancing our vital parklands. We expect to expand and improve it over time. We anticipate using this vision as a basis of future MC Group park policy and to inform our relationships with county officials and the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission.

Prologue

An abundance of green space is a major defining value for the quality of life in Montgomery County. Much of our green space is held in parkland. The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission is charged with the stewardship of over 28,000 acres of parkland. The MNCPPC was in large part created to preserve the stream valleys and much of our contiguous parkland consists of stream valley corridors which lead to the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers. Within these narrow ribbons of green there are significant areas of maturing Eastern deciduous forest, floodplains, wetlands and steep slopes that shelter diverse ecosystems. As the population of the County has grown, pressure has increased to use these stream valley parks for more active recreation. The MNCPPC is responsible for both stewardship and development in parkland and a conflict has emerged between preservation of our natural areas and development of them for intensive recreational uses that includes compromising ecological function. In addition, the parks have not been managed to protect biodiversity or unique and sensitive areas. Large areas of impervious surfaces near streams and paved trails through floodplains and wetlands degrade their function and value. We can and should find creative ways to provide for citizen recreational needs without adversely impacting the environment. The Sierra Club has started to create a new vision for our parks. This vision promotes the protection of our remaining areas of biodiversity while recognizing a need for recreation. We ask other groups and ecologically conscious individuals to join us in seeing this vision implemented. We need to work together so that our families and our future will be able to experience the intrinsic and sacred values of our natural open spaces.

Our Vision

Preserve Our Natural Places by Adopting:

1. Stream valleys are essential parts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and vital to water quality protection. They should be considered as areas for preservation, not as repositories for intense recreational uses.

2. Biodiversity requires fully functioning ecosystems (wetlands, reserves for rare, threatened, and endangered species, Eastern deciduous forest, wildlife habitats) that must be protected because they have intrinsic value.

3. Re-connection of fragmented habitat is essential to the preservation of flora and fauna in an ecosystem.

4. Stewardship of natural areas (protection of biodiversity in the parks) should be the primary function of parks management.

5. Natural places become increasingly valuable as the County's population grows. We need to preserve the precious, sacred, irreplaceable, and aesthetic dimension of nature in our lives.

6. Develop a program that designates more wildlands for conservation of flora and fauna; hunting and motorized vehicles should be prohibited in these areas.

7. Since the parks are the last reserve of the flora and fauna of our County, developed recreational facilities should be secondary to environmental protection; we recognize appropriate recreational needs where they do not adversely impact biodiversity.

8. Bicycles are more than recreation; transportation needs must be met. The use of bicycles in parks is secondary to bikeways for transportation. We support Bike-Ped Access 2000.

9. Parks lands should not be the choice location for facilities such as cellular phone towers, sewers, and maintenance facilities.

10. Our parks provide ideal outdoor classrooms for teaching environ mental values.

11. Since roads create adverse environmental impacts, we need wildlife protection, mobility, and habitat considered where roads traverse parklands.

12. Parks management and MNCPPC should respond to specific and substantive public comments.

13. Significant changes to park related master plans(including public work sessions) should be subject to further public review.

To Achieve Our Vision We Need:

1. An Environmental Advisory Board at MNCPPC with citizen membership, biological literacy, and natural resources expertise.

2. To acquire more green space. Find land environmentally suitable for recreational needs.

3. To inventory all existing ecosystems in the parks.

4. Active stewardship. This means that the parks must be managed to protect existing resources and develop volunteer programs that include: trail maintenance, stream clean-up, controlling exotic invasives, developing partnerships and planting Maryland native species.

5. Implementation of storm water management in parkland using biological approaches such as wetlands and bioengineering; limit impervious surfaces and paved trails.

6. To make water quality protection a priority for the parks.

7. Elevate MNCPPC Environmental Guidelines to a mandatory requirement.

8. Provide wildlife passages where roads cross parkland and eliminate unnecessary roads in the parks.

January 4, 1999
Conservation Committee Montgomery County Group, Maryland Sierra Club