Outdoors Maryland; 1507

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. Coming up. School kids including mine on the Chesapeake Bay. And. The nature of history. Versus the history of the. Outskirts. Those are. Outdoors. Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. And. Are. Inspired by Nature. To. Do.

Anything to me. I'll. Let. You. Decide. Whether you can set up a class room for days and days and days when. You really want to understand the day from a different perspective then let them breathe. Get it all on that level. My. Son is. Son's teacher of course and she's been taking field high school students to great fun and in the Chesapeake Bay for almost getting the. Kids clamoring for spots on her to relate to folks. You can. Watch birds fly in the air you can watch them land on the water you scrape the grass and you'll find the macro invertebrates my growing part of it.

And here you are students and teachers come to Fox-Allen from throughout the bay's watershed for these kids from this field of Bayside town built on the Chesapeake so it's different from fisheries. It's a profound affirmation of their heritage and immersion into their culture. Reachable by boat only. Great Fox Island was once a private hunting and fishing lodge. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation acquired it in the late 1970s and gradually converted it into an environmental education center. It's the foundation's most primitive center on the bay. All food and fresh water on board. Solar power the refrigerator and a few electric lights. Vigorous bicycling water. It's an object lesson on low impact living. And on problems besetting the

bay once well over 300 acres. The island is eroding into pieces. It's fertile grass beds succumbing to sedimentation and sea level rise. The message is heard day and night in the voice of the waves and the wind. Think about that. Colin White is manager at Fox Island. They have a national treasure in their backyard which most of them take for granted. We're trying to point out how special and how important this place is to make them realize that they affect it in their daily lives. And hopefully they'll want to preserve it and take some responsibility for the quality of the battle and the environment around them. That's why I love it. I love the impact. I really feel like I'm doing something out here. Captain James T. Assistant. Organizes for. The. Journal right. Behind.

This. Place. It's magical to some kids you don't even have to facilitate it just bring them out here and let them do the things that kids like to do which is fish and run through the marsh and run around the docks and go canoeing on the boats and they're going to take something from it whether or not they realize or not. And hopefully when they leave they're going to love just a. Great sign and lives in Virginia just over the Maryland state line. But the water. Is. A place. That. It's in a way. That can present a revelation for the centuries and speed. We asked the kids to go out and find one object. Can be any object washed up on the ground. That illustrates. Their connection. To the Chesapeake Bay. And. So. It's. Like.

My dad's a traveler. And my father was a traveler. He's been cramming for pretty much all his life all my life I've been hearing about pollution in the bay and. It's actually is a piece of news. Sarah has roots run deep and never been the Fox-Allen and I find out a couple of days ago that my great great great great grandfather he owned a couple of the bigger islands and he had farms on there with livestock and orchards around thing. And the British came over during a revolution and warned his wife that everything burned and they took prisoner. His father they took him to navigate where the oyster beds were. And he wouldn't do it. So that's why he became handicapped. So he kind of like saved us. And I think that's very unique. Fox is a person for to work. When we first started this program at first the high school year and I knew that I had

some Native American background. I became more interested and aware of the teachings involved. With the concept of stewardship of land and taking care of the resources that it is not our land to abuse. It's our land take care of and manage. So they really feel very much a part of the land very spiritual. This trip clouds often turn to rain on Dr. Drew's salaries for grabbing and scraping excursion. It is the best way for the kids to get the picture of the diversity of life the importance of the habitat. And the mystery of what's going to come if. They're going to see something new and exciting is. Going to get them. Out of. There and fight. Against the. Has lived on the bay

mound. For the water in my show up on the water. This is just pretty much natural. I didn't know it was that much pollution going on here all the time. Fish and hunt going on. What about on the island about a change in the tides and the birds. The weather such as all of the other species. Saving the snow here. It's kind of like coming home from sleep. In fact it helped the bay in some way. Bill help help me. I particularly like. The fish in that part of. The. House.

I've always been interested in science and this is how exposed me to marine biology is I love the bay. I like all of it I'm really interested in trying to save the banks. And. Maybe. Going to a field. Like this I was going to live. In. One of my. Responsibilities is I feel as a mission and a goal in my life is to. Help preserve this non-renewable resource for our children and our future generation. There's a good reason I can see a definite change in the children's attitude when I grow up. They become more responsible adults. 9/11 was Sarah. The. Salt air salt water. Marsh thank. You. We made a lot of people trees.

I think my purpose here is to go out and try to search for what I've never seen look before who I really am. The base of course life is all over the time. Young laugh and hear the gentle splashing of the day under the dock and that's why. When I do it in the bay they call the ocean. And take your place and they will not be able to put your feet in the water. And dream about the future for millions of years. Wash over the land wash the salt say say today that my veins gives me life. I am truly one where they are all created of the earth. A leisurely drive Northover the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Offers some.

Picturesque. On the map. Baltimore skyline dominates the horizon. Nothing unusual there. But a glance to the right present something else. Something of a mystery. A six sided chunk of brownstone in the middle of the Patapsco River. A peculiar landmark. It's impossible to identify without taking a closer look. The island of rock turns out to be Fort Kairo. Abandoned army outpost. Infamous subject of local legend. Built in the 1840s to defend Baltimore against enemy attack. It was so important to military minds of the time. That renowned Army engineer Colonel Robert E. Lee was ordered to Baltimore to build it. It was abandoned years ago and lies empty. A sleeping guardian of Baltimore's harbor. But there is renewed interest in the old Ford sparked by the discovery that the

island is occupied by nature of fact that has bird lovers historians developers and even the state wondering what will happen to historic fort Carol. On this wide expanse of the Patapsco near the key bridge. The steam of heavy industry bends eastward in the river when. It's chilly for a Maryland day in May. Dave Brinker and Jim McCann both wildlife biologists with Maryland's Department of Natural Resources are here at Solar's flats near the mouth of the Patapsco River to count birds but not just any birds. They are carefully observing an extraordinary gathering of species the water bird colony they found thriving inside of Fort Carroll. Dave Branker. Word for it Carol or what some of us like to call the home of industrial strength

bearings right here in Baltimore Harbor we have. A growing heran area that has most of the species of herons negroes that nest in the state of Maryland. Now none of these are officially listed as threatened or endangered. But there are these species of conservation interest because they're uncommon. Which is why we track. These start with great goods that we produce. So it's like it does. Look like. Over the years for Carol's been the subject of ideas ranging from the mildly unconventional to the supremely eccentric. As entrepreneurs look for ways to use the abandoned Ford. Now birders like Brouncker and McKann believe the colonies presence is a good reason to leave the Florida alone. To just give it over to the birds. Still others want to

reclaim port Karel's rich history rare architecture. Perhaps even its untapped commercial potential. Nearly eight miles upriver at the offices of Baltimore developers griever brothers ankles and Rousse. There's a plan to breathe new life into the ford. For Carrol's one of the great mysteries of the Bulmer Harbor. Owner Bill Strawberry's leading the charge. Ever since I first came to Baltimore long time ago. How about. Pay. For a while and come around. The city come around. People tell you about the rats. And. The dogs. And. I. Always was curious as to what it was and. Why it was. Being in. One adventurous day. I had allowed here with my daughter and explore. And I was like wow man this is incredible. Totally cool. And clambered around in amongst

the poison ivy streamers imagination was fired by the Fords potential. And he leased the island with an option to buy. But no matter what he decides to do with him the Ford presents a special challenge. The problem if you want to look at it as a problem is nature. Trees and birds nesting and trees on an manmade island that it was of no use to man for what century or more Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks has been following the story of Fort Carroll for 10 years. So they've kind of taken over they've kind of claimed it. I think they have squatter's rights there and they have to be dealt with. And birds are not humans you know you can't say here's a voucher for rent subsidy go someplace else. Now this is a delicacy. Very very interesting issue. A developer whose heart is in the right place you know a guy who does a lot of good work restoring old buildings and

recycling old buildings in Baltimore and getting humans in them again to just come in with his big ideas a great big idea man. Bill Stuber is but this does pose a problem I'm not sure he's ever faced before. What to do with the birds. A rarity in this part of the state. They nest on the island three months out of the year from spring to early summer. They build nests on the wisteria saplings scrub brush and poison ivy vines that in spring smothered the old parade ground with a living lace of green. The island's trees can't be trimmed or cut during nesting season. They're protected. Like many of the birds here by a collection of state and federal laws. They make the situation at Fort Carroll A unique. Unique because the very trees the colony nests and are beginning to grow through the historic forts brick work threatening to break its supporting archways

for historians and developers who want to save the four developers like griever the birds present a quandary. Adding a strange twist and a sense of urgency is the potential tree damage to the historic fort. Bill streamers drawn to the fort by its past its shadowy twists and turns and the promise of something more. This is poison ivy over here but this is right here. This is the first piece of workmanship is granite spiral stairs. This is the old lighthouse. This was a. Little tripod that held up a bell. Then of course the light was on the roof.

So these are the problem. Roots are just digging right into the masonry. Somewhere that here was the. This was a parade ground. All open and there's pictures from when Eisenberg had it was nicely mowed grass. And he had a full face can sat there and all this is simply stuff I grew up when the place was abandoned. These were all candidates for a break point in time. Can he can. And now it's something else. So the soldiers who were manning their posts. With them have to be able to do their

business from time to time. And one of the great. Inventions of Ford Carol is the title the train that has a kind of a hook at the entrance so that you couldn't swim in and out and only at high tide the water would come up over the you know the bump in the tunnel and come into this trench here and you guys would do their thing and why were calm and flush it out twice a day and it had this nice sweet. Something of that bodies in fact that a twist in the hallways so that no to protect the gunpowder so that it would be very difficult for and I guess they

had the slits for ventilation. For workmanship. What its future could be. It's a great place for imagination and it's a great place to enjoy the bay. And then. I marvel at this feat of engineering and that and craftsmanship and and enjoy this kind of coming together of nature and mankind. Nature nearly as rare as the history it occupies. There isn't a colony like it around for more than a hundred miles. Its presence is signalled by the constant squawking of a thousand birds flying feeding roosting to brink around McKann walking through the cavernous gateway into the tangle

of spring foliage is like entering a lost world. Dave Brinker. When quieter and they were viewed as a spider on the horizon it shows that there is a colonial defense you know everybody is going to say we want to drive this perceived threat away and the best way they can do that is swooping down on you and trying to scare you off. These birds have a unique nesting behaviour whereas they create their own little cities that biologists call colonies. And because they nest in these dense concentrations they are trying to avoid predators. And they look for a predator free environment. In Maryland that's usually an island. And as far as they're concerned this whole forest is simply an island that's cutting the vegetation structure on Earth that they can build nests. And more importantly it has little or no predators out here. The reason that

had. A. Fairly classic black on my Home. A. Couple little things. That. They don't need any particular species or tree or shrub they just need something that's got enough complexity and branches that they can cram a lot of nice into a small space. Once it takes half the adults you have to make feeding trips now they'll bring their small fish and. Regurgitate food for the chicks. And it takes them about a month to six weeks to get the chicks to the point where they're ready to fledge and go out on the island here itself is probably occupied for about two months and some of them because not everybody starts raising their young at the same time. The

history here started over next to the base of the Key Bridge by the toll facility and that there was a shrubby area where there were no parents. Conan. And that county grew and got to the point of being about 100 150 parents. And other species started coming in. First we had a couple of snow birds and then we added a great Ingrid. You know there's more species came in at some point a dynamic there change for whatever reason. That this social group that made up that how you realized that fort Carol was here for Carroll you had no way to produce that. Point. And in one spring they moved en masse they vacated what we called the Key Bridge that came out here and now we've been here for about five years and we now have just about every species of Negro ness on my island. The bulk of Maryland's nesting herons and egrets are down in Somerset County in western

Canada. So you're going almost to the far reaches of Maryland to find anything like what we have right here. But Carol. As for Karel's the legion of birds continue to lay claim to the Aiman their presence invites the decisive question. In the end. Will it be history or nature that reclaims this place. Feel sorry for my big concern right now. Is there a way to preserve the structure it's just. A gorgeous piece of. Craftsmanship. With the trees growing out of the roof. And the roots eventually will break the structure of the arches and once that happens then. The whole thing will. Tumble down. For Dave Brinker that choice is a simple one. If a development proposal changes the character for Carroll. Now these

birds are going to have a difficult time finding another site to nest up in this part of the bay. North of the Bay Bridge you don't have a lot of small predator free islands with trees and shrubs on. Celery. It's very essential for these birds if we want to make the choice to keep them here. If we decide that they're not valuable. And we put something else out here they're going to go somewhere else. We'll go to Delaware. Let's go to Southern Maryland but they probably won't end up in this. Yeah.

Drop into our Web site w w w dot dot o r g. Just send us your comments and suggestions. Oh 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