Outdoors Maryland Family Field Trip

Oh. Funding for the outdoors Maryland field trip is provided by generous grants from BGT committed to protecting the environment and conserving natural resources by Bell Atlantic. The heart of communication. And by the Baltimore Community Foundation a permanent collection of individual family and corporate charitable funds working for a better Baltimore today. And all our tomorrows. If you're happy as a terminal what you're looking at the fossils in the deposits of the cell they just fire beetles.

Well mostly small insects. Outdoors Maryland presents. Hi I'm Gerald and Mrs. Calvert Cliffs on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Looks pretty peaceful doesn't it. But in a way it's really not. There's a major competition going on here a competition between people and nature for the same resources. You see the cliffs constantly and naturally a road. This is great for people studying the earth past erosion reveals the wide variety of plant and animal fossils that are located and erosion is also great for the Puritan Tiger beetle and endangered insect that makes its home here and practically nowhere else on earth. These beetles must lay their eggs on a bare vertical surface like the cliffs here. If it goes so might they. But erosion also spells trouble for people whose homes are

located on the cliffs. The cliff face is marching backwards at a rate of three to five feet a year. This means that homes that were once far away from the edge of the cliff face are now in danger of falling into the bay and you can understand why people want to stop that from happening. But anything they do will change the cliffs erosion patterns destroying the tiger beetle nurseries and stopping the constant exposure of fossils. The story of Calvert Cliffs might sound familiar. You see we just finished an electronic field trip here. Hundreds of kids traveled with us. Chances are your children were among them. And no you didn't forget signing any permission slip or paying for the bus because it was an electronic field but electronic field trip students stay in their classroom. We travel to them. I know when I heard about electronic field trips it all sounded kind of weird to me too. But as the project developed I found out some pretty interesting stuff and I'd like to share that with you tonight. First of all I found out that an electronic field trip people travel through

a whole collection of the newest media available. Such as fiber optics satellite connections and don't worry if stuff like that makes your head swim. It's really pretty simple. All right let me show you how. To me the best part of any field trip is getting deep in the site seeing things for yourself and talking with the experts and in an electronic field trip. That's easy to do. As more and more schools go online to the Internet establishing a project website is a natural for an electronic field trip and our project site. Your kids could access background information about Calvert Cliffs and start thinking about their own place in Maryland's ecosystem. Some kids also started preparing for the field trip in their classrooms using activities and discussion questions suggested in the project teacher's guide. Naturally students came up with a bunch of questions about what they were learning and they took advantage of many electronic routes to send them to the project including email fax machines and toll free phone lines and kids

without access to these electronic routes could send their questions through the mail. The new media also plays a great role in the electronic field trip broadcast itself. The field trip itself was broadcast throughout the state on MP two stations so all students could participate. Some students travel from other electronically to the field trip. They were located in three classrooms that are linked together through a fiber optics network. This technology allowed them to span time and distance to see and talk with each other as if they were in the same room. As the day of the broadcast began Baltimore County science teacher Richard Anderson stood ready in a classroom in Owings Mills to coordinate these three groups and make sure others around the state had a chance to participate as well. And so we began an investigation of the Calvert Cliffs story.

But think about this what if you came back here in 10 years and all this had somehow changed. How would the state be different. How would your life be different. That's what we hope you'll find out today when our electronic field trip for Davao has got a paleontologist and longtime Calvert Cliffs resident. The answer to that question lies in the unique importance of Calvert Cliffs as a vast storehouse of fossils from the Miocene epoch. Some 15 million years ago. Predicting a long power. Goes back a long time. Here in Princeton a memorial to. The shelf and why. Tell the book. Why don't we. Just about. When. The rain and the cycle freezing in. Chunks of the cliff slide off into the abyss. This process exposes the fossilized remains of a wide variety of animals and

plants. Any truth to look at and say these two are different. But are they different because our young one and the other one is one male one female one is just like humans. No two people are alike. And if you were to describe what a person looks like you would want to pick one person you look at a great number of people and see how. On this trip to Calvert Cliffs makes a tiny belongs to an ancient bird. He carefully wraps it to protect it until it can be cleaned and examined in the laboratory. The advantage in the lab is that we can work on the power we can use magnifying glasses or microscopes to get in get a better look at it and you can do things much more slowly. So it really

is a lot of work. But there is a real thrill that sometimes you're looking at something no one's ever ever seen before. Again you know. It's just not a matter of collecting and throwing him in and forgetting them various questions are asked about the fossil. Some of it is in fact what we call paleo ecology trying to get a picture of what Maryland looked like. Fossil hunting in public prints is not just for paleontology. Although you need special permission to go on the cliff face. You can find many fossils just walking along the beach. But without the adventure of finding a 15 million year old

fossil would be in the past. Personally I would like to see areas set aside where we could allow it to occur back to areas where where there are no home. You know erosion occurs there. There would be no problem as Bill has explained his passion for collecting with many others through the ages including pre-colonial Native Americans before Europeans came to the new world. The American Indians also did some fossil collecting. Optically sharks teeth have been found in archaeological sites. They seem to have been interested in them just like we are. Thank you Dave. A question from Craig County. His question is Why or why not day. No we don't find dinosaur fossils here. These deposits are about 15 million years old. Dinosaurs became extinct about sixty two million years.

Ago. So they were already long gone before these deposits were. Formed. How do you determine what form. Good question usually it's done with looking at the fossils in the cell. The fossils lived a certain time period so and took the microphone off. You'll compare them with fossils from other areas. You know their age. And a lot of it's done is relative to. Say the fossils here. Older than one group of fossils younger than another. Now also mentally you'd like to be able to tie that into an absolute date. But you can only get absolute dates on igneous rocks where you checked radioactive isotopes. And you don't. Normally find those. Fossils under sediment. So you have to find a place where you can connect up but to prove. That. We also have a question here from the frank Arlette has a question that he would like out of asking today.

And in the clip it's actually pretty good. There are number of things that we suspect are here where we found fragments. And we suspect that there are new species we just haven't found a good enough specimen to name it yet. There are also cases where individuals we might find one specimen and you really need more than one to get an idea of the variation rather an. Entire new species or just very into something we already know. And sometimes in fact we get surprised that somebody walks in our amateur collector will find something. Had no idea it was down here. Yes. Very good. Aside from their wealth of fossils the cliffs are also important because of the role they play in the life of a tiny creature with a huge sounding name. The Puritan Tiger beetle. Calvert Cliffs is one of its last remaining homes. The adults run around the beaches during the day.

They feed on other insects of small creatures anything they can grab hold of they pounce on him like a brother called Adele Puritan Tiger beetles may find food on the beaches but they need this soft sandy soil near the top of the cliffs to lay their eggs. They find the right kind of soil that they have adapted to and they based their structure into the soil and place and they're. After the eggs hatch into larvae. These baby beetles burrowed deeper into the cliffs creating a long tunnel. The larva awaited the entrance to the tunnel for any unsuspecting insects to happen by. When they do the larvae grab them with their strong Jones. Putin Tiger beetles will only lay their eggs in a vertical surface. It doesn't have any weeds or other plants on. Which is why they live here in the cliffs. You could come in here and destroy this cliff you could plant this little clip of vegetation

completely eliminate the beetle and if that happened that these large populations. The species would disappear. We have. Really only about five or six large populations with with over 500 individuals and you know very few of those are protected so the beetles depend on these currents staying the way they are now and in a way the cliffs depend on the beetles to where they are. For example you have a natural on the shore a natural on the left. If we don't buy the beetles there we know there's some human activity or chemical pollution or something disruptive that has made those habitat. I'd like to see those for. Posterity and the beetles are helping us do that. Right now the Puritan Tiger beetle is on the state's list of endangered species. Those who consider to be threatened on a national level.

We can protect five or six or seven or eight populations at several thousand individuals and we can reintroduce. Some new populations where they used to be then the species will be taken off the list. Legal experts very nicely and Kathy McCarthy were anxious to share more information with the students about the habits and future of this endangered. We have a couple questions right here the first one will come from the internet. Karen Ross first question which is what. Tiger beetles will eat mostly small insects particularly things that are small enough that they can grab ahold. And. And consume something that's smaller than them but mostly small insects. Thank you. Steven. A middle school has a question. And now they're beetles.

Tiger beetle is about the same length of a Japanese beetle only it's a little slimmer. But it's that's pretty much the same size. They're different because they have big. And there are some certain. Small characteristics that distinguish them. But most Tiger beetles are active predators. They feed on other things. And they had these big jaws that they use that. For. We have another question also from the internet. Mr. Robinson's fourth grade class asked at what point does an animal go on the endangered species. It's we don't have exact figures we can't give you exact numbers because what constitutes. A healthy population for Tiger. Cars numbers I'm. Going to be very different for example from what would constitute a healthy population of beer. There's no exact numbers but those are the criteria we use to evaluate the stats. Thank you Cathy. I have a question from a fourth grade class at fields Road Elementary

School. The question is what will happen if these animals become extinct. That's that's really the toughest question to answer but like many species although they're small and not as significant as say a bald eagle they're important part of the ecosystem and they're a thing of natural beauty and I think many of us would like to see most species preserved and certainly their habitat. And everything that's associated with them. The story of Calvert Cliffs comes down to this issue. People in nature often compete for the same resources. And when they do you've got to take a step back and think about what we do today compromise our future and the future of those resources that concern is part of the daily lives of many of the people who live in covered cliffs including Jon Lane and Ellen Bergen. Where we are right now is going down in the bad weather a million years and 10 years from now I don't know I don't think is going to be

figured out by the time the reach of the house will be gone and my daughter can handle the situation. Paradise is slipping away through the Bergen family. Their homes will one day be pulled down by the eroding cliff on which it stands. Why did they stay alone so its not a house that you live in through your home. People like the Bergen's have lived in homes on the shoreline cliffs of Calvert County for many decades. But in a Rhodesian raid that averages about three feet per year takes its toll. I've seen like in the backyards. They're not there anymore like places I used to play are like now underwater. It's weird. But up to right here from going to close to the edge of Camilla Bergen has lived on a clue overlooking the Chesapeake Bay for almost her entire life. She's not impressed when people say she lives in paradise.

I learned to swim when I would like to. Living down here. That summer the weather is usually pretty mild. We don't get like super hot. We don't even have air conditioning there's no need for it this summer I had to put the down comforter off my bed. I would have been you know it's not like. I could live by the sea the flood rise over the bay every day like that. Yeah you know I think the view may be grand but residents are concerned about the ever eroding cliff face. Some have built bulkheads were revetments to slow the process. Others like the berg and encourage think covering the plants to grow on the cliff face. Those who are interested in doing the grasses and the plants that we have around the perimeter. Those plants put down a room pattern that holds together in this very interested in the and what ever the plane these barriers disturb the cliff face

in limited in the places the tiger beetles need to lay their hands were changing the Roshan and wave patterns that expose fossils and yet if people don't do something their homes might fall into the bay. How do the Bergen's live with this uncertainty. Think about it and I don't think about it like a whole gosh you know let's go measure are we any closer and encroaches tiny amount for the Bergen's sharing their environment with the tiger beetles in the fossil collectors as a natural part of their lives. So is the cliff's beauty very right here in your Park Middle School has a question for them. What do you like about this. Testing. Being right beside the bank and not. Seeing the waves of water it's always changing. That's really nice it's always peaceful here.

From Rockville Maryland also has a question from the internet. His question is why haven't you build bulkheads to stop arose in your house. They do a lot of research. About a religion and they haven't really proven that both kids would be affected. The two main problems are the top of the class the road at the bottom of it. Coming out in the water seeping into the soil making it displace so I'm not sure kids would do it. But they're still investigating the best possibility. I have a question from the internet or from fourth and fifth grade students at Western Ford elementary. It's a somewhat long question. Our school in our town had a lot of erosion from the flood caused by Hurricane Fran. Some houses were destroyed when George's creek flooded. People now are using boaters to fix a road. Is there any way to stop the erosion and to help both the people who live in the class and the people who visit our park. There. I know Johns Hopkins is doing a study about the Roshan u boat and it's pretty much.

You know a natural act you can't really stop erosion completely you can slow it down. And people who live like we do on the cliffs just have to be careful. That's how they treat the man. One of the reasons that we visited Calvert Cliffs in our electronic field trip is that the story here parallel so many other stories throughout the state where the balance between people and nature is in jeopardy and that's why we also pause to look at some of them including the story of belt woods an old growth forest near Bowie where development threatened its harmonious ecosystem of ancient trees and spectacular wildlife. The story of the Red Foxes of Druid Hill Park in Baltimore where development has completely changed this animal's natural life cycle. And the story of homeowners in western Maryland who have found out what can happen when their development encroaches on the natural habitat of the black bear. We know that you and your kids will have to deal with situations like these outer lives. And faced with that responsibility. It's important to know that what you do can make a

difference to your environment. That's why we took a look at an extremely effective program at Sparrows Point middle and high schools to see how kids there are helping to ensure that the ecological balance is maintained. And endangered in 14 states listed as threatened in Maryland one of the nesting areas. They were sandy beaches heavily areas on the coast. Course that's where all the Ponderosa is going to happen. We're going to do is we're going to take each of these l supports. And place them probably about tow of about five feet away from the edge of the roof. And try to put them about every 12 feet. As the turns move inland. They have taken a liking to flat white gravel roots like those here at Sparrows Point middle and high schools. These students are making sure the turns new home is

safe. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources provides the materials the students provide the labor turns to nest in colonies and they need a lot of land for that. And normally they nest on oyster shell beaches or sandy beaches and wide open and generally isolated barren areas over the past 10 15 years and they have. Discover tar and gravel roofs and it turns out that a lot of tar and gravel roofs and in Maryland and around the bay happen to be just ideal for them in a as they fly over we assume that they look down and they see this wide open expanse of white look kind of like a beach and so there they end up nesting here. These little fences which are constructed of. Two by fours and sandbags and a chicken wire fencing. They are designed to keep the chicks from running all the way off the roof.

I've really still very worried because they're a threatened species where there's other animals out there that threaten but this is one that's in the Senate and it's our hope that mail you know not the take that away and then you know when you're in bed. I have animals out here and I really need I hope. We don't yet know how successful this project has been there are no numbers that show a strong increase in the number of least turns. But thanks to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and students like these the least terns are holding their own and that is a success in anyone's eyes. Students from the lease term project were justifiably proud to share their story with our audience. Amy Holden from Chesapeake Bay middle school asked the next question Amy. How many years.

Last year we had one hundred twenty and we were I mean mess. We had 120 mess and as I said before there was about 1988 and discovered them and they called the DNR and we took the necessary precautions for. The next question. How have you reacted to the bird being present on your. Reaction. Positively I would. I would. Use the information and data that we collected from the project and their. Classroom Activities. And. Students took it upon themselves to use information. And their projects for. Time. Question that I have from Internet Francis T asked if I wanted to have my school to be a home for what should I do. Nothing you can really do to draw all the turns. This site. Apparently turns to a site when they look at rooftops they find something that is real similar to their natural habitat like

our narrow roof. So they can choose lighter. Cells we can't really. Track them. You're. The best we can do is when. Terms do occur on the roof. Just demand for this. And. The best part about an electronic field trip like this is that they don't have to end when the broadcast is over. You and your kids can continue to explore the story of Calvert Cliffs electronically. You can start with a visit to the field trip website at w w w dot MP or to venture down some of the trails there or follow its links to other ecological Internet sites. Or you could start up the car for a little traveling of the regular variety to the library for books and magazine articles about our lives or fossils or endangered animals and plants. Or you could put a visit to the cliffs themselves and do a little bit. Talk.