Outdoors Maryland; 2203

Outdoors Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities. It is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. Coming up protecting what looming over the rail Maryland How about that. Get back to the field for some Iraq war veterans. This time at home. Yeah. Right. Real. Valley. County. Next. Outdoors Maryland was produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources DNR. Inspired by Nature. Guided by science. There are ancient forces at work here. Earth. Wind.

And fire. More than a hundred miles from their Blanik. A mineral rich seabed Noons of years old. Gives rise to rare connections and complexities between its plants and animals. Soldier's delight in Baltimore County is a special natural environment area. Protected because of its real prairie like ecosystem called soup and team grassland and Savannah. Only about 300 years ago there were about 300000 acres. Of the Serpentine grassland and old savanna ecosystem. Today in the eastern US less than 3000 acres remain and about half of that is here a soldier's ally. When Tindall state restoration ecologist for the Maryland Natural Heritage Program Department of Natural Resources is charged with protecting this rare grassland. That's called serpentine because the bedrock. Of the sort of scaly snake like here.

That's really an oceanic rock. It formed all along tectonic plate boundaries under the ocean about 50 million years ago. So it's like an island of ocean bedrock surrounded by North American Continental better and that's what makes 17th so special. One of the most curious creatures of this world is the tiny but quite clever Allegheny mound and. For reasons still a mystery. These ants cultivate the two most common wildflowers that soldiers delight. One of them. Is the Serpentine chickweed. And then the other white wall flower as the wire leaves rock cress. The answer keep this side of the mound bare for the sun's warmth to incubate their eggs and larvae under the surface for other plants they literally mow. Will see just how carefully they go in between this flowering the stones

of the rock cress. And mow any other plant that pops up in between. But for some reason the ants only cultivate. These two wild flowers and they were white wild flowers. So one school of thought had the answer trying to attract butterflies or Hmongs or both to lay their eggs on the flowers. So the answer came go out collect the eggs and then take them back into the incubator. Hatched them and then cultivate the larvae grow the larvae and then use the larvae as a food source. The Allegheny man ant. Ends up being very good for these two wild flowers and the wild flowers and grasses are good for butterflies. Dick Smith is a math research engineer at the Applied Physics Lab and a butterfly expert. Told Boyd served in Barron's as a place to come and find butterflies. But please stay on the trails walking all the trails these plants are very fragile.

Unusual uncommon butterflies are attracted to the unusual uncommon plants here not just the white flowers but also many others including the beautiful Blazing Star. There's the pony had to parade around the blazing star has several little flowers in each of those blazing star clusters so they have to check each one of them out for nectar and the blazing star will draw on a lot of other things like migration a lot of species that are here for Larry S. from skipper or other skipper species cautiously monarchs in the Barents here that's an orange sulphur over there and you'll find these in early spring all the way to November. Scientists work hard to keep soldiers Delight's rare serpentine grassland in oak savanna intact. Volunteers cut down invading Virginia pine that shades out the yolks. One spectacular method of curbing invasive is periodic controlled burning.

We know that the turban thing grassland you know is abandoned as a fire dependent ecosystem and that it naturally burns about once every three to five to seven years. So we have a prescribed burn program it's all just a lie to basically mimic that natural regime of fire fall Burns hold the grasses in check. They also burn off. Leaves and stems that are produced every year. Leaves all this open space for the wild flowers. This serpentine rock bedded soldier's delight produces more than unusual plants and animals. Flecks of chromite dot the ancient stone. And in the 100 cents to a soldier's delight was the world's largest producer of chromite. The metal was extracted from the Black Rock to make color.

Here we are at the entrance to the choke line. The best preserved metal mine entrance in the state of Maryland. Johnny Johnson is a mining historian engineer and volunteer ranger. In soldier's delight. They explorers found heavy black rocks of chromite laying on the surface of the ground. In the 19th century chromite was used to make bright. Paint pigments chrome yellow chrome green with chrome orange. No one is certain about the origins of the soldier's delight name but it has always been recognized as a special place. GM worth Lee and Mary Lewis both grew up nearby and were among those who fought to preserve it as a natural public area. Back in the day Jean wordly was the host for Maryland Public Television's hodgepodge lodge the children series about the discovery of nature inspired in part by her own childhood ramblings that soldiers delight.

It was a remnant of a Prairie. And we all think of prairie's as being out west. It was like being on vacation somewhere else. Over the years I've always come back to soldiers the light. In the early days this area was a hodgepodge of private in abandoned land plots. It was Mary Lewis's task to find the owners and convince them to sell the land to the state. We acquired. A lair near the brand of the work originally. And then gradually. Acquired more. Until ready access. To my physics before you perform or grab something that we had was acquired. As part of a park. Over time as we have fewer and fewer refuges for these plant animal species the value folders the white ones will increase and increase and increase. We will.

In the cold winter air on the quiet Marsh of Maryland's Eastern Shore. These men look like any other hunters. But look closely for Chad Keyes or his last legs. Or for Sean laughers prosthetic arm. And you'll see that these are men hunting for the skills and satisfaction they enjoyed in a life time how doors before we knew news in Iraq. Left them with special challenges. Ambush an RPG went off it was the 20th of July of 0 4. We had just come off a two day mission and I when I had my hand set and blew off my hand exploded right on my left side and took half my left arm off. A couple days there I woke up and now Bethesda.

And that is where these men got lucky they found their way to an innovative program at Walter Reed Hospital where efforts of healing go beyond patching wounds. Where soldiers are coached and counseled on living without the limbs they've lost over the structure. The way. They focus on getting back outdoors to the recreation they loved and assumed they'd lost. It teaches how to shoot and how to live how to get back into careers and family life and how to get back out into the natural environment that is their refuge. You want to lose somebody else here take charge Keizer is 33 and lost both legs to mortar fire into creek. Moving in duck lines and on river banks is one of the challenges Chad finds in hunting from a wheelchair.

You have to work around a little bit. There are some modifications but if you want to do it you'll figure out how to do it. You're just going to ride over it. Chad has a wife and two children. He enlisted in the Navy after serving in the army and volunteered to go to Iraq. How much is he held back by his injuries and I just you know every now and again I look down and damn all right. Let's go. I'm not as fast as I used to be but we still get out and and go on walks and things like that. Walking is his newest project the world to read. He believes hunting helps just being able to get back in and hunting everything. Helps. I'll get back to a normal life to get back to things that you did before. The some of the finest duck hunting area in the world to me and I would love to come out I thought oh this is just fantastic for me. Richard.

Said. That's the concept of a unique program hunting with real guns and live ammunition as therapy for soldiers who suffered horrible injuries. Just because you guys are physically injured now doesn't mean that they lost their desire to hunt and shoot and fish in fact is just the opposite. Once a day and they wake up from some combat and they realize that they've lost a leg or an arm a lot of you have told me the first thing that goes through their mind is my God how many are we going to hunger shooting how we're going to do this. You know. Barry yank a sack runs the rehab through hunting program at Walter Reed. These guys have desire to do everything they did before they were injured and they're going to do it. There's nothing and I have seen anybody that put their mind to do some. They've done it and they want to be everything they were before they became a soldier or a Marine. But there's no sense pretending that hunting. After a catastrophic injury

is easy. It's harder for me because I'm on my blindness in my right eye. All right. Yet if I'd had this in my right eye one because bad luck is just awful too. This is difficult to hold a gun with one hand in this. Where's Shawn locker misses some shots and wouldn't miss the hunting trips. It's good for now. You are injured but you can still do this. You can still live your life you can still be successful you can still enjoy yourself you still go out there new things that you love that you just got to find a way to overcome and adapt. Right there. I don't suppose a Ramos's 26 played baseball basketball and soccer as a kid and he hunted until he joined the Navy and lost an arm in the Sunni Triangle near Falluja. Now he's hunting again. Gives you the opportunity you are show yourself that you can still do things that you thought you couldn't do.

And the fact that it may be pouring rain in freezing cold doesn't faze him. I love the rain and cold weather just for my sister a life. For Dennis Klein 27 and from Memphis. Death was a new thing. I always saw other people settling on me. And. That happened to me. Dennis lost his left arm but not his confidence. There's nothing I can do. Being out on Maryland's eastern shore near Cambridge is a gift from Jim bug who owns the farm in lodge where recovering veterans come to hunt. You love a man who was a volunteer. To. Give the white. Lambs what have you for the rest of us so we can enjoy what we're doing here. But there are still realities to deal with. To tell somebody that their life won't be significant changed by their injury would be in a

way lying to them. Oren Gans is an occupational therapist who believes in rehab through hunting. For him to be able to to do that kind of reassurance and that. Despite his injury he's he's still normal. You're missing part of your body it's like you know oh well what am I going to do now. You know I had. To have both a and I can't do. Anything and I'm worthless you know I'm not a man of war I can't can swing a hammer. The rooms seem unbearable the pain unspeakable. The obstacles insurmountable. But not to Staff Sergeant Luke Murphy. I think I think stuff like this happens to people that can handle it. You know young guys they're in good shape in the military. It's frustrating to get mad that. You get over. Your death and you overcome. I would like to be able to walk through the field by next year when I go pheasant hunting and carry a gun and.

Just like I did before. It announces itself as a plume of smoke above the tree line. But that only builds the anticipation for the amazing sight that is to come. Just as a steam snorting behemoth from another age rounds the bend. And rumbles to a stop. Blowing in heaving of the Cumberland Maryland railroad station. The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad has a ride. And each year thousands of visitors climb aboard to ride the rails and back in time. Writer. Frank Fowler is the train's general superintendent. They owe us mail said Barrett operates between Crumlin Marilyn and frost bird a

distance of 60 miles. Going up through the Allegheny Mountains our excursion will take approximately one hour. So sit back relax and enjoy the ride on the natural beauty of Allegheny County. Coming out a column we go through the Narrows which was the first real gay way to the west in our country. That's about a mile long trough. From there we go up to town status for which is a half mile or so far and it's just a gorgeous scenery. On weekends the train is pulled by Mountain Thunder. A thirty five hundred horsepower steam locomotive. Historian Al Feldstein. Now here's a big nothing nothing like TV. Sixteen forty one steam locomotive with a whistle blowing the smoke blowing out of the air. It's all Russian here that chugging in. The clanking. I think that that's the track and it's not something you'll see any. Passenger Bruce Corso.

Just as my first time writing a steam engine like this when I found it just wonderful. The highlights were the train finding the hillside and the rumble in the shape of it you could feel the wheels trying to move and keep traction and then. Going through the tunnel so if you start because there's no lights and. The kids enjoyed that it was like a spooky Halloween time going through the tunnel. Passengers can ride in refurbished 1940s coach cars or travel first class in a vintage dining car. Janet Blanc. It's been fun to see what lies the way of travel back many years ago when people used to travel on trains or see the countryside see the color of the trees. No we're enjoying that very very nice. The Scenic Railroad follows a portion of the route of the original Western Maryland railway. Original line that connected the Port of Baltimore with cool fields and small towns

to the west. Charlie Amos was an executive with a railway which merged into the Chelsea system in the 1970s. We were not as long as some railroad but we were just as why. And we kept everything in first class condition. Our locomotive and our freight cars our bridges our road bed and track. And washer merilyn railway was really the envy of many railroad people. Veteran conductor Richard Markel 65 year career actually began aboard passenger trains in the steam era. He spent the last two decades with the senior career with. A record that earned him a car named in his honor. I thought I like trains on the route so I could do. Would be good for any deals. Assistant Conductor John Jeppe is another colorful character. Sometimes a train stops. For someone no reason and you'll be walked through the cars and I'll

ask you what happened when that is. My favorite expression is oh well we had to stop the change of heart and you'll be surprised how many people would think that we had a tire that we had to change. The passengers in the No. You can take advantage of a rare opportunity. Frank found. Where one of the. Other heroes in the country. Were allowed to ride in the locomotive cab. The steam engine. You're up there actually watching the barman. Maintain the fire. And watching the engineers who are offering locomotive. Long time engineer Howard hold that it. Is modest about what it takes to control this 250 tons steam belching. The Rollie engineer is to see them this season. When they tell you to go forward you go forward. Just monitor the bugger to go but up. Third stop stop.

Stop. In fact there's a little more to it than that. Especially when it comes to coaxing the engine up the steep 2.8 percent mountain grade during the last two miles into frost. Does present a real challenge especially in a stream of them already in October when it's raining the leaves are appalling and leaves stick to the rails and they act like a liver can give you a fish. So when the people ride their story they really see how railroading used to be. Everything was like. Smoke so as nobody thought anything about it. During the layover in Frostburg the trains crew uses an ingenious method to reverse the locomotive. As we have a small amount of the turntable that rolled back the engine for. Our table rotated. In the opposite direction. Then put it on the other end of the frame.

Return moved back to town with. Monica Wolf and. Her mother a niece are among the cyclists who are only taking the train one way. Build the pedal back to Cumberland on a new bike trail that parallels the steam trains route. Well I'm just a train bus. I love riding the train and then I love riding bikes and I couldn't be happier doing both the same threat. Of Mountain Thunder makes more than 100 trips a year. Threading through the Allegheny Mountains. Working at a rail yard in Ridgely West Virginia. A crew of welders and machinists take pride in keeping this century old locomotive. Running in top form. Then Pluto is chief mechanical officer. The parts are all available we make most them ourselves. So be of a good machinist or mechanic background you know you can do quite a bit of the work on a few. Days Only about half that they're secured in this country store on them now. I use a pretty important piece of

Americana. But the biggest single handed thing that goes country with the steam locomotives so I just go. As a very proud people around for people to see. Drop into our website at W W W dog MP t dog o r

g to send us your comments and suggestions. Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural beauty on our website and in our magazine. Dno are inspired by nature guided by science tours Maryland dismayed by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you.