Contributor Opinion by Dan D'Agostino: In Response to The LAST Two Images

>The following was submitted by Dan D’Agostino, the co-owner of Go Ape, in response to a Contributor Opinion by Jonathan Haber. Although I’ve added his reply in the comments, this is a explanation worth highlighting on its own.

I wanted to take this opportunity to respond to your Opinion piece on the Rockville Central website. My name is Dan D’Agostino and along with my wife, Jenny, are the owners of the Go Ape treetop adventure course at Lake Needwood Park. While working on temporary assignments in London, UK, my wife and I came across the Go Ape experience. Go Ape has been in business since 2002 in the UK and is known for providing a safe and enjoyable outdoors experience for park visitors across the country there. My wife and I thought that their mission in getting more people into the outdoors and away from their computer screens was a good one and we developed a partnership with the founders of the company to bring the concept back home to Montgomery County where I was raised.

I began working with Montgomery County Parks Officials in March of 2009 to bring the Go Ape experience to an appropriate location within the county. After a comprehensive search for an appropriate location that fit with the Park’s recreational goals and an area that was not environmentally sensitive, the location that we now occupy at Lake Needwood was selected. From there, multiple community meetings were held, surrounding neighbors were informed and the Mid County Recreational Advisory Board was briefed. None of these groups or officials had serious concerns regarding the proposal and Montgomery County Parks allowed me to brief the Montgomery County Planning Board in December of 2009. The Planning Board agreed with Montgomery County Parks that Go Ape would encourage kids and adults alike to get into the outdoors and visit Lake Needwood, provide well rewarding jobs for local residents (9 of our 12 employees live in Montgomery County) and provide a new revenue stream for the Parks in these difficult economic times. Thus, a Public Private Partnership was formed with the County receiving a revenue share from Go Ape and a new activity for its park users.

The course was built during March and April and was opened to the public on May 8th, 2010. In working with Montgomery County Parks, they wanted to ensure that the forest was not inappropriately damaged in any way. In keeping with Go Ape’s high environmental standards, the course was built without bringing any machinery into the forest. No full grown canopy trees were felled in the process and Go Ape spent several tens of thousands of dollars to deadwood the forest (remove dead limbs and dead trees) to make the woods safe for any Go Ape or non-Go Ape visit to the trails. Furthermore, the course was built in a manner that we do not harm the growth of the trees and independent arborists have inspected these trees to ensure their health and will do so annually. Our company goal is to increase the bio-diversity of the area of the forest that we occupy and we will be working with Montgomery County Parks to remove non-native invasive species within our area of the park. The maple tree that you have photographed is a gorgeous tree and we have taken care not to impact the roots around the tree or affect it’s drip line. It is our hope that you and others will be encouraged to visit the park and take photos of this tree and others at Lake Needwood for many many years to come.

Since our opening, almost 2,500 visitors have enjoyed Go Ape at Rock Creek, Lake Needwood. This is roughly 56 daily visitors to the park and is in line with our projections to the Montgomery County Planning Board. Our visitors are usually families or groups of friends occupying on average of 3 people to a car. Thus, our parking and traffic impact is approximately 19 additional cars traveling through the park per day. Furthermore, we only allow 14 people to enter the course (at most) every 30 minutes to an hour, keeping additional parking and traffic to a minimum.

My wife and I think it is extremely important to run a business that is in touch with the local community, (especially since we live 2 miles away from Lake Needwood) and I would encourage you and any other Rockville Central readers to contact me at dan@goape.com and/or visit us at www.goape.com. I would be happy to show you around the course and provide further insight as to how the activity came to fruition at Lake Needwood. I am confident that you will see an operation that provides minimal impact on the park and you will see that our visitors do make noise. However, the noise that our visitors make is usually the sounds of families laughing together or friends sharing in on the excitement of a new and adventurous outdoor activity, sounds very similar to those heard at the picnic areas, boat house or volleyball court.

Once again, please feel free to email me at dan@goape.com with any questions or comments that you may have. I will respond as quickly as I can. Enjoy your summer and I hope to see all Rockville Central readers in the trees soon.

by Dan D’Agostino
Go Ape

This is a Contributor Opinion. Rockville Central encourages readers to submit such pieces for consideration — the more voices the better. Simply send them to rockvillecentral@gmail.com. We ask that all such contributions be civil and we reserve the right to edit (in consultation with the author) or reject. Contributor opinions should not be seen as reflecting opinions held by Rockville Central editors, as they are just as frequently at odds with our own views. That’s the whole point!