Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park, Travillah, MD

[Scott Young]

Hi,

Does anyone know how best to visit the Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park hot spot in Travillah (Montgomery County, MD)? Here is its link: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L4289724

Where to park, where to wander? Thank you

Scott Young

Gaithersburg, MD

[Hugh McGuinness]

So technically, the park is closed to the public and you need a permit from MoCo to enter. I have had a research permit there for a few years so I know the portion close to Piney Branch fairly well. There are no trails through the park, so you have to bushwhack and walking through the woods is difficult at points but not impossible (or impassable). There is a powerline right-of-way, but that is marked with No Trespassing signs. Ticks can be overwhelming at certain times, although I can't see a phenological pattern. Although I am doing moth work there, there are some fun birds in the area, but I haven't been this year so I don't know what is currently there.

Hugh

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Hugh McGuinness
Washington, D.C.

[Scott Young]

Here are some related links: 

https://sites.google.com/site/dcgreatoutdoors/serpentine-barrens

https://elizabethswildflowerblog.com/tag/serpentine-barrens-conservation-park/page/1/

https://cyclemoco.com/2014/01/pepco-responds-on-power-line-trail-issue/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/montgomery-county-mountain-bikers-are-charged-up-about-a-new-trail/2018/10/07/742b2cc6-ca3b-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html

Scott

[Scott Baron]

Hi, all.

I have been going to Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park once in a while for birding but I had not seen anything that says that the park is off limits without a permit.  The website, updated recently, only says for horseback riders to stick to adjacent established roadbeds..  

I will no longer visit except from the roadsides, unless the rules change.  It's a shame that trails haven't been created but I suppose the powers that be consider the habitat too sensitive.

Scott Baron

Gaithersburg, Md. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/CADFcpg_D34%3Dh88t-1CAyOuCV9Ge20Nn9Q_OPJ-%2BC3YX586qp1Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[Scott Young]

Thanks Scott. If I find out anything useful, I’ll let you all know?

Scott

On Jun 22, 2020, at 8:58 PM, Scott Baron <baron...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Andy Martin]

Hi Scott,

I usually just park off Piney Meeting House Rd at powerlines and walk in following the gravel road (and ignoring the no trespassing signs). Have never been bothered by anyone or told to get out. The adjacent woods are easy to wander around in with very little undergrowth. Not sure if that's due to a deer browse thing or its a serpentine barrens thing. About 1/2  or 3/4 mile from Piney Mtg house along the gravel powerline road you come to a grassy cross path. If recently mowed, easy to go left or right and continue wandering. If not mowed, seems to be Lone Star tick city! If properly dressed and protected for ticks no worries!

Hope this helps.

Andy Martin

Gaithersburg

ps - Have also gone in a back way cutting through woods at end of Pine View Ln. Again there's a community "no trespassing" sign that I choose to ignore.

[Hugh McGuinness]

Dear MD Birders,

I think my recollection for access to the Serpentine Barrens must be an old policy (or perhaps even a false memory). Following up on Scott's post I went to the Montgomery County Parks website which says that the park hours are "sunrise to sunset." Apologies for the confusion.

In answer to Scott's original question, one way to access the park is at the powerline cut along Piney Meetinghouse Rd.

Hugh

[Marcia Watson]

Returning to an old subject. Four years ago, there was a conversation in this group about birder access to Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park in Montgomery County. There were questions about whether it's legal to enter and where the access points are. I was doing research today on serpentine barrens in Maryland and stumbled upon an Operation and Use Plan for the Serpentine Barrens Conservation Park that was approved by the county in 2007. At that time, the plan was to put in some trails and there's a map of the proposed trails in the plan. I thought the plan might be of interest to those who bird there, so I've attached it here or it's available at https://montgomeryparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/serpentine-barrens-conservation-park-2007.pdf 

Note that, although the plan is dated 2007,  the URL suggests that it wasn't uploaded to the county website until 2023, which is why no one saw it during the discussion in 2020. I found it by doing an image search for trail maps of the property. It didn't come up on a normal search.

[Mike Bowen]

Kudos to Marcia Watson for finding this planning document for the Serpentine Barrens in Montgomery County.  The plans from 2007 seem not to have been implemented at all and it would be

instructive to find out why not. Perhaps the "agreement with PEPCO," whose high-voltage lines run through the area, was never reached.  In any event, the place is not welcoming to birders, or at least that's been my experience.

Mike Bowen, Bethesda