NEWS &VIEWS You Can Use WSSC & The Struggle To Maintain Equestrian Access
Equestrians who live near or adjacent to the land owned by the Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission (WSSC), such as the Triadelphia or Rocky Gorge Reservoir, or who trail ride on WSSC’s lovely land surrounding their various watersheds, are up in arms about recent restrictions imposed by the WSSC. According to Ron MacNabb, president of
Trail Riders of Today (TROT), the WSSC is concerned about erosion caused by overuse of bridle trails during wet seasons (and it has been very wet last few years), and the Commission’s solution has been to
1) close the bridle trails and redirect riders to the fi rebreaks (aka “access roads,” which for decades equestrians were prohibited from using); 2) restrict entry points to certain designated areas (prior to this, equestrians routinely en- tered the watershed from adjacent private lands);
3) deny access to the watershed in the mid- dle of the winter.
Trail riders are still required to get the
$60-per-year user’s permit. T e trail-riding community, which, through
TROT and other trail groups, has worked hard to maintain the trails in the various WSSC wa- tersheds, is–understandably–very upset, as ap- parently WSSC made these decisions without any input from the equestrian community.
What the heck is a WSSC? Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
(WSSC) was created through legislation in 1918 for the specifi c purpose of providing clean drinking water to the growing suburban com- munity adjacent to Washington, DC (Mont- gomery and Prince George’s County). According to the WSSC, it is the eighth larg- est water and wastewater utility in the nation, serving nearly 1.8 million residents in an area of 1,000 square miles. T e WSSC owns and maintains more than 5,500 miles of fresh water pipeline and nearly 5,400 miles of sewer pipe- line, and owns and operates three reservoirs (Triadelphia, Rocky Gorge and Little Sen- eca) with a total holding capacity of 14 billion gallons, two water fi ltration plants, and seven wastewater treatment plants.
T e land surrounding the reservoir serves as a natural fi lter for the watershed, and a happy byproduct of the watershed maintenance has been its availability for recreational users, albeit for a permit price. For recreational users, dealing with the
WSSC is not like dealing with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources or Maryland National Capital Park & Planning or any other steward of the public land designated primarily for recreational use. T e WSSC land is not parkland; nowhere in
WSSC’s mission statement is any mention of providing recreational use of WSSC land for the general public.
Community Relations
Despite the fact that the WSSC land was not technically set aside for recreational use, the WSSC has been very accommodating to recreational users, including equestrians. Over the last thirty or forty years, many equestrians in the areas surrounding the watersheds have worked hard to foster good relationships with WSSC, to open new trails, maintain existing trails, install bridges and tunnels. Much of this land was the old Iron Bridge Hunt Club terri- tory, and while WSSC does not allow foxhunt- ing (unlike DNR), trail users have not only been welcomed but have been successful at maintaining or expanding a network of trails. But bureaucracies are bureaucracies: new re-
gime, someone didn’t get the memo, or some- one is misunderstanding something…and some new government employee did not realize that there were established volunteer groups with which they could work to rectify a degraded situation. It is up to the citizens to rattle cages and bang some pots and pans. And if that does not work…call our elected offi cials.
Horseback riders don’t cause erosion! While we would like to think that we don’t,
yes, we do and we can. We’ve all seen trails turned into runoff streams by riders following, nose-to-tail, in the same rut on the same trails (despite pleas by land managers to spread out on the trails). However, T e Equiery has no independent knowledge as to whether or not there truly was erosion damage on the WSSC bridle trails.
Some horse people have sent us letters telling us that the bridle trails are in excellent condi- tions; other horse people who prefer to remain anonymous have said that some of the trails are in rough shape because of trail riders. What is clear is that TROT and other trail
organizations are eager to work with WSSC, are willing to repair trails, or relocate trails if necessary, and this certainly seems to us to be a reasonable solution…unless the WSSC knows something that it has not yet shared with the general public that would make trail mainte- nance or relocation of trails not feasible.
Today, banned from the trails, tomorrow banned from the land?
T e Equiery shares the concerns of our trail
riders that, if fi rst the trails are closed and riders are restricted to only the fi rebreaks and emer- gency access roads, then the next step might be to ban equestrians all together. And truth be told, there is the very real possibility that, with- out proactive involvement from well-organized groups such as TROT, equestrians could just as easily create ruts and new runoff creeks in the middle of the access roads, without proper oversight and maintenance…which in turn could be used as justifi cation to ban us all to- gether. T e Equiery does not want to see that happen. However, what is also clear is that the desires of equestrians (or other recreational users) are not a priority for WSSC…and understandably so, if the WSSC mission is to provide drinking water and sewer services. So the horse people (and other recreational users who fi nd their ac- cess curtailed) will need to be a very loud, but very diplomatic squeaky wheel in order to get on the WSSC radar. Landowners surrounding WSSC may like-
wise have limited concern about their property values if their access is restricted…whether or not that holds any water with WSSC remains to be seen.
Progress
Trail users attended the June 15 public meet- ing of the WSSC, and although they were not on the agenda, they did have the opportunity to speak.
Ron MacNab, chairman of the Maryland continued on page 72
IF YOU HAVE NEWS, VIEWS OR UPDATES TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE SEND THEM TO Editor at The Equiery, P.O. Box 610, Lisbon, MD 21765 • FAX: 410-489-7828 • email
editor@equiery.com.
Be sure to include your full name, phone number and address. All submissions become the property of The Equiery. 8 | THE EQUIERY | JULY 2011 800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
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