Help Shape the Future of Equestrian Activities in Montgomery County!

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010, BOYDS, MD — You have an opportunity to speak up for and help shape the future of equestrian activities in Montgomery County, Maryland!

Montgomery Parks, M-NCPPC and the Montgomery County Department of Recreation are currently participating in a process to develop a vision and strategic plan for park and recreation services in Montgomery County. The project is being coordinated across both departments by GreenPlay, LLC and will take up to 18 months to complete.

Montgomery Parks, M-NCPPC and the Montgomery County Recreation Department are hosting two public meetings this month.

They’re seeking feedback from the public on which types of activities and programs they should be offering, which should recover all costs through user fees and which services should be primarily covered by your tax dollars. Your input will help guide the long-term planning for our county’s parks and recreation services, facilities and programs.

• Public Meeting #5
  Monday September 13, from 7:00 PM- 8:30 PM
  Gwendolyn Coffield Community Center
  2450 Lyttonsville Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20910
• Public Meeting #6
  Tuesday September 14, from 7:00- 8:30 PM
  UpCounty Regional Services Center
  Meeting Room A
  12900 Middlebrook Road, Germantown, Maryland 20874

Past meeting information and links have been posted on the project calendar. Focus Group meeting notes are also available for you to review here.

Please plan to attend a meeting and make your voice heard. If YOU don’t speak up for the future of equestrian activities in our county, YOU risk losing them!

Fairfax County Requests Proposals for Riding Program

September 4, 2010—Fairfax County, Virginia, is soliciting sealed proposals to establish a contract or contracts through competitive negotiation for Horseback Riding Classes and Camps for the Fairfax County Park Authority and other Fairfax County departments. The contract will begin on the date of award and terminate March 31, 2015. All proposals are due on or before September 20, 2010.

To download a copy of the Request for Proposal, click here.

Naomi Manders to be Honored at MHC 4th Annual BBQ

EPIC board member Naomi Manders will be presented with the Anne & Gilbert Pumphrey Memorial Award in recognition of and grateful appreciation for her dedication to the equestrian trails of Montgomery County & Maryland at the Maryland Horse Council’s 4th Annual BBQ Picnic, September 18, 2010, in Fair Hill, Maryland.

In honor of MHC’s 25th anniversary, TROT will be sponsoring an informal, horseback tour of the 5,633 acres sold to the state by the DuPont family. The tour will include a visit to the cattle operation, the steeplechase course, the covered bridge and the remaining vestiges of the fox pen including the foxhound kennels. Louisa Emerick, a local who has spent many hours riding driving and walking these grounds since the early 1960′s will lead the trail ride and share many anecdotes about the grounds and its history.

Ride to begin at 11 a.m. and ends at approximately 2 p.m.
Helmet and negative coggins required.
(trail ride is free and open to non-members)
Please contact Ron MacNab for the start location and directions to the ride: (301) 622-4157 or rmacnab@comcast.net

BBQ is from 4 to 8 p.m. (registration required)
Location: Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center, 720 Training Center Drive, Elkton Maryland 21921
To register online visit www.mdhorsecouncil.org by September 10.

For more information or to print the event flyer, click here.

State Nutrient Management Plans for Equine Operations

Farmer Training & Certification for Horse Operations
July 20, 22 and August 17, 19, 2010

A wide range of horse operations are required to have nutrient management plans. If your operation generates a gross annual income of $2,500 or more, or has 8,000 pounds or more of live animal weight at the farm, you need a nutrient management plan. Learn the legal and technical components of a nutrient management plan and become certified to develop a state-approved plan for your own farm.

This is an evening course that will meet four times – July 20 and 22 (training), August 17 (exam), and August 19 (plan writing).

Fee: $30

Time: 5:30 pm-9:30 pm

Location: Howard County Fairgrounds www.howardcountyfair.com/ , 2210 Fairgrounds Road, West Friendship, MD 21794

Contact: Maryland Department of Agriculture  websteme@mda.state.md.us 410-841-5959

Help Support Conservation (and EPIC) at the Green Cup of Polo Pre-Event Happy Hour!

Where: Comus Inn, 23900 Old Hundred Road, Dickerson (intersection of Rt. 109 and Comus Rd.)
What: Discounted Happy Hour drinks and free hors d’oevres! Watch the Green Cup Polo video, learn about the event and its beneficiaries (including EPIC!) purchase event tickets as well as the fabulous new Green Cup bracelets and cuff links designed by Evelyn Brooks.
To purchase tickets for the 4th Annual Green Cup of Polo, June 27, 2010, click here.

Support Easement Incentive Extension in the House, Thank President Obama

News from the Land Alliance Trust

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Support Easement Incentive Extension in the House

Two months after passing the Senate, the House of Representatives is finally on the verge of considering an extension of the enhanced easement incentive. It’s not a done deal yet, so we need your help today!

“Extenders” Bill Heading to the House Floor, Includes Easement Incentive

Last week House and Senate negotiators reached a breakthrough on how to pay for H.R. 4213, the American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes, and Preventing Outsourcing Act. That bill would extend the enhanced tax deduction for conservation easement donations through December 31, 2010 and make it retroactive to January 1.

House leaders announced their intention to bring H.R. 4213 directly to the House floor on Wednesday, paving the way for final Senate passage and the President’s signature before Memorial Day. Unfortunately, some Representatives are now balking at the cost of this bill–about $220 billion. The easement incentive is less than one tenth of one percent of that total, but we need help persuading your Representative that, one way or the other, the Congress needs to get this extension done:

1. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

2. Ask for your Representative and then ask for the staff member who handles tax issues.

3. Tell them about EPIC and how the enhanced easement incentive helped you conserve special places in their district. Then indicate how the lapse in the incentive resulted in confusion and halted landowners from moving forward on conservation donations.

4. Urge your Rep. to get the “Extenders Bill,” H.R. 4213, done.

5. Check if your Rep. has co-sponsored H.R. 1831 (our bill to make the incentive permanent). If so, be sure to thank them! If not, ask them to co-sponsor by contacting Jonathan Birdsong in Rep. Mike Thompson’s office at 5-3311.

6. Invite your Rep. to visit a conserved property over the Memorial Day recess. For ideas, examples and dates of other upcoming recesses, please click here.

H.R. 4213 also includes one-year extensions of two other provisions we’ve been following: the IRA Charitable Rollover, which allows certain taxpayers to make penalty-free IRA withdrawals for charitable donations, and the “S-Corp fix,” which allows S-Corporation shareholders to deduct the fair market value of charitable donation, rather than just their basis in the corporation’s stock.

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Thank President Obama for Launching America’s Great Outdoors

As you’ve heard in recent alerts, the Obama Administration recently launched its America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. As part of this effort, organizations like yours have been invited develop conservation solutions for the 21st century. Our Americas Great Outdoors webpage features several ways to promote ideas that support your organization’s work, but today we’re asking your help to thank the President for launching the initiative and to encourage him to make it bold enough to provide a lasting legacy for future generations.

The President wants to take the best ideas from communities that are working to save the places they love and that provide jobs to communities, and build on these successful local efforts. He has invited every American to help shape this effort: local businesses, private land owners, public land users, city-dwellers, suburban families, and rural communities.

We believe that land trusts and their work can and should be at the heart of this initiative. Saying thank you today is an important part of driving that message home. We’ve drafted a template email you can send via the White House organizational contact form and to ago@ios.doi.gov. Please customize it as much as possible! The White House hates form letters, so it’s even better if you just use this template to guide a letter you draft from scratch.

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of [ORGANIZATION], I want to thank you for launching the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative: a 21st Century strategy for conservation in America.

As a homegrown network of [# OF MEMBERS] concerned citizens throughout [YOUR SERVICE AREA], [ORGANIZATION] is at the front lines of the effort to conserve the places that make America special. Through innovative partnerships with private landowners and our partners in government, we’re beginning to turn the tide against the unplanned development that has put a growing strain on our wildlife, our waters and our treasured landscapes.

We truly appreciate your decision to mention America’s 1,600 local land trusts in your remarks launching this initiative. It is our belief that the federal government can achieve far more with its limited resources by working through local partners like [ORGANIZATION] to engage private landowners in communities across America.

Take the example of… [Mention a recent success story and how the federal government did or could support your work.]

We’re particularly hopeful this initiative will provide the resources organizations like mine need through programs like… [Mention 1 or 2 ideas you'd like to see enacted.]

[For additional ideas, please see our full talking points.]

Thank you, Mr. President, for making America’s Great Outdoors a priority. We need and are grateful for your leadership in launching a process our nation desperately needs to better protect the places that sustain us and define us as a people. From our majestic parks to our collective backyards, America’s Great Outdoors is a legacy we owe to our children and grandchildren.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME, TITLE, ORGANIZATION and FULL ADDRESS]

Be a Part of Something Big! Ride for the Rescues

(May 14, 2010)–The American Competitive Trail Horse Association is hosting a US-wide ride to benefit horse rescues and charities across the country as well as try for a Guinness World Record for largest single day trail riding competition.

The Maryland ride will take place at Graham Equestrian Center in Glen Arm, Maryland, on June 13. Registration closes June 10.

For more information on the Maryland ride, click here. To read more about ACTHA, the Ride for the Rescues and other locations, click here.

American Horse Council to Hold Recreation Forum at Annual Meeting in June

WASHINGTON, DC (May 5, 2010)–The American Horse Council (AHC) invites all recreational riders and equestrians to attend the AHC Recreation Forum Tuesday, June 22, 2010, from 1:00–5:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The recreation forum will emphasize issues of importance to recreational riders around the country.

The highlight of the program will be two panel discussions. The first panel will focus on building better relationships between equestrians and local federal land mangers and will include leaders from the National Park Service, National Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies. The second panel will spotlight the shared interest of equestrians, other recreation groups and conservationists.

The forum will also include several presentations from groups such as Backcountry Horsemen of America and the American Quarter Horse Association.

“This is a great opportunity for recreational riders in the Washington, DC area to hear what concerns are on the mind of other recreational riders, what national groups around the country are doing, and how equestrians can better work with their land mangers,” said AHC Legislative Director Ben Pendergrass.

The recreation forum is being held in conjunction with the AHC national issues forum. The cost to attend the recreation forum is $25. For more information on registering for the Forum, visit www.horsecouncil.org/events.php and click on the registration form.

Spring 2010 EPIC Newsletter

Click here to read the Spring 2010 EPIC newsletter.

Help Shape the Future of Trails in Montgomery County!

March 30, 2010–Your input will help shape the future of trails, parks and recreation in Montgomery County!

The Montgomery County Department of Parks and the Montgomery County Department of Recreation invite you to participate in a focus group on trail use needs to help us effectively plan for the next 20 years. Any interested person has the opportunity to provide input into “Vision 2030”, which is a new Strategic Plan for Parks and Recreation in Montgomery County. The intent of this plan is to identify how to most effectively meet the needs of a changing community over the next 20 years in regards to parks, recreation, cultural heritage, natural spaces and trails. In order to identify these needs, we are asking for your help.

As a component of the planning process, we are conducting a series of focus groups meetings with community leaders and residents. Because we value your opinion about trail, equestrian, and bike path facilities and issues, we wanted to personally invite you to the focus group meeting.

This focus group meeting for users of both natural surface trails and hard surface trails (also known as hiker-biker trails) will be held on Tuesday April 27, 2010 from 7-8:30 p.m., in the Lounge Meeting Room of the Parkside Headquarters Building at 9500 Brunett Avenue in Silver Spring MD 20901 (see directions below). All trail users are invited to participate including walkers, runners, hikers, cyclists, mountain bikers and equestrians.

The meeting will be facilitated Jim Klein of Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects, a team member from the consulting team led by GreenPlay that is developing the plan for the County. At this meeting you will be given an opportunity to provide input on the future needs for natural and hard surface trails,  parks, and recreation in Montgomery County, including discussing strengths, opportunities for improvement, key issues, potential partnerships, etc.

Please reply to this email  Vision2030@montgomeryparks.org if you would like to attend. For additional information on Vision 2030, please visit our Web site www.VisionMontgomery2030.org. For other questions please contact Tanya Schmieler 301-650-4392.

Directions to Parkside: From Colesville Rd (Rt. 29), turn west onto Sligo Creek Parkway, and then bear right onto Brunett Avenue. Take the first driveway on left and the Park Headquarters Building is at the top of the hill on the left.  The meeting room is all the way down the hall on the right.

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