Neighbors were never told. No notice. No hearing. No chance to speak up. Now, an entire forest along Rutland Road is about to be commercially logged — adjacent to quiet neighborhoods like Cheval Trails, Copper Ridge, Lavall, Hallmark Woods.  This kind of large-scale timber clearing will bring industrial noise and truck traffic (lasting 2-3 months) and irreversible wildlife habitat destruction including potentially compromising a stream — and it’s all happening under permits that require no community input, using special exemptions, in a quiet 90% residential area (5% residential agricultural). 
 The 80-100 year old trees that shield our homes, filter runoff, protect our wildlife, and cool our streams can be cleared — with no warning. 

If any property —no matter how inappropriate — is labeled “agricultural” they can have a “timber harvest” where 75% of trees are chopped down, and leave behind a wasteland of stumps and tree canopies. NO trees are required to be replanted. The land was not checked for endangered species. Adjacent properties have no input — no opportunity for requests or questions. 
This particular forest is adjacent to suburban neighborhoods and other residential properties, not commercial or big Ag properties. How can this happen?  We, the undersigned, call on Maryland DNR and Anne Arundel County to immediately pause this “timber harvest” and review the permitting process that allows destructive logging company’s to open up business in residential and ecologically sensitive areas with zero neighbor notification and zero environmental protection safeguards for the forest or Anne Green Spring Stream, which on county maps is Blue Line. 

The loss of a forest means loss of a sound buffer, loss of a groundwater filter for a stream in the Bay’s Watershed, and loss of Cheval Trails’ 50+ years of peaceful wooded location. If too many trees are cut, the buffer behind Cheval Trails might become something that we can see through and will lower property values for many homes and land owners.  The exception for agricultural properties to clear more trees than a new development is a terrible idea. If a forest with steep ravines along a stream near the headwaters of the South river can be cleared without replanting or stream protection, what forest is safe? Please sign! YOUR FOREST IS NEXT!