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.
Where is the park?