Friends of Gwynns falls leakin park

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One of FOGFLP's claims to fame is that our volunteers spend well over 1,000 hours every year helping the park. Volunteers are the soul of our nonprofit organization, and their work is fundamental to our identity. But who are these people? And what, exactly, do they do on behalf of Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park?

Meet the FOGFLP Tuesday Work Team. Every Tuesday from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., in all but the very worst weather, about a half-dozen sturdy volunteers gather on Eagle Drive or in Winans Meadow, depending on what needs doing that day. Most are retirement age, and some have been showing up in the park on Tuesday mornings, like clockwork, for many years.

People give their time to FOGFLP in lots of different ways – leading hikes, doing committee work, helping out with tech and communications. But Tuesday mornings in the park are where the vast majority of those annual volunteer hours are spent.

They come armed with trash pickers – sadly, there is always litter to be removed. Clad in work boots and gloves, they clear brush from trails and remove invasive vines from trees. Sometimes they put down mulch and chips to nourish the gardens along Eagle Drive and at the Ben Cardin Pavilion.

Occasionally, the group takes on bigger projects. More than a decade ago, husband and wife pair Antonio Carpenter and Brenda Pinkney spearheaded the removal of invasives from a large section of the Crimea area, in the process reviving the magnolia grove that blooms magnificently every year in early spring.

Although Tuesday is the focus, the work sometimes takes place on other days. A small group tends the park’s gardens on Saturdays. Some venture into GFLP on a near-daily basis, removing trash as they go.

Then there are the larger weekend cleanups that occur several times a year. Collaboration is an important aspect of these efforts; in recent times, the Work Team has partnered with volunteers from UMBC, Outward Bound, REI Corp., T.Rowe Price, Baltimore Weed Warriors, Mid-Atlantic Audubon, TreeBaltimore, TreeKeepers, and others.

Over the years, FOGFLP volunteers have made numerous visible improvements to the park. One of the more notable of these is the wooden trail signs that help guide visitors throughout GFLP. Recently, volunteers installed a Little Free Library and restored the iconic bronze eagle statues on Eagle Drive. One of the team’s current projects is fixing up and painting a gazebo off Eagle Drive that had fallen into disrepair.

The Tuesday team’s close collaboration with city trail workers is a critical factor. Volunteers regularly survey the landscape, reporting their findings of dumped trash, damaged boardwalks, and downed trees to Baltimore City Recreation and Parks’ Trails Division staff.

“We have a wonderful, cooperative relationship with the trail workers, Kenny and Sarah, and Trail Division Manager Tim Howell,” says Peggy Cummings, organizer of the Tuesday Work Team and head of FOGFLP’s Environment Committee (membership in the two groups is largely overlapping).

The Tuesday Work Team as it exists today was started in the early 2000s by Jo Orser, a longtime volunteer and former FOGFLP board president. Although the same group has made up the core of the team for years, new volunteers are always welcome. Anyone wishing to get involved should contact Peggy Cummings at pgh09peg@gmail.com or Executive Director Mike Cross-Barnet at execdirect@friendsofgwynnsfallsleakinpark.org. 

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FOGFLP: Tell me about your background. I understand you’re new around here?

Tim Howell: I’m originally from New York. I have a lot of experience in park management, having worked for New York State Parks for 10 years before moving from Brooklyn, N.Y., down to Frederick, where I live now. I actually started off as an environmental educator; I have a strong background in natural resources and land management. I was deputy park director of Shirley Chisholm State Park in Brooklyn, which opened in 2019.

Q: What does a trail manager do? How does your work affect people who use the park?

A: The nature of working in parks is that every day is different. That’s something I really love about the job – it’s constantly evolving. Our team has five people. I’ll usually come into the office and meet with staff every morning at 7:45 to go over priorities for the day, which includes daily inspections of trails along the Gwynns Falls Trail, Jones Falls Trail, and throughout city. My job is doing a lot of coordination, taking requests from staff, closing out service requests from the community, ordering supplies, administration tasks, attending meetings. I’m hoping to grow this division into a self-sufficient state where we’ll have crew, staff, equipment, funding, and a strong volunteer base.

Q: You’ve only been here a few months. Have you had time to identify what your priorities are?

A: My main priority since starting in August has been safety. There’s this narrative in the city that trails are not a safe place to be. They’re historically underfunded, and the public is scared of coming out on trails. So, marking trails is a No. 1 priority. That means trail blazing, doing some kind of rustic signage, eventually things like mile markers. The biggest thing for me is to flip that narrative the public has by blazing trails, opening up areas that have been overgrown like trailheads, placing kiosks in certain areas with maps, emergency numbers, coordinates, etc. All while trying to also manage the constant dumping that’s plagued the city and trail system, as well as nature events like erosion and fallen trees.

Q: How much of the Trail Division’s resources go toward Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park?

A: Gwynns Falls Trail is definitely the longest trail in city and arguably one of the most used – it’s a main focus of ours. Our division headquarters is located in Leakin Park, so the GFT falls close to our hearts as a team. We’re inspecting portions of it two to three times a week.

Q: The trash problem in the park can feel overwhelming at times. What can or should be done about it?

A: Trying to keep up with that is a constant battle. Dumping along the Gwynns Falls Trail is something we’ve been working on. The trails team installed “no dumping” signs, but that’s not a permanent solution.  As this division grows out and gets more funding, these are things we’ll be able to tackle on our own. When there’s bulk trash dumping at Winans Meadow, we have to call someone at DPW to load stuff into a dump truck. I want to build out equipment and staff so we can load a Bobcat or tractor and take care of those things on our own.

Q: How does the trails team’s work intersect with what FOGFLP does? How can we work together for the benefit of the park?

A: I’m still learning about the Friends group. From past experience, I know that in some cases there’s been opportunities for friends groups to purchase equipment to benefit park agencies, to do outreach to build up a strong volunteer core, and to hold events that the Trails Division would be involved in to get larger projects done like rebuilding boardwalks along trail sections and dealing with erosion issues. BCRP can supply materials and the Friends can supply community power to get things done. There’s definitely a huge opportunity for us to work with our respective groups to better GFLP and the Gwynns Falls Trail, because we have very similar goals. We all want to see the park and trails reach their highest potential and flip that narrative that the trails are not a safe place.

Our first official Annual Report is out! Explore FOGFLP’s major accomplishments, look back on our “Year in Review,” and read our President’s and Executive Director’s year-end messages. Check out the FOGFLP 2024 Annual Report here.

FOGFLP's first Fall Festival was a big success!   

(see our full photo gallery here)

About 150 people joining us on Sunday, November 10th, for a lovely day in the park with neighbors and friends. We enjoyed an afternoon of music, face painting, crafts, games, and community resources while celebrating the progress we've made toward ensuring GFLP's future as a state-city partnership park. We're looking forward to many more family-friendly activities in 2025!  

Months in the making, it features a beautiful, exquisitely detailed map on one side and a brochure loaded with fascinating park information on the other. FOGFLP is making this map available free as a gift from us to the community.

Pick up a copy from a kiosk in the park, at Second Sunday (or other FOGFLP events), or download and print it yourself from our Map page.

Read the full article, in PDF format, by Jacques Kelly that appeared in the Baltimore Sun on August 3, 2024.

Ridge Cemetery, a nearly 200-year-old graveyard has captured the attention of some park neighbors who have cleared away over-growth revealing some of the names of those buried there.  

See our YouTube video to learn more...

Read the full article, in PDF format, published on June 24, 2024 in the Chesapeake Bay Journal by Timothy B. Wheeler at this link.

Among Baltimore’s packed rowhouses and apartment buildings sits forested terrain marked by towering leafy trees, wildlife and rocky streams spilling foam. 

Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park is the most extensive greenspace in Baltimore City and the second-largest urban woodland park in the nation. But it is a neglected treasure.   Read the full Baltimore Fishbowl article here...