OAKLAND — Ancient trees in a one-of-a-kind Garrett County hemlock forest are the East Coast’s equivalent of California’s redwoods, J. Dirk Schwenk said.
He said if he had one wish to be granted, it would be for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to stop a plan that would destroy many of the local centuries-old trees.
Schwenk, of Annapolis-based Baylaw, LLC, last week filed a nearly 700-page legal document to undo a decision made by DNR Secretary Josh Kurtz that would allow development in the Youghiogheny Wild River Scenic Corridor.
The court case involves a proposal by Garrett County officials to build a new road and bridge on the state-protected land.
Schwenk’s legal brief “emphasizes that the DNR ignored its own regulations preventing roads, bridges and clearing in an Irreplaceable Natural Area and failed to provide any explanation for such critical issues as how replanting new trees can possibly make up for clear cutting old growth forest,” he said.
On Friday, DNR media relations Manager Gregg Bortz said “the department has no comment” on the appeal.
Background
Kurtz in August 2023 granted a conditional exception for Garrett County to construct a new bridge on Swallow Falls Road in the state-designated Youghiogheny Wild River Scenic Corridor.
The county, which said it wanted to keep the existing Swallow Falls Road bridge open while a new bridge and road were built nearby, needed DNR’s approval to sidestep environmental protections aimed to prevent development of the area.
Opponents argued that plan would destroy centuries-old trees, threaten a fragile ecosystem and violate laws written to protect the Wild Yough, and requested the new bridge be built in the existing span’s footprint, which would require the road closed during construction.
In September 2023, Schwenk, who represented The Old Growth Forest Network, and Yough Farms, LLC, owned by Steve Storck, asked Garrett County Circuit Court to make Kurtz withdraw his exception for the county.
The group argued Kurtz’s decision for the exception, which contradicted a recommendation from the Youghiogheny River Advisory Board for the new bridge to follow the same alignment as the current span, would require “significant clearing, grading and loss of trees and habitat immediately adjacent to and on both sides of the Youghiogheny River.”
In November, DNR and the Garrett County Board of Commissioners asked Garrett County Circuit Court to dismiss the request filed by Storck and the other petitioners.
Garrett County Circuit Court visiting Judge W. Timothy Finan in April denied the county and state’s request and the case moved forward.
In April, Finan ruled DNR had “sufficient justification” to conclude “the exception was consistent with the Scenic and Wild Rivers Act and not injurious to the river.”
Strict application of the regulations “would cause unnecessary hardship particularly to the health, safety and welfare of those having to detour while a repair closed the existing bridge,” Finan ruled at that time.
Appeal
Last week, Schwenk submitted a brief on behalf of Yough Farms et al to the Appellate Court of Maryland.
“The county, for its part, refused to ever make a plan to put the new bridge in the footprint of the existing bridge, despite being asked to do so for years by the DNR and the MDE,” Schwenk said. “In reviewing the materials from the DNR, we found that both the DNR and the MDE bluntly told the county to make plans to put the bridge in the existing footprint, but the county simply would not do so.”
The Maryland Department of the Environment in 2021 said it “is alarming to note that the width of the limit of disturbance is three times wider than the existing roadway” and directed Garrett County to plan the development to fit the site, protect and avoid natural resources, protect and avoid steep slopes and minimize disturbed areas,” Schwenk said.
In 2022, DNR told county officials its preference was “for the bridge to remain open on the existing alignment,” he said. “The county ignored those requests.”
Storck, who owns property in the Youghiogheny Wild River Scenic Corridor, on Friday said the goal of the appeal is to challenge the exception DNR granted the county.
DNR’s senior administrators had warned the exception was contrary to the Yough’s protections, he said.
Records show in 2023, Mary Owens, a DNR planner at the time, said “there will be impacts” to the Yough corridor.
“I value those protections,” Storck said and added DNR is “throwing out environmental laws as they see fit.”
He talked of a dangerous statewide precedent that will be set if the exception is upheld.
DNR has “laid the ground work for future encroachments, future violations,” Storck said. “It’s not OK.”
Fund
Storck said DNR had previously agreed to not allow any construction activities on the site until the legal challenge is decided.
“Other than some rhododendron and mountain laurel cutting by surveyors and the hundreds of trees with ribbons on them marking their fate if we lose they have honored this pledge,” he said.
Storck found Schwenk via the Chesapeake Legal Alliance.
“We were really lucky to get Dirk,” Storck said.
While Schwenk represents Storck and the others in the appeal on a pro-bono basis, court costs in the fight for the Wild Yough corridor have reached nearly $2,000.
The Old Growth Forest Network and Yough Farms have shared in the expenses to date.
Storck is working with the Mountain Watershed Association to set up the Youghiogheny Wild River Legal Defense Fund to cover expenses and provide monies for potential future challenges to the Wild Yough.
The Mountain Watershed Association’s website includes a donation button and space where folks can designate their support for the Wild Yough in Maryland.
“It’s important for environmental protections in the Wild Yough and across the state,” Storck said.