Residents, volunteers ask Howard County delegation to let DNR authorize mechanized trail work in Patuxent Wildlands

Peter Framson, a Howard County resident and president of the Howard County Ironbridge Hounds, told the delegation that volunteers and park users need better access and the ability to use mechanized equipment to maintain trails and to assist with rescues in the Patuxent Wildlands area of Patuxent River State Park.

"What we would like very much to see happen is have the ability to have better access to the park ... whether it's me on foot or me as part of an organized ride ... that we need the ability to use some different kinds of equipment," Framson said, describing an earlier incident when a small off-road vehicle could reach an injured person only because the park was then more accessible.

Volunteers and organized groups told the delegation that routine trail maintenance in the park has depended on volunteer labor for years and that recent growth of downed trees and dense vegetation in areas designated as state wildlands has made trails impassable for emergency responders. Christina Misek, testifying as a representative of the Potomac Bridle and Trail Association, said the designation of parts of the state wildlands currently prevents volunteers from using mechanized tools such as chainsaws.

"Because it is designated as state wildlands, it is not able to be used [with] mechanized equipment, such as chainsaws, etcetera, by volunteers to help clear the land," Misek said, urging the delegation to support a bill that would allow DNR to enter into user agreements permitting limited mechanized work for trail maintenance.

Speakers described safety incidents they said illustrate the risk. Crystal Pickett, who said she represents members of Howard County volunteer fire and rescue and has ridden the park for decades, described a 2017 rescue in which emergency medical crews could not bring an EMT-equipped ATV deep into the woods and an injured rider had to be hand-carried out, costing critical time.

Larry Raskin, who said he trains search-and-rescue horses and is certified in chainsaw operations, told the delegation the central section of the park remains unmapped and unblazed, and that volunteers have been filling the maintenance gap for years. "The park is mapped, but only very small sections of it... The section we're talking about in the central section ... is not mapped, not trailed," Raskin said.

Testimony repeatedly asked the delegation to support narrowly tailored language that would permit the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to enter user agreements allowing trained volunteers to bring mechanized tools into the park to maintain existing trails and assist with access for first responders. Witnesses emphasized the request was limited to maintenance of existing trails, not to expand mechanized access beyond those purposes.

The delegation did not take a vote during the portions of the hearing recorded in the transcript. Several speakers submitted written testimony in addition to their oral remarks.

The testimony cited in this article came from multiple members of the public and volunteer groups testifying during the Howard County Delegation public hearing, including first-hand descriptions of an access failure in 2017 and estimates of trail mileage maintained by volunteers.