OAKLAND — A board created to help protect Maryland’s only wild and scenic river has been ignored and rejected by local government.
Now, some stakeholders say they fear for the fate of the Wild Youghiogheny River, and question decisions made by county and state leaders that contradict law, regulations and a management plan designed to safeguard the river’s designated environment.
‘Has no functions’
Garrett County Commissioner Larry Tichnell this week told the Youghiogheny Scenic and Wild River Advisory Board it “has no functions to perform” for the county.
“We believe the State of Maryland has a Scenic and Wild Review Board and any recommendation concerning the Youghiogheny River should be made directly to the state board,” Tichnell said via prepared statement he read at the advisory board’s meeting.
The advisory board is “county-appointed” but “actually a state board,” he said.
“We feel that you should report to (the Department of Natural Resources),” he said.
“We feel that DNR is the governing body here, not us,” Tichnell said. “That’s our opinion.”
County has authority
The advisory board includes a cross section of Garrett County residents who recommended to the county last year that a new bridge on Swallow Falls Road follow the same alignment as the current structure.
“I don’t think we heard one word from the county,” Donald Sebold, chairman of the advisory board, told Tichnell at the recent meeting.
The advisory board should report to the county, he said.
Ultimately, the county, with DNR’s support, decided against the advisory board’s recommendation on the bridge project and pursued plans for the offset alignment.
Those plans will be challenged in Garrett County Circuit Court on April 2.
In December, DNR indicated the county has authority over the bridge project.
“If the county were to come back and say ‘we’re OK with closing this bridge’ … then our exception letter is no longer necessary,” said Paul Peditto, DNR’s assistant secretary for land resources, at the time.
‘In the open’
Meanwhile, the advisory board wants advance notice from county and state officials of any plans that involve the Wild Yough corridor, Sebold said.
“We get completely ignored,” he said. Information “needs to be in the open, not after the fact.”
Advisory board member Jeff McCauley said the state instructed the board to report to the county.
“I almost feel like I’m wasting my time,” McCauley said.
After the meeting, McCauley resigned from the advisory board. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
“Jeff McCauley was a very sincere member that provided well thought out input to the advisory board and I wish he was still on the advisory board,” Sebold said via email Friday.
‘A major element’
Layers of safeguards have been created over the years to preserve and protect natural values associated with the Wild Yough.
The 1996 Youghiogheny River Management Plan “recommends the creation of a permanent Youghiogheny River Advisory Board to provide input and advice on the implementation of this plan in a manner which preserves and protects the resource values of the Youghiogheny River.”
The group “will provide a major element of public involvement in the future decisions affecting the river,” the plan states.
The board “will advise Garrett County concerning the implementation and administration of the plan,” it states.
DNR code includes that the advisory board is to make recommendations on the inventory, study, plan, rule, and regulation “to its local governing body and to the Scenic and Wild Rivers Review Board.”
The review board consists of state secretaries of natural resources, agriculture, environment, and the Office of Planning and a member of the Garrett County Commissioners, who only votes on matters pertaining to the Wild portion of the Yough.
Sebold was chairman of the advisory board in 1996 and helped develop the management plan.
At the recent meeting, he talked of the Swallow Falls Road bridge location in “the most restrictive” zone in the Yough corridor.
“We’re trying to live up to what is in the management plan,” Sebold said.
Board ‘extremely important’
John Bambacus is a former state senator and mayor of Frostburg, and member of the Garrett County Forestry Board.
He is familiar with the legislative intent to protect the Wild Yough because he helped write the law.
“Garrett County has the only Wild portion of the Scenic and Wild Rivers Act,” Bambacus said.
A significant portion of the Wild corridor includes private property, he said.
“For that reason alone the property owners need to be protected,” Bambacus said.
“This advisory board is extremely important,” he said.
‘No citizen oversight’
Paul Durham was a career professional with the Maryland Park Service and for many years oversaw regulation and management of the Youghiogheny Wild River, Deep Creek Lake and Deep Creek Lake State Park.
The local advisory board “was nested in county government,” he said Friday.
The advisory board is a formal entity that provides citizen oversight for the management of the Yough, Durham said.
“Some of these people have given decades to the county and DNR,” he said of board members and their expertise on Yough protections.
Without the advisory board, “there is no citizen oversight,” Durham said.