If you have been following this blog for a long time you will remember the land directly to the North of Riverdale Park Station was put up for sale by WMATA back in 2018. A developer had put a bid in to buy the land to build more townhomes, but the community pulled together and got M-NCPPC (Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission) to put a bid in that was accepted in 2019
The entire saga of this land is detailed here:
http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2019/05/victory-for-community-on-wmata-albion.html
The last I checked on the status of this land was back in March 2020 and M-NCPPC was still finalizing things but was expected to have closed on the land by Summer 2020. (may be a little slower now due to COVID).
But the point of this post was to talk about something great that a community member did to make this land usable.
Two weeks ago, a series of paths were cleared throughout all of the land.
I spoke to the guy who was out doing it by himself and he said he was not doing it at the direction of anyone, he just wanted to be able to use the land so he was clearing paths. He lives across the street over in University Park.
I walked some (but not all) of the paths that were cleared an here is a good overview of what's been now been cleared.
It really feels like you are somewhere out in the middle of nowhere even though you are right behind Riverdale Park Station. He did a great job clearing these paths.
The entry way is cleared directly from the Hiker/Biker Trail in both directions:
Here are some pictures from the rest of the walk, hope I captured how isolated it seems:
Also there is a lot of wildlife packed into this patch of woods. During this one walk I saw 4 rabbits. Two are in this first picture.
And there is an entire family of deer that lives back here. I have seen as many as 5 at one time with one baby. Almost every trip you will see at least one or two of them.
This is a great addiction to our little neighborhood and really I hope when the M-NCPPC transaction is finalized that they leave things exactly as they are as, it's perfect just as it is. Thanks to the University Park community member who took the initiative to do this. He was also one of the people who assisted me in the battle to keep this land from being developed.
One warning about this area is there are a lot of small ticks back there so make sure you wear higher socks and check yourself for them before coming back inside.
The last I checked on the status of this land was back in March 2020 and M-NCPPC was still finalizing things but was expected to have closed on the land by Summer 2020. (may be a little slower now due to COVID).
But the point of this post was to talk about something great that a community member did to make this land usable.
Two weeks ago, a series of paths were cleared throughout all of the land.
I spoke to the guy who was out doing it by himself and he said he was not doing it at the direction of anyone, he just wanted to be able to use the land so he was clearing paths. He lives across the street over in University Park.
I walked some (but not all) of the paths that were cleared an here is a good overview of what's been now been cleared.
It really feels like you are somewhere out in the middle of nowhere even though you are right behind Riverdale Park Station. He did a great job clearing these paths.
The entry way is cleared directly from the Hiker/Biker Trail in both directions:
Here are some pictures from the rest of the walk, hope I captured how isolated it seems:
Also there is a lot of wildlife packed into this patch of woods. During this one walk I saw 4 rabbits. Two are in this first picture.
And there is an entire family of deer that lives back here. I have seen as many as 5 at one time with one baby. Almost every trip you will see at least one or two of them.
This is a great addiction to our little neighborhood and really I hope when the M-NCPPC transaction is finalized that they leave things exactly as they are as, it's perfect just as it is. Thanks to the University Park community member who took the initiative to do this. He was also one of the people who assisted me in the battle to keep this land from being developed.
One warning about this area is there are a lot of small ticks back there so make sure you wear higher socks and check yourself for them before coming back inside.
