Buz Meyer was known to Maryland cycling advocates as the man who single-handedly stopped the WB&A Trail from crossing the Patuxent River in 2001. To people who knew him, he was a key organizer of 4-H Clubs in Anne Arundel County, leading gun safety instructor, devoted naturalist, and a caring and generous man who opened his farm to thousands so that they could share his love of nature. Mr. Meyer died last month of pancreatic cancer. He was 80. (Photo from obituary in Baltimore Sun.)
Though we never met, I became a cycling advocate because of Buz Meyer. I was regularly skating on streets and local rail trails when I saw a trail being built on the old railroad right-of-way in Glenn Dale, where I live. Google led me to web sites explaining that a man from Bowie named Morris Warren was getting the Parks Department to build the trail in Prince Georges County, while a man named Buz Meyer was preventing it from being built in Anne Arundel. I kept emailing Morris Warren for information. Eventually he suggested that I come to a meeting of the Prince George's County Bicycle and Trail Advisory Committee.
At those meetings, I met several people who were annoyed that a single man could stop this wonderful trail. The story they told me, which they had mostly learned from Anne Arundel County officials, was this:
Mr. Meyer owns the large parcel of land on the southeast side of the railroad bed. He claims to own the railroad bed as well. Although the county disagrees, it does not really matter because the land on the other side of the railbed is a county park and the county could always put the trail there. But Mr. Meyer hunts on both his own property and the park, so he does not want a trail anywhere in that vicinity. The Anne Arundel parks department was going to build the trail anyway; but he campaigned against it, got the support of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and generated many letters and a petition with hundreds of signatures. So County Executive Janet Owens decided that Anne Arundel County will not build the trail. When the trail in Prince Georges opened, Meyer posted signs on his side of the river saying that the trail would never be extended to the other side.
Over the years, I would often skate the WB&A to the end, and look across the river at the Meyer property. Hearing the hunter’s gun in the distance took me back to my own childhood in then-rural Fort Washington, where I would often hear hunters in the distance. I gradually realized that there was more to Buz Meyer than the stories circulating within the cycling community.
The Meyer family has owned that land since the late 1800s. The Meyers came from Sweden by way of Tennessee. They bought their land from the Swedish Embassy, which had used it as a retreat. They took the train from Tennessee to Odenton with their livestock. The family and their animals walked the final 5 miles to the farm.
By the time Buz Meyer was born, the land had been in the family for decades. Much of it consists of wetlands along the Patuxent River. After high school, he made his living doing auto body work, but also became an avid conservationist and hunter. He was a leader of the 4-H Clubs in Anne Arundel County, built nature trails on his land, helped to re-introduce endangered wild turkeys into the state of Maryland—and hunted those turkeys as well. He opened his land to the 4-H Clubs, Boy Scout troops, Church retreats, marksmanship and gun safety classes, the Audubon Society, and other bird watchers. He established a Meyers Station foundation and gave it some of his land. Along the way, the Meyers’ land on the northwest side of the railroad was transferred to the County. But Meyer continued to explore that land, which he knew well. Buzz Meyer was one of most highly regarded citizens in rural Anne Arundel County, and his homestead was the foundation of his philanthropy.
And then, Morris Warren persuaded Prince Georges’s County officials to build a trail on the right-of-way of the WB&A Electric Railway. Having completed the B&A Trail, Anne Arundel County was ready to duplicate its success with another rail trail. I’m not sure how the County originally presented the idea of a trail to Mr. Meyer. Did they approach him with the deference that you or I would have if we wanted to regularly cross a neighbor’s land to get somewhere? Or did the County officials assume that since the county owned the right of way, they could do what they want? I don’t know. But people usually do not launch campaigns or bring in the NRA when officials are treating them with respect and soliciting win-win arrangements. To Buz Meyer and the people of his world, the trail builders were proceeding with a project that would fundamentally harm all that he was doing.
How do you balance the conservation preferences needs of a pre-existing rural community against suburbia’s need for a new transportation corridor? About a year ago I started to wonder: Is the Meyer homestead enough of an environmental and education resource that even I would have agreed to postpone construction indefinitely? Did the Meyers have additional conservation goals, and if so, what were they? Why were they opposing the trail but not the Two Rivers development? Could the idea of a detour trail be part of a larger effort to preserve the rural character of the entire area? I emailed the Meyers Station Foundation, traded voicemails with one of his daughters, and planned to followup; but now it is too late to find our what Mr. Meyer would have said.
Too often we dismiss anyone who opposes a beneficial public project as a NIMBY. If you don’t want a light rail line in your back yard, don’t buy a home next to a recently closed freight rail line. If you need ample parking in front of your home, move out of downtown DC to the suburbs, many would say. But Buz Meyer did not live in the city or inner suburbs. He was in rural Anne Arundel County! The railroad had closed 65 years ago—and he owned the railbed! He was already doing what we would have said that a NIMBY should have done.
Cyclists are a minority. Conservationists are a minority. While we sometimes disagree about specific projects, there is much that we have in common. If we don’t find that common ground, we are not trying hard enough.
(Jim Titus is the corresponding Secretary of the Glenn Dale Citizens Association and a member of WABA's Board of Directors. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily the official views of either of those organizations.)
Interesting and thought-provoking. A great post. Nice writing, Jim.
Posted by: Blue-eyed Devil | October 18, 2011 at 10:53 AM
how in the hell could a trail affect that area negatively?
also, some better day in the distant future, the notion that an individual person can "own" land will be as perverse as the thought that people used to own other, "lesser," people. or as perverse that a lawyer "makes" more money than a school teacher or janitor...
all resources are social, through and through. how they are used is always a social decision -- if we value rationality and democracy. one man standing in the way of any project or movement is an insult to the larger body politic. and an affront to human response-ability and potentiality.
Posted by: mike | October 18, 2011 at 11:21 AM
The previous reader comment clearly missed the crux of a fine article. Sorry for him that he also misses the balance and integration of individual/group privilages and rights.
To the author, thanks for pointing out differences in a positive manner.
Posted by: Scout03 | October 18, 2011 at 12:37 PM
Great read, Jim...and a good history lesson!
Posted by: John | October 18, 2011 at 01:29 PM
Leave it to me to say which statements I disagree with in a great article, but the only statement I disagree with is:
"But people usually do not launch campaigns or bring in the NRA when officials are treating them with respect and soliciting win-win arrangements."
Maybe Mr. Meyer is not one of those people, but treating trail opponents fairly does not always correlate with withdrawal of opposition in my experience. Lack of notice or respect can make things worse however.
Posted by: Jack Cochrane | October 18, 2011 at 03:32 PM
I was one of the County officils who dealt with Buz. We did treat him with great respect and tried on many occasions to work with him and the Meyers family. To speculate that we did not is just false. We had many opponents to our trail system in Anne Arundel and we won many of them over. Buz and his brother Bob, two of my favorite people, just were not among them.
Dave Dionne
Posted by: Dave Dionne | October 18, 2011 at 05:41 PM
"one man standing in the way of any project or movement is an insult to the larger body politic."
We will be coming to harvest your organs very soon. They are urgently needed in the war effort against Eurasia.
Posted by: guez | October 18, 2011 at 09:23 PM
One of the all-time great posts here.
Posted by: Christopher Fotos | October 18, 2011 at 10:41 PM
he was a moron. well- intentioned, and sincere, but a moron.
he was the classic examplar of the case made in "What's the Matter with Kansas?"...
Posted by: andre k. | October 18, 2011 at 10:57 PM
Double plus good, Guez.
Posted by: Max | October 18, 2011 at 11:30 PM
Thanks to all for the kind comments.
I emailed Dave Dionne to see whether he could provide some of the missing facts that led me to say that we do not know what the county's position was when Mr. Meyer launched his campaign. I placed calls to 5 current officials hoping to elicit the factual information that would allowed me to tell the story--rather than stating the uncertainty range that Dave calls "speculation". But all I was able to get was assurances similar to what Dave says here.
This article was meant to be a story about Buz Meyer and the advocates, not a commentary about the county. I would love to tell the County's side of the story in a future post.
Dave raises another related issue (which Jack raises to some extent). There is a big difference between "failing to treat with respect or trying to work with him" (Dave's words) and treating someone with the deference that we would have when we are asking someone a favor and looking for a win-win solution (my words). In the latter case it is clear that "no" means "no" though perhaps the no will become a yes at a higher price. In the former case, it is often not clear whether a no will be the end of the matter. I do not know whether the County had made it clear to Buz Meyer that it would take no for an answer, so contrary to what Dave says, the "speculation" is not false but rather an accurate reflection of the publicly available facts. But I'd love to put the speculation to rest with the facts.
I'll skip over most of the dialogue that Mike initiated, except to note that Mr. Meyer also addressed that issue:
Posted by: Jim T | October 19, 2011 at 09:28 AM
no, owning the land has necessary legal ramifications -- that can land the "owner" in jail, if the land were used for illegal purposes.
as i said: he was a well intentioned fool. he was uneducated and miseducated; and fearful of change -- both practical and moral. i kinda admire folksy people like him; theyre much more tolerable than the "anything goes" liberals that abound...whose "tolerance" is afforded by their comparative privilege and $$ affluence.
his comment about stewardship is so sweet...it's also political, posturing bullshit. he had every opportunity to give that land anyway; turn it into a community trust; etc., etc..
Posted by: thomas paine | October 19, 2011 at 05:19 PM
beautiful story. thanks.
Posted by: Scott | October 19, 2011 at 11:15 PM
Bill Kelly-Here!, Thanks for posting the info on the WB&A Trail into AA-CO. Jim Titus and Dave Dionne were right on the mark as I remember the history. I worked along with Morris Warren when he got the PG-Co(Sorry) side of the WB&A up and going. The Trail should be called the Morris Warren Trail. Thanks for keeping history alive, Bill kelly
Posted by: Bill Kelly | October 20, 2011 at 07:55 AM
Excellent article. I'm new to this debate, and a recreational cyclist who knows I'm spoiled with some of the nice trails around our area. Initially, I want to be mad at this guy, but reading more and more, and finding this article, I think a little harder about things. Mr Myer seemed like a guy I would have liked to know. Hopefully his family can navigate this debate to the best of his wishes and to the overall community. With that being said, I'd be just fine with a detour
Posted by: Dave T | January 31, 2012 at 02:14 PM