A local Baltimore Canoe Club has cut out 11 miles of deadfalls from the Gunpowder River. Some of these deadfalls have been in the river for over 10 years. I have heard the DNR knows who is responsible but it has not been said whether the responsible party(s) will be prosecuted.
Low flows coupled with this devastating loss of habitat do not bode well for the fish, especially the larger fish, in the river. It could take years for the river to recover this lost habitat.
If any of you could let the DNR know about your outrage over this it would be much appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT Not only did they remove deadfalls, the cut live trees along the bank below Falls Road.
Wildlife & Heritage Service Headquarters
Tawes State Office Building
E-1 580 Taylor Ave.
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-260-8540
Toll-free in Maryland: 1-877-620-8DNR, Ext. 8540
TTY Users, please use Maryland Relay
fax 410-260-8596
Central Region Manager
Ken D’Loughy
(Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Harford, Howard, Montgomery Counties and Baltimore City)
Seneca Wildlife Office
11960 Clopper Rd.
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
301-948-8243
Central Regional Biologist
Richard Wiegand
MD DNR - Wildlife and Heritage Service
Tawes State Office Building, E-1
580 Taylor Ave.
Annapolis, MD 21401
(301) 845-8997
i went to the dnr website, sent mail to several divisions via the feedback form
from http://www.dnr.state.md.us/mailroom.asp
the choices are Chesapeake Bay, Rivers, Streams, Coastal Bays and Watershed Information
Fisheries
Forestry
Licensing (titles, registration, etc) Natural Resources Police (Enforcement, Hunter/Boater Safety, Laws & Regulations)
Public Lands (Parks and Forests)
Wildlife and Heritage
Message for the DNR Webmaster
Technical Problems with the DNR web site
Other Issue
i sent to the bold ones, figure 1 should reply with something
The damage is already done and repairing it will take years but I would like to see these people held responsible for their actions, even if it is just a slap on the wrist fine. THogh Id hope the punishment would be quite hefty.
Here is a link to a paddling website that is discussing the removal of a strainer. There is also a link to an artical in the Baltimoore Sun Times. It sounds like a few white water types were afraid of a particular strainer and removed it. They had plans to do aa lot more but never followed through from the sounds of it in the artical.oh, the link: http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=chat&tid=772390
Sounds like most folks agree it was bone headed thing to do. I am a paddler as well and the boobs that did this should be punished. These days I am more of a fly fisher that paddles.
The website of the club…could any of y’all who are local check out their calendar and see if you can make it to their next meeting? might be nice to show up with a picket group to help those members who had nothing to do with the vigilantes get rid of the bad 'uns.
Well the link I had posted above has been deleted, which is unfortunate. I think if all responsible groups would work together we could get a lot of good done. I guess I have trouble understanding the “us versus them”. I like to do both activities, can’t understand why we can’t appreciate the resources and get along. Maybe that is human nature, while surfing it is kayak surfers vs. board surfers, then once you get beyond that, long board vs short boards, then it is local vs inland folks, sheesh, people are stupid sometimes. The same thing goes for skiing vs snow boarding, bait fisher and fly fishers. It is just plain doesn’t compute in my simple mind.
Funny. Back a few years ago a State Park in Tn was ‘irate’ about us riding our “land-raping” dirt bikes in the Park(really the equestrians wanted to take over that part of the park and they did everything they could to get us out). They said water build up from ATVs wallowing in the mud killed trees. There were about 3 trees dead there. So what did they do to keep us off the trails. Yup…they felled about 100 trees across trail access points.
Funny the then-clean camping area now smells and wreaks of horse shit and urine. The trails are now more washed out by erosion.
There is a sign coming into the Park that warns of $2,000+ fines for an ATV getting off designated 'trails" but it sure doesn’t mention fines for HORSES or humans getting off the trails.
Be careful what you read and hear from ‘officials’. Many times there is another agenda behind these kinds of things.
I don’t trust Park officials any further than I can throw them any more.
This is clearly a case of some malcontent yak’ers that took matters into their own hands in a designated wildland area inside a state park. The posts have been documented and thus far the state of MD has done little, if anything, to the offending parties. Laws are useless without enforcement! The only agenda here was to commit a premeditated crime.