On Monday, May 7th, I attended a very interesting symposium about Trails and Water in the Anacostia Watershed. While I enjoyed presentations on water quality improvements in the Anacostia Watershed and other ongoing projects, I was most excited to hear updates regarding regional trails that are currently under construction, including estimated completion dates for some. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has united local governments whose joint efforts will eventually connect all of the trails in the region to facilitate north-south and east-west travel. If everything goes as planned, it will be possible to travel from Laurel down to Washington, D.C. and from Gaithersburg to Southern Maryland, all by way of off-road trails! Not to mention, many other localities and points of interest will be connected by this trail network as well.
There is still plenty of work to be done and it will take until almost 2015, if not longer, before these projects are completed, but it’s great to see that plans have been made and progress is underway.
As an aside, there were also a number of presentations made by third year UMD students from the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation on the subject of the Brier’s Mill Run Watershed. These presentations showcased new ideas and highlighted very sensible suggestions for change. The students seem invested in the local community, and expressed interest in spending more time the field to develop and institute future planning projects.
-Michael Levengood, bikeUMD Bicycle Coordinator
Bike UMD 
Isn’t Gaithersburg already in Southern Maryland? Also, Laurel to DC is only ten miles. So by 2015 (at the earliest) we’ll have an hour’s worth of cycling trails. Whoop-de-fricken-doo!
I guess anything is better than what we have in Silver Spring, where the powers that be classify every walking trail through local parks as bike trails, just so they can pad their numbers.
With Gaithersburg already in Southern Maryland and Laurel to DC only ten miles, that means that by 2015 (at the very earliest) Maryland will have another hour’s worth of cycling trails. Whoop-de-fricken-doo!