Outdoors Maryland; 7

Each year before the first blade of grass turns green new dreams begin in Maryland's thoroughbred horse country. The rolling countryside that surrounds Baltimore is home to more than 200 thoroughbred horse farms. Here in the pre-dawn chill. New hope stirs as the first folds of the year drop onto the freshly laid hay. And with each new fall a dream is reborn. The dream of a million dollar Stakes winner. Meanwhile hundreds of stallions step up to their daily chores crossing the blood lines. One more calculated time. Passing on the speed the stamina and the will to win. To be a thoroughbred. A horse's blood line must be traceable to one of three stallions. The Darlie Arabian The dolphin Barb or the Byerly Turk. All of which began the line in 17th century England.

Today's thoroughbred is the product of three centuries of inbreeding with one purpose in mind to breed a winner. The fastest horse around. By virtue of its pedigree its disposition and having proved itself a winner at the track. The standing stud stallion is the royal sire of the thoroughbred line commanding a lofty fee for a few minutes work. With considerable amounts of money at stake. Conception is not left to chance. Though I believe in their setting. These forms are serious commercial operations. Jay William Boniface owns Bonita farm in darling. A family run operation my older son runs the breeding division part and the youngest son does the stallion management. This is one of many to find mare she happens to be the grand dad of one of the Kentucky Derby contenders for this year. We're going to be greener

to repeated testimony. She's been checked and the veterinarian thinks today will be the best time for us to breeder. The stallion covers so many mares that he'll cover up the 50 60 Mares year that will take a lot of caution. Because if he's knocked out of commission then things are bad. We're going to put restraints on her. So that she can kick the stallion when he mounts her. Right now the economic situation is such that the breeding business is really down. For instance this horse. Has. Stood for twenty five thousand now stands for five hundred. He's one of the best value state. OK. What we do is. We'll come back and we're all for sale her. At about 14 15 days or less. Meet our relation.

Then we'll deal to tell whether we have one in there not. Just black. Metal. I suspect that. In about two or three days you see a heartbeat. The ultrasound machines made our job a lot easier than last year. It now takes all the guesswork out of. Me. Yeah that's a very full day and that racing starts at 6:00 and we begin training by 7. Try to run four sets only hour between 7 and 11. There are a breed of horses that really is the greatest of all because they have so much. There is a tremendous amount of heart. Has the desire to run. A lot of people talk about the conditionings style that they are of course. How did they get the horse. But there is a big element psychologically trained of horse.

Actually. I had a film years ago and was working there one morning and whistled to her and she broke like a fresh horse. So next time I ran her I said to the jock look when you get ready to make your move be sure you got a hole when you wish will still take off. She won three races in the road. Racing thoroughbreds takes a lot of land and the competition for it is considerable. Atlanta Fong was founded by a horseman fleeing the encroachment of developers 60 years ago. It's the site of a unique indoor racetrack. Tom Voss is the current owner of that brain. Many of these kind of barns in America let alone in Maryland. This barn was built in around 1930. Thirty two during the Depression. Story has it that every carpenter within a 50 mile radius working on it at 60 cents an hour or whatever the going rate was I think they'd build it like in a couple of months it's all wood all glass and group six of them a mile around the time we have everybody with a racehorse

20 mile radius in here training the horses when the ground. Hog Farm is about seven hundred acres. It come from Long Island where they were big in the past hunting there of course. But that time as in New York City and all of the suburbs start to spread to where the fox hunting country was in Long Island. And they came here for the Vasanthi to build a place here. And a lot of other people came to Luckily around here a lot of people with the bigger farms and putting their land in some kind of preservation I would call sort of selling the developing rights. So they're protected for you know forever hopefully and allow some of this to go on. Raise thoroughbred from class horses that black horse is if not steeplechases race them on now and different companies throughout the East Coast and we go to Togo in the summertime. You know we basically go anywhere there's a race for.

All thoroughbreds are destined for the track. This is where the major money is. But there is another side of this racing line one that harkens back to the traditions of drag racing Charlie Fenway train steeplechase horses at his farm and Butler just 25 minutes from downtown Baltimore. My primary interest is. In steeplechases as far as training and riding is concerned. What we have here is a commercial operations. A vast majority of the horses on this place are owned by other people and they're paying us. Up to forty five dollars a day to take care of the horses the thoroughbred ends whether it's breeding or training steeplechase horses lends itself and land use weighs very much to suburban living. We've had some problems with the land value is escalating at a rapid rate. That puts a lot of pressure on our industry to stay in this kind of area because the land value is ten thousand dollars an acre. The train certainly doesn't justify ten thousand

dollars an acre. Steeple chasing isn't a sport it's run a lot of Hunt meets winter out in the open country. Maryland is famous for its timber races running each weekend in April. These were races culminate with the Maryland hunt considered the toughest timber race in America. The first meet of the season is held at Atlanta for. Just. One more. Race here has been going on since probably nineteen forty five. This is like a point to point a lot of people are just getting their horses ready give them an easy run. Nothing more exciting race.

The Maryland grand national is the second of the Triple Crown timber races. It's been run each spring since 1890. It's held on Charlie Fenwicks home turf. Of the Grand National has been run here in the valley since the end of World War 2. It is a classic point to point goes up six different properties in the area. There's no other race in the country. Quite likely. The thoroughbred horse culture in Maryland is facing some tough times can survive the pressures of development rising land values lack of investors and the declining interest in thoroughbred racing off track betting may give the industry a needed

boost but it's viability in the Maryland countryside. Remains to be seen. One thing is sure. The thoroughbred is here to stay. Three centuries of breeding will not disappear overnight. As long as there are fast horses. There will be races to run that's to place money to one and each spring a new crop of foals will hit the ground. Running. Marylands Eastern Shore a place of timeless beauty where the congestion of the western shore gives way to a different sort of commotion a honking hubbub of thousands of Canada geese gleaning field and ponds for their breakfast. The birds are oblivious to the fact they're being watched by Eastern Shore photographer Heather Davidson

locked in there too sitting in her rolling blind. The geese pay her no heed. A glint of the camera's lens is the only clue to her presence. Davidsons van is a familiar sight meandering through the back roads of the Eastern Shore. Neighbors know not to knock when the curtains are drawn. An artist is at war and wildlife photography demands time and patience waiting for a perfect revealing moment. Today the whistling Swan is her quarry. Her work exposes the private lives of the eastern shores most distinguished residents. The majesty of a great low Heron.

A stately with. The elegance of a great egret. But as she has explored the Eastern Shore in search of wild life Davidson has stumbled on some unforeseen subjects. Its people landmarks and lower. There are so many things that are changing so fast. Whole areas of the coast of the Bay are being torn down to make way for condominiums and large marinas. Men used to work on the water being forced to do other kinds of jobs now and I felt it was important to document them. The old timers that way of life is disappearing.

Today her work appears regularly on magazine covers and catalogues but her photography career and amateur interest in wildlife began somewhat unexpectedly thirty years ago. I was a mother and we would take family trips and I would take pictures of the squirrel on the side of the road and the pigeon on the fence and when we get home the children would complain that I had more pictures of the pigeons on the side of the road than I had of what they were doing. Her interest became a passion. Carefully studying her subjects as she photographed them. Davidson learned to better anticipate those fleeting moments of beauty. As I got into it more and found out all the different kinds of ducks there are in the different places and different times of the year and the difference between the males and females really young. I got terribly interested in Davidsons friends and neighbors.

Occasionally the subject of her work have grown comfortable with her easygoing style and sensitive portrayals. A recent gallery show in Chestertown lowered shore residents to reflect on the beauty that they call home for feeling the mountains and being the best person to get out there with them. But it is the Beacon's of Maryland's maritime past that have become the signature word for Davidson and collaborator skip woolens. The shores Waterman and those who bring the bay's harvest to our table have a special place in our heart. They're accustomed to her presence while they work. I think the watermen do enjoy it. I haven't found any hostility at all. And last week I was in a building in Rock Hall where they were shucking oysters and I didn't know the people there would object to my taking

flash pictures of them all work but they didn't object at all and much to my surprise they broke in the song. And they started singing hymns very small so they could shock to the music. I mean I was as much as so I'd had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Davidson says she still has much to do. According to heritage of the show. Each day brings another subject to learn. One more exposure to my. Fire in the woods.

And alarm sound to an outside. Dangerous threat. Fire is the enemy. Fire is also the agent of rebirth. At soldiers like a regular fire regime could save the largest remaining serpentine prairie in eastern North America 350 years ago nearly 100000 acres of serpentine grassland swept through Maryland today a 2000 acre retreat near Owings Mills is the largest remaining outpost of serpentine prairie on the East Coast. And even here the Serpentine is under siege. Fast growing Virginia pines march through the fields creating forest where tall grasses once flourished. Few back before 9900 there were few to know trees in this area. You're back a little ways further back before around 1750 the American Indians were in the area and they used to do fire hunting. They built a big fire maybe

one two three miles diameter leave one end open and when the animals running away from the fire came screaming out they stood there and shot them. If we get this can't wait any. Get on your horse and go chase him. Forget the run toward you. So that's what they did. This had several effects. Number one they kept all the trees and everything that started to grow burned off. So the area was basically open meadow prairie grass land with the Indians gone. The trees were allowed to slowly start growing in an occasional tree here occasional tree there. After a while the trees started blending together and the whole area is becoming forest. The problem with that is with the Serpentine area here in the open barren areas is where all the rare plants are. Last count we had 34 rare endangered species of plants. If we do nothing in this area all these rare plants will be destroyed because of the pine trees taking over at soldiers like Virginia pine challenge the native post Stoke in a battle for valuable sunlight. Here two plants found only among the mineral beds of the Serpentine grassland fight

for survival. Sand plain Gerardia. The endangered fringed. Gentian. Serpentine astron. And fame flower could be saved by a program to reinstate the landscape to a time when Native Americans lived and hunted the area. The key to the program is fine. We mimic the Native American fires. Then we don't have to worry about impact through the rare and endangered species because for thousands of years these species evolved as a community to those primary environmental factor in fact it's fire. That these these these are directly depended upon for survival. Volunteers and conservationists worked together to remove pine trees in

preparation for a controlled burn. After the initial clearing the plan is to torch the remaining pine stand in a massive fire. Some people say well wait a second but we're supposed to be planting trees. That's the governor's thing right now is to plant trees and that's good in some areas in this particular case. It's destroying what we're trying to preserve here. With this fire we were hoping that the ground fire would move up the trees climb the trees and that heat from the fire would kill the park. But that didn't happen and it looks like with pine trees we're going to have to go in and

physically remove them and then come in with fire to restore the grassland. The soldiers did light restoration project will continue using volunteer muscle to remove the encroaching pines and heeding lessons from fire. Hunting Native Americans these serpentine grasslands remain a living link to our past. It's a question that's been around as long as the game itself. Whose horse is fastest. There were a lot of that in thoroughbred racing known as the game. Most at the track. The answer means money for the horse for the owner and trainer. Winning is everything. Baltimore's Pimlico Race Track ole hilltop home to the Preakness Stakes

and some say a microcosm of the horse racing industry here a diverse cast assembled before dawn putting high strung thoroughbreds through their paces. The odds are against them. Practice doesn't always mean perfect. Thoroughbred Racing is a game driven by luck. By fervent hope. Some skill. And most of all constant dedication. Ellos Preuss has trained thoroughbreds since 1947. A sage among Pimlico trainers. He's learned the secrets of thoroughbred racing seen the ups and downs watched horses and people come and go. And he's witnessed big changes in the game. It's a game if you've got a lot of money and like it you know. But if you if you

don't win races it gets to be a sick game. In this game you have to they call it a game. It's a business for most people. When I first started I used to pay 50 cents a. Gallon. Went a dollar. To buy a bag for $3 in a quarter. Now you pay a guy seven dollars to gallop a horse. Oh gosh $15 a bag. If you don't have. Pay horses. Or winning horses. Comforting. Bruce says he's seen better days in the racing game. The costs of training of running a thoroughbred win or lose are just too high for most people today. Well. By race horses. You're BiOM. And hope. Or expect. That they'll develop in the summer. What. I'll

say is. 60 percent of the time just doesn't work. And. The. Expense. People get 40 50 dollars a day to train a horse. And a guy who does it for the I don't have a horse. He's a sure loser. A lot of people just got out of the game. No. Ordinary people don't have money. You. Can. Stay in the game if you don't win. I'd rather be lucky and let the other guy be smart. Others throughout Pimlico stables. Echoed Crucis sentiments. Yet most trainers jealously guard their thoroughbreds training schedules. A hint there is much more to winning races than mere chance and Breese three

eighths of a mile walk gallop that ran into a gate at a second. Casey Latymer taught school 15 years ago now she tutors two year old thoroughbreds in the ways of the game. She and other trainers look with a seasoned eye to see if a horse has at the speed the stamina the poise needed to break from the gate beat the odds and when. It rarely happens. That they. Knew the odds that a horse will ever even make it into training. There are even greater odds that will ever make it to the race to be a winner much less at stake when her side. It's not again that I think people on the racetrack the trainers especially are just trying to make a living and hoping for a big horse. Quotes You know the one that gets you out of debt that the odds are probably really against it. So the whole object is to win races and I really like working with babies and taking the young horses and. And sort of. Tests and teaching them everything to try and come out of the gate. So that's foreign to them they don't

have to do that. I taught school for two years right out of college and it's just like. Kids graduate when you finally get one over to the races and he wins the race. And you know we learned our lessons right. That came out of the gate he didn't do anything silly to embarrass you. Out on the race track like stop the race and you really. Get a feeling of accomplishment. Start. As many horses at the track as it used to be because the economy has affected that black perceptions affect that just like it's affected every other thing. When you think about a horse racing it's pretty much a hobby or a luxury sport for a lot of people and that's one of the first things probably that goes. When you have to cut back on your spending. So therefore there are lots lots less horses now. So it's really hard on the staff with their entry staff. Getting the races to go and getting a program that will drive a couple of things. So they have to use as horses more often run horses more often. You might like to ride a horse every 20 days. Now you run them every four 10 or 15 days to help them.

PHIL. Array's. Philosophy unique to racing almost a pair of shoes trainers and. The. Track is in good shape tomorrow will freeze. To his team for week week. John and Judy Dina tellee took the dare and continue to win the game. After 20 years of training the atmosphere the competition the sport itself you know the. The challenge of winning a

race getting a horse there. It's kind of like a game. It's fun. You know it's it's very exhilarating to watch your horse run for the first time that you might have bread or water on the horse suit completely. Talentless and you know from very little or limited education when you get it and go into the school and process. And watching this horse mature and finally get to the races because of the tremendous odds against a horse ever competing. So this is kind of like you know part of the game it's like you know beating the team. So. It's really a tremendous tremendous treat and you get. These keepers of the game hold fast to memories of a win place or show. And you heady dreams of better days to come. You might sit back and reflect and say oh my god why am I doing this. But one horse hits the wire or one horse shows some potential and you forget.

The pain is gone the heartbreak is gone and there's no way to describe it. Captain John Smith first spotted it in way. A 5300 acre tree studded paradise carving a sharp way into the Chesapeake. Now almost 400 years later nothing remains of poplar. Nothing but fragments of its natural past. The Chesapeake is reclaiming poplar slowly. Deliberate inescapably. But this tiny shard of disappearing sand boasts a history rich in fact and fiction of legend and lo. Originally called pro-police Island. Poplar was once expansive. To the north Lake

Kent Island. To the east cobbler's neck. And then Tilmann isolated yet teeming with wildlife. Poplar was a microcosm of the Eastern Shore ecosystem. Biologist Jan Reise. Say the ball up on pop around in or of our town is essentially the same as on the mainland. Here in particular. There were a lot of nesting birds since it was sort of a safe. Haven. Free of predators. But since 1877 the Chesapeake relentless pursuit of poplar has won out by 1937 the western shore line was gone badly eroded the main island broken into in 1978 poplar was no more than six jagged sand bars peeking through the bay's green waters. Today most of them are gone swallowed up yet poplars. Colorful history survives. Biologist reefs and colleague Don Merritt occasionally visit the island to document its disintegration.

Jan Reese has followed poplars demise since childhood. Say it ladies there are only six. Wrong. Thinkers. To. Weed man. He got. All the. Concrete. And. Mostly. Resolved. All. That. Stands. For. I would say to me the last pop round. Perhaps to be. The death of a close. Friend. I spent many many years here. Studying what. Really. Mistakes are. These. People. Walk. Around disappear. All the. Organisms in life disappear. Also. In July of 1990 we dock the boat over another little island and walked across to where we are now. We discovered a French colony and treat some of these trees that are laying in the water. 70 feet high. Less than two years. Much of this island has disappeared.

In the Chesapeake Bay are rapidly disappearing from. This one behind us. Bob Brown is going to be probably the latest one to go on. It looks like it's got a couple more years like left. Sharpes on. Disappeared in the late 50s. Island in Jamestown are also disappearing. Off the island has always lured the uncommon to its shores. Interesting thing about pop around is that it's had some strange events in history. Used to be owned at one time by the grandson of Charles Carroll of Carrollton assigner the Declaration of Independence and he had a money making scheme to sell black cat fur to the Chinese. They put an ad in a local Eastern paper and purchased several hundred maybe even a thousand black cats and turn them loose on the island to breed in hopes that he could then go in and trap the progeny and sell the fur. Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't cooperate that winter. The bay froze and the cats decided to run to the mainland. He lost all his breeding stock.

Past poplar residents have lived through other historic moments as well. Colonists were massacred by Nanticoke Indians here as they worked a vast corn and tobacco plantation and many witnessed a British takeover of the island during the war of 1812. Later its proximity to Washington still tied poplar to the Capitol and its powerful residence in 1931 prominent Democrats bought to what was then three islands in the group and formed the Jefferson islands club. It was really a haven for powerful Washington Democrats Mary Jane Hattaway grew up on Poplar Island mingling with presidents and senators witnessing history as FDR and his staff forged the new deal and guided the allies through World War II. Of course there were some lighter moments too. Harry Truman was president or a whole called pomp around and I thought he was a fantastic person. And when the presidential party was over for the 600 people that came that way and

there were a few that stayed over. So my mother was serving dinner that night on the porch. Some reason or rather it had to be served on the porch rather than the dining room. And I had two bowls of pools one in each hand and I leaned over to put one bowl under the table and when I did the other bowl on the other hand tilted and then we went down the president's back. I wanted the floor to swallow me up because I was sure all those Secret Service men were just going up in our ball. Wanted to vanish floorboards. But he looked around and apparently I must have had tears in my eyes because he was up at ah hell don't worry about that. All have a story to tell your grandchildren is to say I felt a lot better. The lodge burned to the ground in 1946. The Bailey family bought the islands after

the fire newspaperman Hugh Bailey remembers. The island was always shrinking. Washing slowly away. But Hurricane Hazel devastated poplar in 1954 as it roared up the bay. It breached papar island in about four places making five separate islands. It changed the whole character of the place. It's one thing to have a shed or a barn or even your house blown away. But when the whole terra firma changes that much it's a real a real shocker. The islands were again sold in 1951. This time to the Campbell Soup Company. After changing hands several more times including brief ownership by the Smithsonian. They lay abandoned a group of prominent lawyers bought the islands in the 1980s and hoped the federal government will renew with dreads spoilage. A piece of property that is losing its value and size quickly. By 1990 papar island was reduced from a thriving colonial remnant to

a mere bird colony. It's guano coated trees standing as sentinels. Now even they are gone. Dredging could re-establish poplar. Yet it will never again be its former self. But even after it's gone. Fully covered by the bay. It's 400 years of Chesapeake lore beneath the choppy water. Poplar island will live. Through the memory of those who brought this Sandy sliver to life. Alexander run. It splashes through Garrett county's savage river state forest. Whispering a riddle. It's water is pure. So clean. Residents downstream drink it daily. So why

have the fish of Alexandersson vanished the brook trout sculp winds even the black nosed days are gone. Any aquatic insects too are absent from a stream that should be teeming with life. Alexander Ron is dying. Ron Claudet a Department of Natural Resources scientist believes he has found the answer and he wants to lure the fish back again. What's happening to the stream is that receiving a deposition is receiving it in the form of either acid rain or acid snow or acid. Fog. Meandering down the rocky Appalachian slopes over sandstone silt stone and shale the bedrock and thin mildly acid soils offer little or no buffering for the Alexander. It has always been slightly a city but manmade acids falling from the sky nudge the stream over the edge and toward death a quarter century ago. Acid's

disguised as rain snow dust and fog. Early autumn. Today Claudia and his team gathers south of Grantsville today for something new. Alexander Ron will be the first headwater stream in the U.S. ever dosed with a limestone for the hopes it buffer's the stream the antidote. He's been looking for. As. A Gorski helicopter will towed two tons of limestone to the watershed spreaded and return for another load. Or trying to do is raise the PH in the stream stream right now is very acidic. We're trying to apply limestone to the watershed. Primarily we're working to of the stream about 200 feet back from the stream. Bring down a line at a rate of about five tons per acre. But we hope that we will bring that to the stream up to near neutral where we can expect the fish and other organisms could survive. The pellets rain down for much of the afternoon.

And colleague Renee price are anxious to see the results but there's not much either can do but wait it up. The bottom line is you know. We got to look at the buckets see how much limestone. Scientists learned in the mid 1980s that many Marilyns streams were a city. In western Maryland alone there are twelve hundred miles of headwaters that feed larger streams creeks and rivers more than half are acidic or sensitive to acid inflow. Throughout the state. The total is now more than one third. If left unchecked. The prognosis is dead dying or threatened aquatic habitats and displacement of sensitive native species on a large scale. The stakes are high and Claudel hopes liming will heal acidic streams

at least until the new clean air act stops the problem where it starts. That point is almost always hear. Hear. And hear. Stacks and pipes spewing clouds of nitrates and oxides. Ashes and smoke. Monoxide. Dioxides sulphates and acid is. Ozone nitrogen and sulfur. A who's who of airborne poisons a legacy of progress and industry. Power plants cars trucks buses boats even home furnishings all contribute to a city pollution. Its impact reaches beyond the glass steel and concrete of urban life. Researchers from the University of Maryland's Appalachian environmental lab assists the study by sampling Alexander Iran and other regional streams.

Ray Morgan and his team sample upper big run looking for signs the streams ph has changed. And. Later Morgan and Claudet drive to Monroe run where they sample the fast running stream for fish with electro shock. Shocking. To. Say. That. All. This. Snow. Melt. Last week or so. You. There. Quite. Good. Hopefully. Some.

Good. Laughs. Flutter returns to Alexander Ron during a mid-winter snowman. Looking for signs of the limestone pellets dropped months before. The fish have not yet returned. And the Alexanders ph is still low. But what he finds looks positive. Of all it's a fairly Of all the same. For a we put him down. But. This leaf. Is still the remnants of one that has completely dissolved. But it's good to see that having dissolved. That means there. Go into the soil. This is an experiment. So we're not really sure. It will. But. It will. Treat the watershed. We think it will based on the calculations that were made but they're only the weekly sampling will tell us. On. Alexander run it turns out offers not so much a riddle to be solved as a lesson to be learned.

The mountains of western Maryland are the site of many outdoor events including Marilyn mountain bike championships. It's a competition for both professionals and beginners and those in

between. If you're. And. Then. You know you have your pick of an 18 kilometer loop or a 32 kilometer marathon. Either way it's a ride off the beaten track because a good headquarters here start business down here. This is a Cloran here. This is what a break field. Oh that's a hard call to arms. And then you get this is a river crossing with probably too deep to ride. My name is Darcy Dan Krooman right. And I'm. Actually a professional mountain bike racer. I have a family am married and have a five year old son. I actually just started. To ride to get in shape after I had my son

Matthew. I just heard it kept riding recreationally just because I enjoyed it. And then after that that's when I start after a couple of years. I try to race and and was quite surprised with the results. And then I have since started a new career I suppose. I got to go one better. This. Is. Bikers have a love for the outdoors and. A respect for nature.

There are people who are maybe health conscious and just like to be active and doing things. It's pretty interesting because it really are all ages out here anywhere from 14 year olds to 50 year olds out here racing you know so it's it's fun it's a nice group of people. I've always been athletic I think but it's I've never really taken anything to to this limits you know I've I played tennis and I've skied for a long time and done things like that that never competitive

much competitively. It is the only way. For. A. Lot of people from different states to set their cars in parks. Are not receptive to mountain bikers. And if you can see any cooperation you're

in fact the Forest Park and wildlife knurling is hosting this whole deal. You can see how they are sooky Rangers and our maintenance people on all. The pro shop. Darcy right. Six. Times. What times 125 horses getting a $200 US Savings Bonds. It's for force park and Wildlife Service. There's definitely a place for mountain bikes. OK. I think it's a good thing to be promoting people because it is you are outside you. You're getting exercise and I think it just makes a healthier America. The math. The beast.

The man about to do battle with the beast is 35 year old Robert Colonna. His orders are to bring the beast back alive and well to become an unwilling participant in this state of Maryland's relocation program. The beast is that trapped the 22 pound Eastern Shore Otter whose natural instincts in the order of things are to fight the man who wants to relocate. The battle begins. Gotcha. Are you gonna be. Over. My first concern is to ensure that I'm not hurt and. That I'm going to. Get it out as expediently as possible without causing damage or. Preventing damage to the animal what's going to happen when we're trying to take out a trap. My

second concern is. Is. Me. Extremely powerful very clamshells. For their teeth. She is a healthy female Otter who is being prepared for an airplane flight to western Maryland. She is one of dozens of Eastern Shore otters who have been tagged with the responsibility of repopulating Garrett county's decimated otter population. Throughout all of Appalachian and a good part of the Midwest Otter we're asked to pay. It essentially became extinct around the turn of the century. In western Maryland and western P.A.. Timbering operations on steep slopes as well as coal mining. Were the main culprit. Bodies of water out there just became too acidic or. Too much sediment pollution to support any fish or otter to Beetle. Capturing water is not a series of exciting days wrestling with animals in the water. It is often day after laborious day of walking and fighting to get into secret

places where otters live and getting there is only part of the job. The rest has to do with interpreting subtleties that most of us would literally walk over to see and hear the world. Around a little bit open but then have complete leave Kabul. One way odder marker territory is to pick up the roll and deposit and anal sacks of freezing cold spray. Can. You can see where they came out of the pond over there. That's what they've done here and this is the dirt have maintained this is relatively fresh probably the. The old stereotype of the dumb trapper is as far as thing from the truth because no other. Occupation or sport requires such an intimate knowledge of the animal. You have to know habitat use seasonal habitat use and to use cover how it pushes on

where they're going to stop because you have to be able to predict an animal's movement down to essentially a circle that's about an inch around and that's a pain of drought. There's wrestling trapped daughters setting traps for otters and then there's checking traps for otters. The latter can be the most frustrating. Thing in here. The real churned up it's real obvious if you've had one. But there. Was an otter through here last night. There's. Been an hour up here. The water levels clearly fluctuate. That determines where the water is going to stop because they are really short legs and the water level dropped last night and that shifted to where it planted its foot to get up the bank and step right across a trap planted its front foot right there. I need

to. Dig this out a little bit and reposition the trap. You can sense it a lot of times before you can see it. You can sense where an animal is man and don't look and sure there will be fun. Where's. Brown pretty churned up some trap. Sea Otter. So going. Back. To.

So we want to be able to fly out today. The ceiling was too low. What do you want to do with that. The otters are grounded. That's a problem. How do you keep a healthy wild animal in a small box until the weather clears for flight and release into the wild without the creature injuring itself. Asked Stallings if you can give us a call first thing in the morning if he can pull out the pilot can take any on or own. I'll take Bauder up to the veterinarian and get a shot of it. I am so doing it for the moment so I won't fight the box. I gave it to him about 60 and a half hour to

set it around quarter to. I took it out of the trap set to go in first. Class for fairly loose. Let me flash. It happened before I sleep pretty good tonight. To out tomorrow for the single morning. Finally the orders are given permission to fly. Personally this is the most rewarding professional thing I've ever done. I know that I've worked to put an animal back into an ecosystem that hasn't been there for 100 years. I can't think of anything else that would be as rewarding of that the first order we sent out I stood at the airport and watched the airplane take off and I just got goosebumps all over. It was undescribable. I knew that we were all on our way to putting an animal back where it.

Belonged. To. You. Outdoors Maryland is a production of Maryland Public Television which is solely responsible for its content. Please write with your comments or suggestions to outdoors Maryland Maryland Public Television Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1

7