Deadline: July 24 Last Day For Public Comments on BLM's Environmental Assessment of Meadowood Barn

Today is the deadline for public comments on the Bureau of Land Management's Environmental Assessment of The Stables at Meadowood. 

The deadline was extended twice because of a reported glitch on the BLM website that kept people from commenting. 

The website is still experiencing problems, said Boarder Anna Gibson, who feels that BLM will shut the barn down instead of keep horses in the structure during reconstruction. 

BLM did not return a call from Patch on Monday.

"I you look at the report, they don't say what repairs they are going to do," Gibson said. "They don't give any timeline, they don't have any economic analysis of removing boarders, who are the sole source of maintaining revenue on the land, and they also don't say that the horses can return to the property."

Gibson mailed a package of comments to BLM. "I had two calls this weekend from people who couldn't get the comments site to work, and they tried it with Safari, Firefox and Mozilla," she said. "I tried myself to get up a few set of comments and it wouldn't work, and, unfortunately, emailing comments to them doesn't give me any confirmation that they received them."

Development Options

Critics of the 42-page environmental assessment report say the three development options outlined by BLM could shut down three horse-related businesses at the barn. There is a chance that the 19 horses boarded at the barn would not remain on site during construction, and as a result, could jeopardize cash flow for the businesses.

The development options are: 

1. Renovate the existing barn on its current footprint, while closing the facility to the horses and horse related businesses on the property during the renovation.
2. Immediately close and demolish the structure.
3. Leave the structure as is, but close the horse related businesses on the property.

Critics of BLM say the options provide only one resulting scenario: Eliminate horse boarding, riding lessons, therapeutic riding and all other horse related businesses from the Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area.

Politicians Weigh In 

Earlier this month, (D-8th) told Patch that BLM would see reductions in government-appropriated funds if horse operations cease during renovation of the barn at the Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area in Lorton. Moran is Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.

"BLM has not been responsive because the website was down, and inexcusably so," Moran said. "I'm confident that they'll listen, because we have substantial leverage and I control their funding. … Unless they want to have their funding cut, I would assume they would want to work with us. It's a reasonable assumption."

Moran and Virginia Congressmen Gerry Connolly (D-11th) wrote a joint statement to BLM and asked them to keep horses in the barn during renovation and to scale back the scope of repairs in order to lessen the impact on the animals.

"These seem to be reasonable recommendations that decrease the disruption to horses and riders during this transition period," said the letter. "And by scaling back some of the design aspects, we can save taxpayer money, potentially using it for future maintenance needs extending the life of the barn post reconstruction."

Unsteady Future? 

Meadowood Barn manager Allison Mills, whose annual contract was renewed last spring for one year, has 19 horses boarding at the facility, down from 30 due to a contractual clause that keeps her replacing horses during this period of impending renovation. Mills has a waiting list of 32 horses ready to make Meadowood their home. 

Simple Changes Therapeutic Riding Center and has reportedly replaces horses as needed, in order to maintain their five horse herd for therapeutic riding at Meadowood.

Simple Changes contracts with Mills to provide barn services, including feeding and turn-out. It is unclear whether Simple Changes would be allowed to remain on the property during a renovation, or who would provide support services if Mills was forced to leave.

There are more than 700 signatures on a petition that ask for the boarded horses to remain at Meadowood during the reconstruction of the barn. 

Comments on the Environmental Assessment may be submitted:

• Through BLM's online comment form.
• In an email toBLM_ES_Meadowood_Comments@blm.gov
• In an email to kwadzins@blm.gov
• Through the mail to: Kurt Wadzinski
       Planning & Environmental Coordinator
       Northeastern States Field Office
       626 East Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 200
       Milwaukee, Wisconsin 52202-4617

What do you think about the situation at the Meadowood Barn? Tell us in the comments!