MoCo Trails Need Your Help!
We all know MoCo is a great place for trails, but with your help it can be even better! Montgomery County Parks loves trails as much as we do, and wants to ramp up trail building over the next five years. They’ve submitted their “Loops and Links” trail plan covering major trail connections, and is looking at all their parklands for new trails. You could see new and renovated trails in nearly every major park in MoCo; from Little Bennett to Paint Branch.
Montgomery County Parks has proposed $350,000 per year of capital funds for six years to build and upgrade natural surface trails, including three full-time trail builders dedicated to the county trail system! These teams could build up to ten miles of new trail a year…and they are designing trails with mountain bikes in mind. If you like the new trails at Little Bennett, Black Hills, Seneca Greenway and Cabin John you will like what MORE and Montgomery County Parks have in mind!
But, it’s not a done deal yet. We need your voice to support the Parks plan and proposed budget. The County Council has to approve this budget increase, and the County Executive has recommended cutting the proposed budget for natural surface trails by 30%. That’s the difference between maintaining the trails we have now and really growing our trails into a national-caliber system.
We urge you to find your county council member send them and County Council President Floreen an email right away to show your support for more trails in MoCo.
Sincerely,
Dave Magill
MORE Trails Director
For inspiration, check out our sample comment below:
Dear [County Council Member]
I urge you to fully fund the Montgomery County Parks Department’s operating and capital budget requests for natural surface trails. Trails rank at the top of user polls of the most popular amenities in our county parks, and are one of the most cost-effective recreational facilities around. Natural surface trails offer a low-impact, sustainable venue for outdoor recreation for residents and visitors of all ages, and provide measure able economic impacts and health benefits to local communities.
The Parks Department is doing the right thing asking for $2.1 million in the CIP to build out our natural surface trail system. I am a (member or supporter) of the Mid-Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts (MORE), and we believe that over 50 miles of new trail can be added to MoCo parks through this initiative. MORE has organized thousands of hours of volunteer trailwork on county trails, but we cannot do this work alone.
Sincerely,
[Your Name],
[Your town, Maryland]