Kilgore Falls in the Falling Branch Area of Harford County, Md. has become a destination point for many. The popular swimming hole has drawn people from hours away.

And for some local residents and lawmakers, that’s a problem.

“The intention here was to show people the natural beauty. It has since morphed to where people are using it as an all-day recreation area,” said Andrew Cassilly, delegate to District 35B in Maryland. “We never thought someone would come here from New Jersey and spend the entire day.”

“I’ve lived in the community for 37 years, and I’ve had to watch the downfall of the trails and falls,” local resident Patti Hankins said. “It’s an absolute shame.”

The problem

With use of state parks soaring, Kilgore Falls has been flooded with out-of-towners. The site isn’t equipped to accommodate massive amounts of people for long periods of time, and that overuse is beginning to burden neighboring property owners.

“The neighbors are feeling like they are being harassed all the time,” Hankins said. “We just want to see it under control.”

Parking: The lot at Kilgore Falls can hold 20-25 cars. But there are often many more than 20-25 parties trying to get to the falls at one time. Locals said they have found their properties turned into public parking lots, change rooms and tailgate areas.

Butch Schreck owns property adjacent to Kilgore falls and has been forced to put obstacles such as metal stakes and fence posts up to keep visitors from tearing up his land.

“I’ve had my fence broken on three different instances with cars literally rolling over,” Schreck said. “I have livestock that could get out if I’m not around to watch the traffic.”

Length of visits: Some people drive multiple hours to get to the falls, so setting up shop with grills, tents and beach gear has become the norm. But Cassilly insists that the falls site is supposed to be something people should gaze upon for an hour or so and then move on.

“If you’ve ever been to Falling Branch, it doesn’t really qualify as a park. It doesn’t have a picnic area or restrooms,” he said. “It’s basically a beautiful area where people can get get out of their cars and take in the view for a while and leave. It was never designed to be an all-day hangout where people swim and barbecue.”

The longer people stay, the more crowded the area becomes.

Harford County Councilman Chad Shrodes worked as a high school student to preserve the falls from development, and he doesn’t want to see the land ruined by excessive human use and littering.

“There was a time when I’d go to the falls and almost everyone I’d see, I would know them or know of them,” Shrodes said. “With people posting pictures on social media and saying what a great hangout it is, it just brings in more and more people.”

Lack of oversight: Maryland has gone from nearly 90 law enforcement officers in state parks, to under 20 in the matter of 13 years.

The falls aren’t visible from any main road, so visitors have been found littering, defecating, urinating, camping on private property, drinking alcohol, committing petty crimes and even serious crimes after a car was stolen from the area at the end of August.

“It seems like a lot of the visitors aren’t respectful. Maybe it’s because they’re not from around here,” Shrodes said. “This isn’t the first summer we’ve had this issue. I’ve kind of had enough of it at this point.”

“I think when people that don’t live in the countryside or woods go out to a place that seems like the wilderness, it brings out the worst in them,” Schreck said. “They think no one can see them, but we definitely see them.”

“These people are just overwhelmed and at wit’s end," Cassilly said. “We’ve created a monster and developed a place that has little to no oversight.”

Solutions

Cassily and other lawmakers are hoping a three-pronged solution can restore the original purpose of Kilgore Falls and take some stress off the locals.

Time limit: The first part of a possible solution would be to limit the amount of time people can spend at the falls.

Cassilly said a study could be done to see how long it would take to experience all of Kilgore Falls in a timely yet comfortable fashion.

“I’m guessing you can do this whole thing in an hour and a half. Then we limit the parking for 90 minutes,” he said. “If we do that and enforce that, we’re going to eliminate the other issues because no one is going to come grill for an hour and a half.”

There might also be restrictions on swimming at the falls.

“I think if we cut down on the time you can be there and maybe prohibit swimming, it would help,” Shrodes said. “I don’t know if I have ever spent more than an hour and a half there.”

Enforce the limit: Cassilly suggests giving park rangers the authority to issue tickets for staying over the allotted amount of time.

“The only way we can effectively enforce is to utilize the existing park rangers to issue citations,” he said. “The current purpose of the rangers is to educate the community, but I’m hoping we can change that a little.”

Cassilly added that new technology would make it fairly simple and quick for park rangers to scan plates and determine how long a car has been parked.

If people are constantly coming and going from the parking lot, Cassilly said this could potentially cut down on some of the crime as well.

“If you constantly have people going in and out, there’s a high likelihood that someone will be in the parking lot and would be able to identify someone trying to commit a crime," he said. "Meanwhile, if there are cars parked there all day someone might feel they have more time to break into car or something else.”

State park vs. scenic view: Signage goes a long way in helping people understand what is and is not permitted. So Cassilly is urging there to be a change that differentiates a state park from a scenic view.

“A state park should have restrooms, picnic area, bigger parking lots and things like that,” he said. “We need to distinguish between areas of interest and state parks.”

Rock State Park has all of the aforementioned amenities and is four miles away from Kilgore Falls.

Potential outcomes

Both residents and lawmakers agree that the burst of visitors at Kilgore Falls has transformed its character from a family-friendly pit stop to an all-day party spot. Both are hoping to turn that trend around soon.

“The people we want to attract to this area have abandoned it because the people that are going there now are going for the wrong reasons," Cassilly said. "Those people are going because it’s a place of lawlessness. They can spend the day there and there’s no enforcement with anything. If we limit the time, we can bring back the clientele we wanted all along to be there.”

“You can watch the road and see certain cars and know exactly where they are going,” Schreck said. “There’s never just one or two in the car. It’s a 30 mph road, and most of them are speeding through, and you know where they’re going.”

Cassilly said this isn’t just a Kilgore falls problem and is hoping that the possible solutions can be applied across the board.

“I’m hoping the solutions we develop at Falling Branch will be the prototype for other areas in Maryland that are dealing with the same issues,” he said.

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