Thunder Hill Park Alliance

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance promotes the development and use of the Smith Farm as a nature park and a natural environment.

Vision

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance is helping to create a legacy for generations of Howard Countians by ensuring the future of the Smith Farm as a nature park and natural environment. The Alliance holds these beliefs:

• Contact with nature enriches the physical, mental, and spiritual health of people of all ages;
• A park can be an outdoor classroom with unlimited learning opportunities
• Our native plants and wildlife, agricultural heritage, and biological diversity deserve respect and good stewardship;
• Natural spaces can be catalysts for community building that transcend barriers of age, ethnicity, religion, and other differences;
• Park landscapes bring added value to neighborhoods, villages, towns, counties and states;
• A well-managed park attracts new business investment and volunteer involvement to the community.

To ensure the future of the Smith Farm as a nature park and natural environment, the Thunder Hill Park Alliance will:

• Advocate for development that strives for the highest and best uses of the Smith Farm;
• Develop funds, a volunteer network, and other support for the park;
• Facilitate partnerships among individuals, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses;
• Advance the community’s appreciation of natural spaces and the environment.

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance will strive, along with its public and private partners, to further the vision of Columbia’s founders by creating and supporting a natural park as a place for our community to gather together, celebrate, learn, and enjoy.

Outdoor Classroom

All schools in Maryland are subject to the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement
– an agreement signed by the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia - that mandates that all students at the elementary, the middle and the high school level, have a meaningful outdoor environmental education experience.
The education experience can range from something as simple as a nature awareness activity to a substantial bay stewardship project.

Unfortunately, Howard County’s lack of resources – especially for students at the secondary level – impedes the school system’s ability to meet this state mandate, according to John Quinn, Coordinator of Secondary Science, Howard County Public School System.

Quinn sees the development of the Smith property as a nature park as the answer to his needs. The nature park, he says, would “expose students to the wonders of nature and be a place where students could engage in meaningful outdoor environmental educational experiences or where they do scientific research related to native species and habitat preservation; where they could participate in an outdoor education program with team-building activities; where they could fulfill their service learning requirements by assisting in the maintenance of the park; and/or where they could perhaps someday stay in residential structures that would allow them to have an overnight experience at a fraction what they are paying now.”

In addition, Quinn says, “a Thunder Hill Nature Park could help meet the need for environmental education for all age groups. Just imagine the impact that it could have on the promoting the environmental stewardship of Columbia’s open space. It could be a place where Columbia’s homeowners could go to learn how they could become more responsible and environmentally friendly members of their communities.”

Partnerships

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance has forged a number of partnerships and garnered support from many parts of the community for its vision for the Smith property.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
The Kappa Phi Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity has expressed it support for “a nature park on the Smith family farm property.” In a letter to the Thunder Hill Park Alliance, the fraternity noted, “We find great promise in the educational components of your innovative plan and find them totally consistent with our commitment to increasing education opportunities for Howard County youth. In particular, our Alpha Achievers program is located at the two high schools in the target area which gives us a vested interest in the project. Not only will the high schools benefit, but also, so would their feeder schools.”

Audubon Maryland-DC
Rick Leader, the Executive Director and Vice President of Audubon Maryland-District of Columbia visited the Smith property and later made a presentation before The Columbia Association Board of Directors on March 23, 2006. At that time, he noted that Audubon “would very much like to be invited to provide science education and family programs in Howard County.”

Audubon, he said, is asking that the county “reconsider the options for this incredible piece of property. Perhaps this is a place where we should not compromise. There may be an opportunity to create a world-class nature preserve and education center right in the backyard of tens of thousands of county residents. Audubon would welcome the opportunity to work with the county and its citizens to develop such a vision, and we find the work that the Thunder Hill Park Alliance has done a very attractive start.”

Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. has been engaged in a multi-year effort to revitalize the Columbia village of Oakland Mills, and the Thunder Hill Park Alliance has garnered support from some of those working on the project. Dana Bourland, Senior Program Director, has noted the economic development benefit of developing the Smith property as a nature park.

“There has been widespread agreement that the image of Oakland Mills needs to be recast as the healthy, stable and vibrant community that it is and will continue to be,” Bourland says. “Thunder Hill Park can elevate the public image of Oakland Mills, which will have a positive impact on the housing market.”

As part of its draft Revitalization Plan, Improving Oakland Mills for Tomorrow, Today, support for the development of the Thunder Hill Park Children’s Garden was one of the strategic action items: “To make the Garden into a destination point for residents and families and to broaden and enrich children’s experience with nature.”

HEERO
Howard Environmental Education Resource Organization, an informal coalition founded by John Quinn, Coordinator of Secondary Science, Howard County Public School System, supports the Thunder Hill Park Alliance vision for the Smith farm and asks the county to “reconsider its current plan for the property.”

HEERO members include:
Howard County Public Schools
Howard County Conservancy
Howard County Soil Conservation Service
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Master Gardeners of Howard County
Audubon Society
Middle Patuxent Environmental Area Foundation
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Howard County Department of Parks and Recreation
Howard Community College
The Howard County Chapter of the Girl Scouts
University of Maryland Agricultural Research Facility
Robinson Environmental Foundation
Tai Sophia Institute of the Healing Arts
Tai Sophia Institute of the Healing Arts has expressed interest in using a garden on the Smith property “as a resource for educational programs on the herbs that might be grown in the garden, for the whole community.” Institute President Robert M. Duggan has noted that Tai Sophia “would be most delighted, as the park develops, for our master’s degree program to be in a working alliance with the park community and with the Audubon Society.”

Board of Directors

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Its Board of Directors includes:

Timothy J. Ambrose, Vice President of Development, National Parks Conservation Association
Donna Ber, community activist
Dana Bourland, Senior Program Director, Enterprise Community Partnerships, Inc.
Alan Davis, owner of Princeton Sporting Goods
Julie Dunlap, children’s book author, Past President of Central Maryland Audubon
Robert J. Moon, architect
John Quinn, HEERO Coordinator
Harry Schwarz, Special Projects, Tai Sophia Institute of the Healing Arts
Maurice Simpkins, community activist
Barbara van Winkle, owner of Nancy Adams Personnel
Steve Wecker, owner of Iron Bridge Wine Corp.

FAQ

What is the Thunder Hill Park Alliance?
The Thunder Hill Park Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in February 2003, to promote the development and use of the Smith property, in the center of Columbia, Maryland, as a nature park and natural environment.

Why was the Thunder Hill Park Alliance established?
In New York’s Central Park, and in other cities, we have found parks need “friends,” a community of people who will support the best uses and best design of these community assets and serve as fundraising vehicles and oversight boards.

What is the Smith property?
The Smith property is a relatively undisturbed 300-acre parcel of land in the middle of Columbia. The site includes an historic farmhouse and outbuildings, mature trees, wildflower meadows, wetlands, two farm ponds and wildlife. It is bordered by the Columbia villages of Oakland Mills and Long Reach and by the community of Glenmont. It was purchased from the heirs of private owner Nancy Smith by Howard County Government and the State of Maryland in 1998 to protect as a park in this rapidly developing area.

What is a “nature park”?
In this instance, the Thunder Hill Park Alliance favors development of the Smith property in a way that maximum care is taken to preserve the ecology of the site and its natural assets, rather than destroying the natural landscape to make way for other unrelated recreational uses. The recreational character of the nature park would include interaction with the natural environment, such as hiking and bicycle riding trails and outdoor skills-building activities, gardening for all ages and skill levels, strolling and jogging and interacting with nature, and other environmental education activities.

Who would use the “nature park”?
Typically, a nature park is attractive to all segments of the population, irrespective of gender, race, ethnic and religious background, economic status, age or mobility. A nature park offers many opportunities for pleasure and learning at all stages of life:

Children: Recent literature indicates that children are starved for interaction with nature, and models throughout the country show the high attraction of gardens and other features designed to provide hands-on exploratory activities for curious children.

It would be used by school children by providing an ideal opportunity to partner with the Howard County Public School System to help it fulfill its requirement of providing each student with a meaningful outdoor environmental educative experience.

Youth: In other parts of the country, communities have discovered that young adults feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in gardening and find added benefit in the activity when the fruit (and vegetables, flowers and herbs) of their labor are sold as products in an entrepreneurial learning experience.

Older adults and people with disabilities: Seniors, people with physical challenges and those with cognitive and developmental disabilities find nature parks a source of pleasure for their physical beauty, meditative opportunities and outdoor activities.

What elements would be included in a “nature park”?
The Thunder Hill Park Alliance, with funding from The Horizon Foundation, sponsored a residency here by designer Herb Schaal of EDAW, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm. Schaal designed the world-famous Hershey Children’s Garden in the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and his four-day visit resulted in concept plans for the Smith property that would:
• Preserve the natural landscape throughout the property
• Restore the woodlands and grasslands as a perfect setting for the existing buildings
• Preserve and restore the existing alee approach to the house
• Preserve the existing farm buildings
• Include a Nature Center/Exhibit Center/Visitors Center
• Display Nature Art Area with an amphitheater
• Feature an 8-acre Children’s Nature Adventure with restored woodlands, ponds and marshes
• House an environmental science laboratory to support the Howard County Public School System and Howard Community College science curriculum
• Include Youth Community Gardens and greenhouses near Oakland Mills High School for older children to grow plants, vegetables and herbs and perhaps sell their products as has been done elsewhere.
• Provide Outdoors Skills areas for rock climbing and a canopy rope course.
• Connect miles of interpretive nature walking trails and paths to the pathways and open space in Columbia
• Create a destination point from all the pathways in Columbia

What about the people living nearest the Smith property?
The careful development of the Smith property would result in undeniable financial benefit to the residential communities surrounding the park, as well as the larger community of Columbia and, indeed, of all of Howard County. Maximizing the potential of this natural bounty is a giant step forward in enhancing the adjacent neighborhoods and making them move attractive places to live, raising the value of those properties and of the community.

What about funding for the park?
We all pay for parks through our taxes. In addition, the Thunder Hill Park Alliance could serve as a fundraising vehicle and grant recipient. Money for the park will come from those that care the most about it: interested individuals, local businesses and organizations, foundations, and Howard County Government. They will invest in it through their assessments and through their individual, corporate and foundation contributions.

What is the status of development?
Howard County Government appointed a citizens advisory committee to discuss uses of the Smith property in 2002. The committee was comprised of representatives of a wide variety of special interests – historic preservation, recreation, transportation, environment – and the subsequent proposed uses for the property reflect those special interests.

The Thunder Hill Park Alliance proposes a reconsideration of the Smith property and urges a holistic development of the 300-acre site, one that takes into account the scarcity of the resources it contains, respects the land, its flora, fauna and wildlife and protects it for future generations, and provides the greatest opportunity for all the citizens of Howard County to enjoy the diverse wonders of the natural world in the midst of a densely populated contemporary community.