The Marin County Open Space District has spent the last four years creating a "Road and Trails Management Plan" (RTMP) for the 16,000 acres of marshland, forests and creeks that the county manages. The plan took 4 years to create, is 224 pages long and is expected to guide the next 15 years of county road and trail management. It was approved on December 16, 2014. 

The first area of open space to have roads and trails changed via the new Plan is “Region 1”, which contains Blithedale Summit, Baltimore Canyon, King Mountain, Camino Alto, Horse Hill, and Alto Bowl. This is much of the open space in Larkspur & Corte Madera and the ridge between these towns and Mill Valley. 

On March 22, 2015, Open Space presented a proposed formal road and trail designation plan for Region 1. They are not publishing this plan publicly. They only showed it to people who showed up at the event. 

The only proposed change to any roads and trails in county open space in Larkspur/Corte Madera side of Blithedale Ridge in the 15 year Plan is to decommission the Big Dog trail, which connects Larkspur to Crown Road fire road at the end of Piedmont Road and has done so for over 30 years. There are no other improvements planned for Larkspur or Corte Madera open space in the 15 year plan. 

Marin County Open Space District wants to shut down the Big Dog trail because the Plan requires management of environmental impact “points”. If they shut down Big Dog, they can use these saved “points” to build multi-use trails elsewhere. The trails they want to build with these points are multi-use in Mill Valley, specifically in the Horse Hill & Mill Valley Golf Course areas. 

The way they will shut the trail down is by sawing down large, live trees onto the trail, killing them. Since the trail has been there for 30 years, local residents will likely take out their own saws and open it up again, resulting in an ugly trail, littered with dead trees, creating an eyesore and serious fire hazard for the surrounding neighborhoods. 

Please sign the petition to tell Marin County they cannot shut trails down in Larkspur/Corte Madera so they can build more multi-use trails in Mill Valley and they cannot shut down Big Dog trail. 

What's happening: