Dan Hudson, Trail Manager for the Maryland Park Service, has begun the process of revising the Trail Management Plan for Patapsco Valley State Park.
The last Trail Management Plan for the Park was written in 1998 (
PVSPTrailMngt00000630.pdf). The PVSP is a priority for trail planning because so much has changed since then. The population around the Park has grown with numerous residential developments, such that the borders of the Park are now lined with housing, especially in the southern section of the Park (Avalon, Elkridge). This has made the Park very heavily used, with about a million visitors each year. Use is regulated only by parking spaces, since it is impossible to close the perimeter to walk-in visitors. In Avalon, the parking lots filled up and had to be closed almost every weekend in the summer of 2014.
The process began with stakeholder meetings. The stakeholders consulted to date include the Sierra Club, the Patapsco Heritage Greenway, and the Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park. Other stakeholders include equestrians, mountain bikers, birders, hikers, and the non-profit organization American Rivers (which is responsible for planning the removal of the Bloede Dam). These meetings will lead to the development of a draft plan, which will be presented to the public.
Trail Planning
According to Hudson, the goal of trail planning is to protect open space and at the same time provide recreation. Many of the trails in the Park, however, were never planned, but originated as roads, utility access roads, or trails made by users (such as hunters). These unmaintained trails are often unsustainable, but it’s hard to close them and revegetate the surface since people are now using them routinely.
The current goal is to transition to sustainable, narrow, shared-use, natural-surface trails. Wide paved trails encourage heavy traffic at higher speeds. Accessible paths meeting ADA requirements don’t necessarily need to be paved; one example is the trail upstream from Daniels. Single-use trails, when correctly designed, encourage users to move slowly and allow a line of sight, so that users don’t unexpectedly collide or overtake one another.
Trails should be designed to avoid the river floodplain; ideally, trails should be bench-cut into a 20-60 degree slope of a hillside (reference: 2007 edition of the USDA Trail Construction and Maintenance Notebook).Trails should minimize crossing the river at fords (though it’s not certain if more pedestrian bridges will be built).
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has an internal review process for all proposed trails, in which experts will evaluate the impact of each trail on fisheries, wildlife, wetlands, historical resources, and more. A Geographic Information System is available online (Maryland's Environmental Resources and Land Information Network, or MERLIN) which shows the Park resources.
Wayfinding along the trails will need to be improved. Currently the Park trails are not consistently marked, and the unmaintained trails aren’t marked at all. If "through trails" are envisioned, so that McKeldin were connected with the Woodstock trails, these would need to be marked.
Each of the Maryland State Parks has a different system for wayfinding: some trails are marked with color-coded blazes, others with signs. In PVSP, trail maps are available online but are currently not available in printed form.
The Overall Vision
The new trail plan will concentrate trails at access points, such as parking lots and gated entries, which will also have amenities such as restrooms and gathering spaces (tables, pavilions). Trails at these points will allow shorter hikes and loops. "Through trails" will lead in and out of these areas to connect them and allow longer trips, perhaps even as long as the length of the Park.
The Park is constantly working on acquiring land for infill and connections between areas of the Park. At the moment, continuous trails are not possible on Park-owned land; at some points, such as Daniels and Ellicott City, there are gaps in the park property. McKeldin is an example of an access point that doesn’t have good connections with the rest of the Park, since there is no good crossing over the North Branch.
The revised plan is intended to accommodate the Park’s users by re-directing traffic to well-designed trails and discouraging use of unmaintained and unauthorized trails, especially those entering the Park from the Park borders instead of marked trailheads.
Groups with special interests, such as the Audubon Society and the Maryland Ornithological Society, are encouraged to submit information to Dan Hudson regarding geographic areas of special concern to them.
As of 2014, an initial plan was to be developed in early 2015, reviewed with public input, and then followed by a specific 5-year work plan.
If you use the trails in Patapsco Valley State Park, or belong to a group with a special interest in the Park, we would be happy to include your observations and opinions. Contact joanne.heckman[@]mdsierra.org.