[MA-RPC] FW: Development in Cumberland Valley

[Kerry Snow]

Thanks for sharing those links, Walt.  I don't know about the rest of the
folks in the committee, but I hadn't heard about this development plan.  I
thought the poster's comment "It seems that no one is aware of projects
affecting the AT until the bulldozers begin to tear through the
mountainside" was a sort of scary.  While that's obviously not true (I
noticed that Bob Williams was on your original distribution list), there's
an element of truth to it, I think, and that opinion is probably shared by
others in the AT community.

I think one of the big challenges for our committee will be the transition
from an annual discussion group to a working group with some muscle to act
on these sorts of threats.  I think we probably all agree that the role of
the MARPC, in situations like this, will be to coordinate activity between
the local clubs (who will, presumably be more sensitive to threats in their
community) with the Conservancy (who may have clout or dollars to address
the problem), but we'll need to develop a reliable mechanism, I think, to
make sure that this process is working.  One suggestion is to develop
sub-committees (or individuals in the MARPC) who will take on the
responsibility for coordinating certain types of work.  This will be on the
agenda for our October meeting, but it will be helpful to get the discussion
rolling beforehand.

On the topic of our October agenda, I'll be meeting with the Boiling Springs
staff on Monday to start hammering out details.  Please let me know if
anyone has particular items that should be on the list.  As indicated by the
example above, I think we're going to have some big issues to address, and
some organizational details that need to be worked out, so we're hoping to
keep the discussion as "regional" as possible (i.e. we're hoping to avoid
dead-end issues of local heartburn, such as if some chain sawyers resent
having to wear chaps).

Topics that will probably be on the agenda include 1) large trail projects
on the horizon (prioritization/budgeting/manpower), 2) regional budget
issues, 3) recruitment/membership (ATC, local clubs, leadership recruitment,
etc.), and 4) corridor issues (such as the Cumberland Valley development,
the Dutchess County development, etc.).  The over-arching issue will be how
our committee will identify and respond to all of these challenges, and the
mechanisms we'll use to coordinate between the maintaining clubs and the ATC
Mid-Atlantic Office.

At this point, we're planning a Fall meeting that will include a morning
get-together with our partners and State Mgmt Committee representatives, and
an afternoon session to address our committee agenda.  We're planning to get
rolling at 10 (coffee, etc. at 9), lunch around 1PM, wrap up around 5, with
dinner provided.  We're hoping to have invitations and a preliminary agenda
in the mail soon, so again, please let me know if there are issues you'd
like to see addressed.

I had several informal meetings, in Johnson City, with the other RPC Chairs
(Ned Kuhns from Virginia, Ann Sherwood from New England, and Don Walton from
the South).  It was reassuring to know that we're all on pretty much the
same trajectory, and facing the same sorts of challenges (figuring out our
role in the new organization).  The other committees are established along
the same lines as the MARPC and have similar meeting schedules (one meeting
with partners, one RPC-only get-together).  All of the other chairs are on
our e-mail distribution list, and all are welcome to join our meetings.

I suspect that our upcoming meeting will provide plenty of work for what was
once considered our "off season."  I'm looking forward to working with you
all, and hope we can have a full turnout in October.

Kerry



 

-----Original Message-----
From: ma-rpc-bounces at commerce-02.cilia.org
[mailto:ma-rpc-bounces at commerce-02.cilia.org] On Behalf Of Walt Daniels
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 8:19 PM
To: MARPC list
Subject: [MA-RPC] FW: Development in Cumberland Valley

 I should have sent this to the MARPC list as well. I think part of our
mandate is to watch for threats to the AT in our region. We need a mechanism
to rate the probabilities of bad things happening and escalate them as
necessary. But we can't do that unless we know about them.

In fact there is another similar project perking along in Dutchess County
(NY) which our committee is dealing with. It is in full view from the
Telephone Pioneers Shelter. 

Anybody else have some bad news?



-----Original Message-----
From: Walt Daniels [mailto:wdhiker at optonline.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 8:09 PM
To: Karen Lutz (klutz at appalachiantrail.org); Bob Williams
(bwilliams at atconf.org); Thyra Sperry (hikesperry at aol.com)
Subject: Development in Cumberland Valley

Discussion on AT list.