Outdoors Maryland; 2204

Tours Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you to you and your love. Coming up. Dropping a line in search of the elusive Diamond you're. Striking a balance on behalf of our tiny tigers. In. The newest natural gift. To the people of my. Next. Outdoors Marylanders produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Dno are inspired by nature. Guided by science. Thank. You.

There's an old saying. Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. The Maryland fishing challenge is giving this idea a twist by declaring that fishing is the best way to get people hooked on the outdoors. During the summer. Teams from the Maryland DNR catch tagging release striped bats. One Lucky Fish is tagged the diamond gem. The rest imposters. The DNR uses these outings as a way to expose folks to Maryland's aquatic resources and the thrill of catching the fish. I'm. Not going. Anywhere. I'm. Going to. Add a little one looks like maybe a blue night it's a small stripers. Morning Gary is a fishery ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service. For kids we have out today. I mean never been fishing. And here we have had schools examples of what fish he does to a person especially if it's

never experienced. Fish come up stop their drive in their faith to the surface. We have five or six different schools half acre acre in size and this is what Chesapeake Bay is like and sometimes it's just awesome. You go. To the last. One I'm a ham about £20 but it got off the hook. And I. Thought. Well something from this. Well it's fate is it may get recaptured within days or it may be here and you never know where they're going to go. We could tag it this year today and it could be 30 miles down the bay or they could be caught. Roughly a mile or two away from here. A special component of the fishing challenge the crown jewel is a rock fish with an eye popping bounding as much as $25000. The prospect of hooking in the Diamond Jim is raising the rods reels and pulse rates. The fishermen like John Sparrow. Of Waldorf Merrill. Diamond gems out there. It's always on the back of your mind every every fish you bring in if

you're lucky enough to catch one. We fish out there every weekend so the next thing you know I'm on now with him pull him up in the boat. Everybody scream untag fish says Diamond Jim this is the first Diamond Jim recapture within the 30 day eligibility period. And Mr. Sparrow is going to break the law to see if he won. He caught the authentic Diamond Jim or caught the impostor. Rather than letting you know all of the story got. The state of Maryland DNR is going to hand me the on the lope and let me see if my fish is the winning fish and if not the quest is still there he's still out there. It's an imposter. We ate on time and Jim is still out there. I happen to have a couple still cinema. Even if you're not catching the fish caught it's just a great thing to be out there trying to you know a bad day a fish and beats a good day at work any day. To be the fishing challenge. Also gives youngsters the opportunity to experience the thrill of dropping a line. Today Gavin Serina and Neil. Are heading

off Ocean City on the fishing trip. The just might get them booked. For what. Governor O'Malley. Has. A goal of all rights. For the environment. That includes getting kids out of bed. So. We want to make sure the kids have exposure to quality fishing experience. And Maryland has so many diverse high quality fishing opportunities offered to Wharton for young people to fish. Because they're going to be the ones that care. Perpetuate. The stewardship and taking care of the environment they're going to be the ones to complain. If they see something that's not right out here. Superficially what. The folks that fish here are the caretakers of the oceans are the bays the rivers. It's part of our culture. Part of what we are right it's not. A challenge is really what brings people to fishing. A challenge to

think that you outsmarted something and enjoyed doing it. The late Bill Burton was Maryland's legendary outdoors writer who inspired generations of anglers to get out and fish. This year the fishing challenge celebrates his Hall of Fame career I was in to start a writing business for over 60 years and the biggest question I ever had was how do I teach my kids to fish. Like a letter. Area so you are in the office. Oh. I thought we might. Catch a couple tonight. I never thought we'd. Catch Marlin. On real lead. I'm grown. I know I know he'll is. Like. Tom O'Connell is the director of the DNR Fishery Service. But today he's also a proud dad. The quality time that we had together despite no fish was incredible you know it's let's talk

reeling in a 65 pound marlin in the flashback of all the experience that I had with my dad and my grandfather knowing that this was creating a memory that was going to last a lifetime for both of us. And to expose or to what's possible auguring Atlantic Ocean the fishery that the state of Maryland offers. I don't want. You to Know About a bigger person than me. Oh. That's not fair. You know there's one thing to always remember in all of this you can't expect me you know that to want to keep all waters clean unless you give him access to it. And once he enjoys it he's going to be interested in saving it. This is why fishing is so important. It was fun catching the marlin and it was hard. It was pretty awesome. He thought the fish was when he was home in the water. On a scale of one to 10 help. Me right now 3 8 5 4 7 4.

But American fishing challenges they hope to get kids into fishing and by putting prizes up trips and so forth they'll go fishing and they want to go back again and again by three time which is beautiful right. The chance to win prizes fishing gear and guided fishing trips at the annual Grand Finale provides plenty of incentive to get the party with the idea of the state's largest fishing contest is to showcase Maryland as an outstanding fishing destination for kids of all ages. And trailer. Oh oh oh. Oh. Oh God oh. God. In Maryland we've made a commitment to help introduce the love of fishing and the love of the outdoors to children from across the state. How long you been fishing. It's our one day ok you comp us a lot in a day.

Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown was emcee at the grand finale. Congratulations All right. Today we awarded up prizes the kids from throughout Maryland young boy from Baltimore City I was his first time fish in it. He was proud to be up they are got a new fishing rod and tackle box. And that's part of this program because we know we can excite them about a fish and they'll come out and do this and they'll do this with their children and their children's children. This is such a great part of my. But many children don't have this opportunity. As a parting favor to me take a kid fishing. You might just find it is satisfying for you as it is exciting for you who will. Get out and fish and have some fun. Maryland has 7000 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline.

18 miles features stunning cliffs like these scattered on private and public lands on the western and eastern shores. These special cliffs are home to a tiny state endangered species. The Puritan Tiger Beat. The little insect goes about its curious life ways oblivious to gathering forces of human controversy. And climate change. Because the cliff face possible extinction. So too do the creatures who exclusively call them home. Calvert Cliffs State Park in Calvert County supports more Puritan Tiger beetles than any other place in the world. It seems contradictory but scientists are working to maintain cliffs like these for the beetle by protecting their natural erosion. Sometimes a controversial effort. Gymkhanas state zoologist with the Department of Natural Resources.

It's important to maintain these cliffs habitats and the natural processes the natural rational processes that occur here and not only for the beetle but they provide a set of material that curves down shore and provides the beach habitat and they also create sand bars that reduce Roge rates and other shoreline areas. If you remove the natural original process these spectacular cliffs will be gone. There were ancient fossil beds here and other animals use the cliffs too including for example the ability to swallow colonies that nest every spring. The bald eagles do nest along the fourth shorelines above the cliff. We have flocks of migratory shorebirds that use these areas during their stopovers and sandy beaches that occur along this area have a lot of value not just ecological value but recreational value. They're great places to take your kids and family and so it's very important protect these areas. On the eastern shore the beautiful sassafras river forms the boundary between Cecil and Kent counties. Puritan Tiger beetles on the cliff sites here have suffered an 80 percent decline since the early 1990s.

Scientists believe encroaching vegetation is destroying the open space needed by this and other species. DNR is working with scientists like very nicely professor of biology at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. He surveyed Tiger beetles here since the late 1980s. His team is studying its life habits and habitat. To learn what is needed to prevent extinction. Now usually for a species to go extinct you don't have to drop it down to. Zero because once the numbers get down to a small number then they're doomed. But what you need are multiple sites because we have seen that some sites totally disappear and depend on recolonization from another site. Please research shows the beetles need open space for all of its life stages. The adults are kind of like the lizards they are predatory they use their eyesight they

see something they dart after it they feed on it so they need open ground. The female beetles climb toward the top of the cliffs to lay their eggs. The young or larval beetles remain on the cliffs for up to two years and they anchor themselves into these burrows and stick their head out and get these big yawls that something comes by and they just grab very quickly put down and eat it and it depends on things coming into that open area. So the larvae and adults both need open areas. Michael Fenster a geologist is associate professor at Randolph-Macon College. A straight up words. Take about. 40 grams to sample the strata on this bluff face dates from the last heyday of the dinosaurs. That particular part not terminate. A lot. Grandmothers. That are. Where Beatles. Work. This data will help focus conservation efforts on sites most likely to succeed.

One eighty. One research continues. Scientists are working to save where open cliff sides on private lands as well. To ensure survival of multiple sites around the bay. But private landowners living on top of cliffs are looking to preserve their property from the naturally Roge that maintains the tiger beetle habitat. When you stop in natural rational processes the cliff faces will in short order become vegetated and Kellen suitable for the shoreline erosion control structures that some private landowners are interested in. Represent probably the greatest threat to pure to entire people because these insects are federally threatened and state endangered landowners must apply for federal state and local permits in order to construct erosion control along cliffs with Puritan Tiger beetles. Catherine McCarthy southern region ecologist with the wildlife and heritage service

DNR works with shoreline landowners in Calvert County. So we've tried to come up with compromises in the structures that they want to put in that wall allow for some erosion in order to maintain the tiger beat a heart attack. But where Durst the level I'm reticent to address the homeowners concerns about property loss. Tony VI that is a resident of Chesapeake ranch estates. Since 1996 you know that I've lost at least 20 feet. So is it significant and serious now we're concerned. On behalf of the homeowners association by the research the breakwaters. The application for event meant which is a large rock breakwater right at the base of the cliff was denied. Environmentally friendly reef balls installed in 2005 dissipate wave energy while allowing

some sand to gather preventing some erosion. The unfortunate part is that. With the type of nor'easter hit we get in tropical wind. The sand that it creates doesn't stay. So it's partial protection but where the canyon now that we need additional protection that's when Phyllis Bonfield is another shoreline resident of Chesapeake ranch estates her property lies 70 feet above the cliffs. We had no erosion and till the summer of 0 3 and over a course of 12 months we had four slides and in that time we also had Hurricane Isabel. We lost a total of 35. Bonfield was permitted to build a near shore break water which helps break up waves while maintaining beach an open cliff side. But she fears more slides. And at some point our home might not be sellable. I have to wonder whether it's really in the best interest to try to protect the beadle.

To protect Chesapeake Bay or to protect property. And we really feel that property should be at the top of the list. Officials like Glen ferrous head of the endangered species program a DNR grapple with these difficult choices. There's only about 6000 Parrott entire beetles left on the planet 85 percent of them here in Maryland. So it's our responsibility as stewards of the planet to keep this species around. Here in Tiga Bayles like a lot of other species kind of act as canaries in a coal mine telling us something's going wrong figure it out. Might affect us as well. Or. Whatever happens here and now the long term effects of climate change pose major challenges to both private landowners and public planners. Not just in Chesapeake Bay but around the world.

Sea level rise and climate change which. May have a profound effect on the habitat for the species and not just the poor in Tiger Beat all that many other rare and common shoreline species. At this point we simply don't know. What the impact will be. Imagine if several thousand acres of waterfront property were suddenly available along the coveted shorelines of Southern Maryland. What if this land had been in private ownership for over 400 years and its pristine woodlands salt marshes and wide sand beaches were preserved to look much as they did centuries ago. This is the new town that peninsula this is the northern end of the property where we have sort of a saw for timber our unmerited lath burry at the office of the land acquisition of the Maryland DNR.

This amounted to an unprecedented chance to conserve some of the most ecologically and historically significant lands in the state. We're looking at some salt marsh in our mixed with some of the older growth forest here this is very indicative of what John Smith and others may have seen when they came here and 16 0 8. This this particular part of the property is fairly pristine untouched. Working with a Conservation Fund and the Nature Conservancy the state of Maryland recently acquired four parcels of property under program open space the state initiative for conserving environmentally sensitive lands for future generations. Program open space was started by some true visionaries and the idea was every time real estate transferred hands a little bit of money would go into the kitty for open space. And so these funds are used to purchase the state parks the wildlife management areas at all. Some of it goes for local community parks as well. The properties stretch through some of the fastest growing areas in Maryland.

You don't see really large tracts of land left in Maryland anymore. So to see 5000 acres of undeveloped land that's been so well cared for is this truly unprecedented. And one thing that everyone tells us that we don't have enough is water access to the Chesapeake Bay. And so with one thousand and a half miles of unbroken shoreline that's a public water access that's unprecedented and stay in Maryland. In addition we also have these huge tracts of forests and wetlands that helps the landscape to be able to deal with changes over time. This is unbelievable habitat these grasses here these are the lungs of the test big day. But these are the areas that really provide the functions of water quality. The land has had one single owner and traces an uninterrupted connection back to the original settlers of the Maryland colony. The land has been judged good or ships since the sixteen hundred father Bill

rical is with the Maryland province of the Society of Jesus known as the Jesuits in their town next piece of property was bought for forty thousand pounds of tobacco. So this was a barter economy worker we're talking about here. The history of the Jesuits the history of Maryland and the history of the Catholic Church in Maryland all start from the same point. And that's the arrival of the Ark in the day of two boats that landed on ST comments island and 16 34. And those lands they were talking about are all part of the original settlement and have been either in use as farmland or in this current pristine state untouched since then. This is where Cap'n John Smith actually brought his shell and experience this day. David O'Neill is the president of the friends of the John Smiths trail. This is a unique and special place and this is a treasured Chesapeake landscape and it certainly evokes the time of John Smith.

From the earliest colonial times the Jesuits rented out the land to tobacco farmers and others. The revenues supported their missionary work. Today agriculture continues to support the local economy. Tommy Bowles has farmed the land for 25 years and understands why this land is special. It's some very valuable ground here are neutralized. We raise freon a bushel called us ground we raise a bushel wheat so it takes it takes good granite to do that we want a state championship in Maryland with the most bushels Puracal last year. So if we have the right rains and the weather works was this probably the most productive land in Maryland. In recent years the value of the land skyrocketed making it more profitable to sell than run out for farming. When the time came. The Jesuits felt honor bound to pass it along. Responsible. As we look at both what our current mission and needs are and we looked at the land. We had options obviously.

As an order we've become much more aware of the importance of preservation of the environment as part of the stewardship we have for creation at large. And it became that much more important to us that it not be developed but rather that we we find a way of transferring a stewardship in such a way that it could be preserved. I think they realize their role as stewards. They have taken care of these properties they were well managed they were sensitive to the environment. Patrick Noonan is the vice chairman and founder of the friends of the John Smiths try on their stewardship ethic their desire that others could enjoy. And be inspired and understand the great beauty of the Chesapeake in its lands. And so I think we've benefited from their thoughtfulness and their caring spirit before the state makes a purchase. The property is given a conservation scorecard. The DNR looks at many factors. Among them wildlife habitat water quality the potential for land conservation and public access and cultural and historic value.

The scores for the Jesuit property were sky high. I view the Jesuit acquisitions as sort of the perfection of what we've been doing for the last 40 years. John Griffin is secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources really preserving. Of a large landscape with lots of waterfront with great history and culture and that countryside is disappearing. So we've really got to target our efforts into the most important pieces of that that are left and preserve them. The State targets those efforts using Green Print Maryland. A website that shows the relative ecological importance of every parcel of land in the state and whether a property falls within targeted ecological areas flagged as highly desirable zones for conservation. These mapping tools help the state to formulate its vision for land conservation here as that whole technology has advanced over the last 15 years. It's really allowed us this land conservationists to assemble

so much important data in layers that allows us to zero in on the most significant lands try to protect Maryland is at the forefront now of responsible open space planning where we're saying we don't want to react. We want to identify these areas that have natural and historic values we're mapping them. We're ranking them and they're we're using that objective data to be efficient and effective in our land purchases throughout the state. It's a model that I think other states are very quickly going to follow. As the people of Maryland take stewardship of these historic lands. Planning is underway on how to strike the balance between providing public access continuing the tradition of agricultural uses and preserving the natural beauty of these pristine landscapes in perpetuity. There is a tremendous commitment towards the long term stewardship of this landscape. It's caring for the history caring for the culture of this region. And to me it says you know wow what an incredible

opportunity for me to be able me bring my children here to be able to enjoy this location. There aren't too many places left where you had that chance. Drop into our website at w w w dot MPP dog. Oh RG 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 outdoors Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you.