Fells ParkServe Day

[Tim]

Hi Fells Dog Owners!

Were you all aware that this Saturday, April 25th, is ParkServe Day
all over Massachusetts?

I didn't see any activity on this forum about it, so I thought I might
throw it out there and see who might like to join in.

Both NEMBA and the Friends of the Fells are holding large scale
maintenance events in the Fells on Saturday. The NEMBA event is a
heavy duty multi-use trail rehabilitation project near Sheepfold, and
the FOF event is a major cleanup around the Flynn Rink area on
Woodland Road. The DCR ParkServe site is here:

http://parkserv.env.state.ma.us/home.aspx

...and you can get more information about the NEMBA event here:

http://www.gbnemba.org/trail-maintenance/maintenance-days/2009-04-25-fells.html

We would be thrilled to have more members of the Fells community join
us in giving back to the park, so please consider volunteering. We
will be gathering @ 8:00am in the overflow parking lot at Sheepfold,
expect about 50+ volunteers (there is more than enough work to go
around!), and will be finishing up at 4:30. Also, If we could please
ask the dog-walking community for forbearance and assistance in the
parking lot by perhaps shorter stays or parking elsewhere that day, it
would be a huge help. The Fells Dog Owners did an awesome job helping
us out with the parking situation last October when we had a different
event and we would be very appreciative of similar cooperation.

Thanks for reading through all this and we hope you will join one
event or the other to give back to this great park.

Best Regards,

-Tim
Greater Boston NEMBA

PS- A word of caution, however: while we love dogs also, it would not
be prudent to bring them to the work site with all the sharp
implements being used. Safety first!

[DogOwnerWhoVotes]

Thanks for the information, Tim. Just so you know, there has been no
discussion about Park Serve Day on this forum because the DCR did not
invite FellsDOG to participate or contact us about the event, though
we recently participated in a Partnership Chat event with the DCR, and
members of our group have participated in Park Serve events with the
DCR in the past. Had we
been contacted, we would have been happy to mobilize a large group of
dog owners to help out, since we all care deeply about protecting the
Fells, and look forward to opportunities to partner with the DCR.

I do hope that folks who read this blog will consider volunteering to
join in one of the two projects in the Fells on Saturday. And for
those who are not able to join in, please heed Tim's helpful
suggestion-- try to leave room in the parking lot on Saturday for the
volunteers!

On Apr 23, 5:19 pm, Tim <te.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Fells Dog Owners!
>
> Were you all aware that this Saturday, April 25th, is ParkServe Day
> all over Massachusetts?
>
> I didn't see any activity on this forum about it, so I thought I might
> throw it out there and see who might like to join in.
>
> Both NEMBA and the Friends of the Fells are holding large scale
> maintenance events in the Fells on Saturday. The NEMBA event is a
> heavy duty multi-use trail rehabilitation project near Sheepfold, and
> the FOF event is a major cleanup around the Flynn Rink area on
> Woodland Road. The DCR ParkServe site is here:
>
> http://parkserv.env.state.ma.us/home.aspx
>
> ...and you can get more information about the NEMBA event here:
>

> http://www.gbnemba.org/trail-maintenance/maintenance-days/2009-04-25-...

[Tim Post]

My apologies for this late notice – our Park Serve event at the
Middlesex Fells has been cancelled. Please pass this on to any of
your folks who planned on attending.

The Friends of the Fells lobbied hard to prevent us from restoring
existing singletrack for multi- use (specifically targeting mountain
bike use), arguing that such a trail violated the Wetland Protection
Act. The DCR will be reviewing the legitimacy of this claim, but in
the meantime have to postpone this event until a determination is
made.

Again, I apologize for the change of plan but we only heard about this
a few minutes ago.

-tim

[DogOwnerWhoVotes]

Wow-- that is a very interesting development. Tim-- would you please
keep us posted here when you learn more about what went into this
decision?

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>
> - Show quoted text -

[DogOwnerWhoVotes]

Tom Grimble, President of the Greater Boston Chapter of the New
England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA), posted this on the
chapter's website, about the last minute cancellation of NEMBA's Park
Serve event:

"I have some very bad news to report. The trail maintenance day that
was planned for tomorrow has been cancelled.

As many of you may know NEMBA has been working to create a new
singletrack corridor for bikes at the Fells. This corridor was located
to the east of Bear Hill Road. We originally planned this project two
years ago and have been working since then to get approval. The
planets came into alignment a few weeks ago when the DCR asked us to
proceed with this project for Park Serve day on Saturday, April 25th.
We have had a long history of approved projects being cancelled at the
last minute because of objections from the Friends of the Fells.
Because we feared this happening this time NEMBA devised a strategy to
keep a low profile for this project. We intentionally did not
advertise or provide any details on this forum or on our web sites. We
know the mountain bike community is tight and that the word would get
out if decided to pass information along by word of mouth. So the
decision was made to go "Viral".

Unfortunately, the Friends of the Fells got word of our plans three
days ago and mobilized to block our work day. We found out at 4pm on
Thursday that there were issues but were assured that the DCR was
behind our project and that we should not "worry". Philip Keyes and I
attended a two hour site walk with the Friends of the Fells and the
DCR. Again, I cannot stress how reasonable the DCR has been and I
cannot possibly convey how unreasonable the Friends of the Fells are.
I have long maintained that the Friends organization is not
unreasonable but only a few people in leadership positions. I no
longer believe this to the case. Hue Holley and David Hoff (the new
Chairman) have an obvious anti-bike agenda. They have enlisted some
other anti-bike detractors. These people are not reasonable. They are
ignorant to the issues and well practiced at executing a campaign of
obstruction. This time it would appear that they have used the
Stoneham Conservation Commission to create an injunction at the higher
levels of the DCR. They argue that we are performing work within the
buffer zone of a wetland and that the work needs to go through a
permit process. We disagree with this argument. Although it is true
that the trail goes through wetland areas, this is an existing trail
and we did not plan to do any work in the questionable areas until
after we have secured the proper permits. Because the complaint came
literally at the last minute (afternoon on the Friday before the work
was to be done) the DCR was forced to take a conservative position and
delay the project. Unfortunately, that means that our work day for
tomorrow needs to be cancelled but I believe we have strong support
from the DCR to make this project happen. The DCR will be filing for
the proper permits and you better believe there will be a fight at the
Conservation Commission hearing. I will let everybody know when that
hearing is scheduled and I hope they have a big enough room for us
all.

I know this is very discouraging. It is so easy to lose faith but
believe me when I say that this project will happen. Tim Post has
really gone out on a limb for this project. We all thought until a few
hours ago that this was going to happen. Do not get mad at Tim. I
believe that he, and NEMBA, did everything right. Don't blame the DCR
either. They are a large public entity and they cannot afford to be
anything but risk averse when it comes to this type of thing. If you
want to channel you anger, the Friends of the Fells are the ones to
blame. They are using the Stoneham Conservation Commission to obstruct
a project based on their opposition to the use on the trail. I have
faith that the commissioners in Stoneham will see through this ploy
and will provide a fair hearing. Yes, I am very discouraged but as I
write this NEMBA is already looking for ways to turn lemons into
lemonade. Keep the faith and I hope good things will be coming at the
Fells."

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