GinohnNews

G: I spent the first half of the (news) week with a slight cold. I managed to get up and do some things, but then I 'd get worn out and have to rest most of the day. Plus a lot of congestion. Snot.

John and I were thinking of attending some Why Did The Chicken ...? events at Balticon, but John had caught my cold and spent the weekend at home.  That was too bad since Larry NIven was supposed to be there and John was looking forward to that. I was feeling well enough to go to a party at Renee and Alex's n Saturday. I came in just in time to join in a game of Celebrities (commercial version: Time's Up!), with Petra as my partner. It didn't seem like we were doing all that well except for a couple of rounds when we got a lot, but we ended up winning! Then we played an unreleased party game by Dominic (of Wits & Wagers fame). We've been playing this game every once in a while for a couple of years it seems. Wits & Wagers has taken up most of Dominic's game company's time, and he hasn't been able to work on it. But Wits & Wagers is slated to be sold at Target, he just has to raise a lot of money for the print run. A LOT of money.

Sunday was probably just a lazy day.  I don't remember anything about it.

Monday John and Kory and I went to a bench dedication for Joyce Abell, my friend who died last summer. A lot of people got up and said something about how wonderful and helpful Joyce was. Then we chatted with various friends before we had to leave so we could go to a party for our oldest nieces. John's brother Bill's daughters Erin and Emily graduated college and high school, respectively. We had a great time and congratulations to them!

J: After some heavy 11th hour debates Greenbelt's city council voted to adapt the Forest Preserve Task Force's management and maintenance guidelines, almost as is.  I was on the task force from its inception two years ago and I was glad to see that all our hard work was finally rewarded.

Big kudos to Keith, Marc, Ruth, and Luisa! They said everything I hoped someone from our task force would say, and certainly said it better than I could have. Sorry if I missed anyone who spoke from the FPTP side here. It was a long night.

I think Matt Berris's arguments should be considered carefully; he seems quite knowledgeable when it comes to forest health issues. He could be an asset to the future Forest Preserve Board.

That said, I disagree with his comments regarding trail erosion and traffic in the Greenbelt woods, though they may be generally true for other Eastern coastal woods.

Matt said that unmanaged trails can create bad erosion, especially at stream crossings. For our woods, I don't see much evidence of this. Most of the erosion I see appears to be due to heavy amounts of water runoff from surrounding parking lots, roads, and yards (and I'm glad Matt brought up his efforts to deal with that - rain barrels and rain gardens, etc.). Our woods has a deep layer of clay just under the top soil, so at most stream crossings the ground is compacted and there is little erosion. Case in point - Canyon Creek in the North Preserve has several crossings, but most of the erosion occurs along the whole length of the canyon. I have walked along it many times and have actually seen loose clay and dirt falling from the cliff edges on the non-trail side, while at the crossings there is hard clay. The canyon (an entire exhibit of erosion) was created by runoff from Ridge Road, Laurel Hill Road and the houses and yards around there.

Matt also exaggerated the amount of traffic in the woods. He said that on any Saturday there are "hundreds of people" walking through the woods. Again, I don't see this. I have spent many Saturdays wandering through the woods for hours without running into anyone.

I forget the guy's name, but an older man (older than me that is; maybe 50 - 60 years) spoke at the meeting. He told council that he is a lifetime backpacker, and has hiked through many forests all over the country. He is amazed at our trails, and considers them to be in much better shape than many managed trails in national forests.

I also agreed with Izolda's point that fallen trees on trails aid in stopping erosion. I have seen examples of that in our woods (check out the Plateau Place trail).

Finally I thoroughly enjoyed the comments from a wise, elderly lady (who looked a healthy 80 or 90), who said she walks into the woods almost every day, manages to climb over and sometimes under trees, and considers these obstacles to be part of her joyful woods experience. She spoke of the privilege of seeing a tree fall, and said that every time she goes into the woods she sees something new. She said that a year ago she was going through difficult physical problems, and her forays through the woods provided great therapy.

By the way, the forest is beautiful lately. If you go into it right near sundown, the birds are singing and everything is cool and green. It's really dreamlike.