Great news. This morning (10/10/2013) the Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced that they are dropping the proposal to allow offroad vehicle trails on Sideling Hill. Thanks for all your help! Send a thank you to DNR Secretary Joe Gill.
The DNR announcement says the Sideling Hill proposals have been withdrawn and removed from further consideration as ORV trails. The announcement appears at: http://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2013/10/09/dnr-announces-results-of-off-road-vehicle-trail-review-process
Joe Gill, Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, applauded the public participation in this process.
“We are thankful to the citizens who took the time to share their input through the public process both at the meetings and through our online system.... This is a great example of the department working with our professionals in the field to craft sound proposals and using public input to help guide the ultimate outcome. We also recognize the great work of the ORV Stakeholder Workgroup in helping lead us to this proposal phase and promise to continue coordinating with them to find alternative locations for this type of recreation.”
The Departmen is moving forward with an offroad vehicle trail at St. Johns Rock in Savage River SF, which the Sierra Club did not oppose, as it will utilize an existing active road. However, as always, we will need to stay vigiliant, as these proposals often return in different forms. But for now, there's cause to celebrate.