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Driving down Route 113 between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City, the trailhead for the Blue Bike Trail is easy to miss.
There aren鈥檛 any signs or hiking blazes, but nestled in the woods is a grassy parking area, and the beginning of a 0.7-mile walking trail in the Pocomoke State Forest.
The trail may be short in length and unassuming from the roadside, but a commercial logging plan proposed by Maryland鈥檚 Department of Natural Resources has brought the lesser-known trail into the limelight.
The department plans to cut patches of trees from a 45-acre tract beside the trail. But a group of naturalists, birders and other community members are fighting the plan, arguing that the tract represents a rare mature forest on Maryland鈥檚 Eastern Shore, with a host of benefits to people and wildlife.
As Joan Maloof, a Berlin-based conservationist who founded the nonprofit Old Growth Forest Network, studied the plan for 2025, the land in Pocomoke State Forest stood out.
鈥淭his particular one: It鈥檚 97 years old, and it sounds like it has some big trees, mixed species,鈥� she thought to herself. 鈥淚 want to go check it out.鈥�
The plot was established in 1927, though DNR says the trees are varying ages. Some were planted after clearing. Some grew naturally. But walking through the forest, Maloof saw something unique.
鈥淚 go check it out, and I realize: 鈥極h, my God, this is such a beautiful forest, and it鈥檚 right on a recreational trail,鈥欌�� said Maloof, who is also an emeritus professor of environmental studies and biology at Salisbury University.
Maloof spearheaded an effort to send comments to DNR, pushing for two areas, totaling about 69 acres, to be removed from the logging plan, which designated some 1,700 acres for cutting and thinning.
The state issues logging plans each year for its state forest acreage. And with any cut, the department strives for balance, including between the needs of the ecosystem and the desire to support the local logging industry, said State Forester Anne Hairston-Strang. The department believes the cut in Pocomoke achieves that balance, she said.
鈥淲e want to save the bay. We keep a lot of our land rural,鈥� Hairston-Strang said. 鈥淲ant to keep our land rural? We need a viable rural economy, and so [there鈥檚] this balance between our ecology, the social impacts for jobs and the economic impacts, where we鈥檙e using, what the land grows.鈥�
The pushback about the Blue Bike Trail seems to have caught the state鈥檚 attention. The area is still on DNR鈥檚 list to be logged this year, but the state is slow-walking the cut.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not rushing into any harvest,鈥� Hairston-Strang said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to talk to people. If it needs to go through the work plan process again, it can. We鈥檙e not rolling any machines in.鈥�
At the very beginning of the Blue Bike Trail, rows and rows of thin, and therefore relatively unremarkable, loblolly pines dominate the landscape on either side.
But then, the forest transforms into something altogether different. Thicker trees begin to crop up beside the trail: oaks, sassafras, beeches and more.
That鈥檚 about where hikers see the first strand of pink tape encircling a tree trunk, delineating the beginning of the proposed logging area.
鈥淚 immediately recognized that it was a special tract of forest,鈥� said Bronwyn Betz, a Berlin resident who is also opposed to the cut. 鈥淎nd I know from hiking around here that sometimes that鈥檚 not the case. Sometimes you get a lot of pine, and it鈥檚 just not as ecologically valuable.鈥�
DNR notes that the Pocomoke State Forest includes several designated 鈥淥ld Growth Ecosystem Management Areas,鈥� totaling 4,623 acres. In those places, DNR is aiming to nurture the forest and avoid cutting, with the goal of eventually bringing the tracts into 鈥渙ld growth鈥� status. Five additional acres of the state forest are already considered old-growth.
The area proposed for cutting, which DNR calls the 鈥淭arr tract,鈥� is not in either of those designated areas, Hairston-Strang said.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to just provide mature habitat. We have a big commitment to it. We like our old growth. We like our big trees,鈥� Hairston-Strang said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just looking to provide some of the other end of the age spectrum, too, because we really are seeing habitat declines.鈥�
A goal behind the cut is stimulating the growth of the understory, Hairston-Strang said, growing an additional habitat type in the Pocomoke forest. That鈥檚 part of the reason why DNR selected patches of the Tarr tract for cutting.
鈥淚f we just select a tree here and there, you鈥檙e probably not going to generate the kind of light levels that will really cause that understory response,鈥� she said. 鈥淪ome people will walk up to this and say, 鈥極h, it鈥檚 a clear-cut.鈥� And they don鈥檛 see the careful retention of some individual trees.鈥�
Even if it is not a clear-cut, Maloof argues that the tree removal will do too much harm to the overall ecosystem 鈥� and to the public鈥檚 enjoyment of it.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not good enough. We want you to just not. It鈥檚 only 45 acres,鈥� Maloof said. 鈥淧lease listen to the people.鈥�
She fears that DNR ceded too much to the logging industry, which may have sought to log more of the thicker trees, as opposed to the thinner loblolly pines.
DNR argues that it follows best practices for cuts. Maryland State Forests are also certified as sustainably managed through Forest Stewardship Council and Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Hairston-Strang said.
鈥淲e pay for people to come out and criticize us every year, and we do both office and field audits, so they鈥檙e out in the field and looking at sites,鈥� Hairston-Strang said.
The department is hoping creating clearings in the forest could also attract more deer and turkeys, since the area is a hunting location that allows disabled hunters to shoot from their vehicles using the trail, Hairston-Strang said. And that it will reduce fuel for potential wildfires.
Dave Wilson, an Eastern Shore birder who also serves on Maryland鈥檚 Critical Area Commission for the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays, said he鈥檚 walked the trail since the 1990s.
鈥淚t was always really good for forest interior-dwelling species 鈥� songbirds that require large contiguous areas of woods,鈥� said Wilson, who recently sold his 30-year-old birding trip company called Delmarva Birding Weekend.
That includes black-and-white warblers, scarlet tanagers, prothonotary warblers and more, Wilson said. But he鈥檚 also spotted other species, such as red-shouldered hawks and Eastern screech owls. He worries that if patches of trees are removed from the area, destroying certain nesting habitats, many of the beloved bird species wouldn鈥檛 return.
鈥淢ost of what they manage, they just cut every 30 or 40 years for loblolly pine monoculture, and there鈥檚 really nothing living in there,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a cornfield from a biodiversity standpoint, and there鈥檚 thousands of acres of that. And one of the reasons we鈥檙e up in arms about this 鈥� is because we feel like that needs to change.鈥�
Betz said the Pocomoke State Forest is something of a 鈥渉idden gem,鈥� compared to the more well-known Ocean City-adjacent hiking trails, such as those on Assateague Island, which hosts both state park and national park land.
She first visited the trail after it appeared on the logging plan, and quickly decided it was worth fighting for. Bright white mountain laurels bloomed among a diverse array of trees, creating a rare environment.
鈥淚 know they say they鈥檙e going to selectively cut, but when you have these beautiful mountain laurel shrubs and different things 鈥� damage is going to happen to things, no matter what they say,鈥� Betz said.
She brought a group of young 4-H students to the trail, and a few of the students penned letters pushing back against the cut, she said.
鈥淢any of us have grown up camping, hiking and biking in these woods. We do not want this beautiful trail to be logged,鈥� wrote her 15-year-old son, Ewan. 鈥淭here are many species that will lose their homes if this plan is not stopped.鈥�
Betz said she hopes that DNR will not only opt against cutting along the trail, but put up signage along the roadside, so that the trail gets more use from local residents and visitors alike.
鈥淚 had a hard time finding it 鈥� and then I had a hard time finding it a second time,鈥� she said.
Betz said she understands the desire to uplift local logging companies and mills. But the trail also has an economic value as-is, thanks to the ecotourism it鈥檚 capable of attracting 鈥� and already attracts, she said.
鈥淵ou really can鈥檛 put a dollar amount on it,鈥� Betz said. 鈥淚t actually probably brings in way more money than people would think.鈥�
