Outdoors Maryland: Classics; 109

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The state parks in Garrett County Maryland will probably never make it onto anyone's list of the world's most exotic getaways. After all the accommodations aren't exactly the Ritz. The chefs are still trying to work the bugs out of the breakfast menu. And the beach scene bears little resemblance to Club Med but Garrett county's parks especially some of the smaller and lesser known ones have a gentle charm that's all around and they're well worth adding to anyone's list of places to discover. Garrett County is located at the far western edge of Maryland. What sets this place apart is a mix of topography and elevation. Mike Gregory manager of new Germany's state park. When you come to western Maryland You're find yourself climbing up to 3000 feet in elevation. You're coming through a ridge and valley system and then up into what's known as the Appalachian quiet tell. The climate changes fizzy graphic features change the vegetation

changes and we just come into a whole new world than what you've experienced in the eastern portion of the state. Towering forests and rugged terrain are some of the hallmarks of new Germany a state park named for the area's early German immigrants. New Germany state park is what I would refer to as a mountainside park it sits on the east slope of not a mountain. It's about 400 acres in size has a 12 acre lake within it. Wide variety of forest types around it from very tall statuesque hemlock and spruce stands to very colorful fall scenes that you'll find in the hardwood forest in summer campers like Russell Voight and son Matthew come to New Germany in search of a less stressful life. It's a matter of love for us. TV ads work just get away from it all. The Danielle family from Pittsburgh is wowed by something as simple as a night sky undiluted by city lights.

We were watching the stars and I mean there are a lot of stars but they were just they seemed to be sparking a lot of love each other. Also a couple shooting stars and it was just. A gorgeous night. In winter new Germany gets an average of 10 feet of snow a year and the snow transforms the scene. Once the snow hits the ground in the cross country skiers are out in full force and most of our activity here at the park deals with the cross-country skiers. They make use of the cabinets that come up and rent them for days at a time and we groom our trails here in Germany so that they have a very enjoyable experience in terms of being able to get out and just get wide along the trails and enjoy the landscape when it's not green it's virtually white because of the heavy snow falls with some plates. To the west of New Germany lies the 365 acre Harrington Manor State Park. It was named for a revolutionary war Sergeant who once owned the land and for his manor house which is no longer standing

because it's a longer drive from the interstate. This park tends to draw fewer people and it attracts those who appreciate the quiet found in this parks like Woods and trails. Ranger Mike Cooper. They're here to enjoy the solitude of the park which is something that I love. Whether they're gliding on Harrington manors five miles of groomed trails or enjoying its pine edges like visitors are benefitting from work done more than 60 years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps a depression era public works program responsible for money park improvements across the country. The CCS were responsible for the building 10 cabins. The dam of the 33 of the small civilian that we've renovated into a concession building and all of our trails. Harrington Manor has went to Rise of the original CCC cabins built some additional

ones and outfitted them all with modern conveniences. Unlike new Germany's cabins they're available for rent. Phyllis and Tom Scott are cabin writers from Laurel and I think these specifically were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and off in the late 30s and 40s. It's just neat to go into something that was a part of history. You Parrington Manor is a place of subtle beauty. Nearby Swallow Falls State Park is about a spectacular as a Maryland part gets swallowed Falls is a long narrow park that borders the ark again the river as it passes through a dramatic rocky gorge. Since the turn of the century people have come here to picnic on the rocks and marvel at the series of waterfalls of the tumble through the door. At 53 feet muddy creek is Maryland's tallest waterfall Ranger Tim Macmillan.

I think what I think is probably the most photographed spot in all of it. But on a hot summer day many people aren't content just to look at the full year younger crowd. The Khoja the river the waterfalls the swimming part of it. The Falls create a series of natural swimming holes that can be accessed from a mile along a hiking trail beside the river. The park also boasts another wonder one of the state's oldest hemlock forests. It's a cathedral like Stan that has managed to escape fire and the loggers acts for more than three hundred years. But if you'd prefer human handiwork to Natural Wonders Garrett County can also fill the bill. One of Maryland's smallest state parks Castleman bridge celebrates an early engineering marvel. Historian John Grant at the time it was completed in 1813. It was the largest single arch bridge in all of United States. When the 80 foot span was being built skeptics said the bridge would never stand.

So the night before the dedication the bridges nervous designers secretly removed the bridges supports to test it. To his relief the bridge didn't budge and the next morning with our Top of the world knocked the scaffolding out and the bridge was still fanning the bridge was still standing in the early 1900s when cars came onto the scene traveling across the bridge on old Route 40. America's first federal highway. But it wasn't an interest in history that caused the grandchildren to pester their father to take a drive across the bridge. If an abrupt. Change in the grade on the bridge when we were children would always say to my father that he go faster go faster and he come up over the bridge like this and it was worried about going to pad didn't want to break this brings in the car but we always thought it was a great time. We sort of lifted off our seat for the ride over the top of the bridge. Today the old Castleman bridge lies in the shadow of newer bridges for Alternate Route

40 and Interstate 68 which carry a steady stream of cars through Garrett County. The drivers who take time for a detour can discover a different place and a slower pace but it's a place where the bridges have no backups and are the only bumper to bumper action is caused by a gentle lake where he's from. It's a place where the trees tickle the heavens. And serenity. They call rolling fields of barley and wheat and hay home season the season from dawn to dusk and dawn again. They live to the rhythms of the line fiercely independent Marilyn's

barn owls and Marilyn's family farms share centuries of history. But now the forces of change have crested the horizon in many agricultural areas family farms are becoming a threatened species and barn owls have also suffered an alarming decline. The Marilyn Natural Heritage Program has replaced barn owls on the watchlist. The barbell is very unique. They're in a genus all of their own they're separated from the other species of Owls because of lots of different characteristics. They they they have very long legs and they're used to hunting their food sources in deeper grass taller grass so they fly low over their habitat and capture the their food sources voles and mice and such by plunging into the into the grass. That's why agricultural areas are so important to support these animals but also they have much smaller eyes than the other species of owls. They rely a great deal on on their hearing ability to capture their prey.

Studies have been done to show that they can capture prey animals by by sound alone which is quite remarkable. There are some who are determined that barn owls do not disappear from Maryland's outdoors. Andy Brown chief naturalist for the Battle Creek bald Cypress Swamp preserve heads the Raptor Research Committee for the Barn Owl project established by the Calvert County Natural Resources Division and Southern Maryland Audubon Society. A lot of people naturalist Candace Morel also with the reserve is the Barn Owl project coordinator for Calvert County. The goal is to bring barn owls back from the brink by bringing them back to barns. Today the Naturalists are evaluating the barns of the ancestral Prouty farm for possible placement of a barn owl nest box. There's really no way of knowing how many active nest like there are in the county. We only have one documented case of them using a nest box.

We select the sites but by looking at the the property there's a lot of different variables that we tried to consider. Obviously the habitat that's surrounding the barn what fields are being planted and what crops are being grown there. The change in agricultural practices has had it has an effect on their population as well. The main food source of the barn owl is the meadow the meadow bowls do not like row crops which are they corn and tobacco and beans anything that you plan to read about it will prefer to live in. Green field this farm that we choose today is the ideal site because the farmers told us that they will be planting grain crops barley and wheat for the majority of the nesting season for the barn. In the case of the praties there was no resistance to placing a barn owl gnashed box on their phone. John C. Reilly also an attorney is a farmer or an activist. Well I guess you could characterize me as activists both on the part of wildlife and agriculture because you see I'm part of the same day. I think anyone who has grown up on a farm that becomes

part of their life forever. That's one of the reasons that doing something like putting up a bar in our house means something to me. And if we can make some kind of a little affirmative step and that's just that's a small thing but if it means something. One more barn on this farm remains a candidate as a possible nest box site or very secretive in their nature. They're very sensitive to human disturbance. So in selecting a nest site we try to pick the barn that's the most isolated from human activity. We have the barn owls have been present in the past. You'll find evidence of their activities in the barn. The droppings appear as as large white wash on the beams inside Alz produce something called a pellet. When they ingest their their prey items they are very efficient in digesting it but they cannot digest the bones hair and claws and teeth as a result they regurgitate a little packet of this material. You'll find them in the bottom of the barn.

That's measurable that it will. Last year we erected six boxes and this year we added six more of the original six we had one nest site that was actually used that was unexpected. We were very excited about that. We would consider one more nest box being used to be a success for a project you know. Guy Hello. All right. Eating. Good gummy. We cannot check the nest boxes until the middle of June because if you disturb the mother in any way she will abandon the nests and and we will have to start all over

again she will never come back. Hopefully by the middle of June they will have hatched and once they start hatching then we do check the boxes to see how successful the box was and we can hopefully band the young in the mother at the same time. The June survey of all barn owl project nest boxes brings disappointment to the proud father. There are no barn owls to band here this year. Up to that video we have the Yellow Sign. But the project is deemed a success when another box is discovered to harbor a new nest. Although the plot has already fledged and flown. It. There's no noise. No they're gone. And so the methodical survey of project nest boxes on other barns

continues. There's the box. OK let's talk to Mark. There are a lot of white wash and some pellets Yeah at the back of these probably sitting up on top of that the back of their protectors. Yeah I feel safe with you. Oh yeah. Right. Like I don't know I don't know what a beautiful bird going. To see if he's hiding in the back you know here comes here comes he's going out. Number 9

1 2. 2. OK I get it. I think he's I think it's about eight weeks. Six twenty five. Good. So it's a female female that's a very good.

OK. You go ahead and hold the wing out. And you take a look at that fourth primary right. There you go. Two hundred ten hundred. These bans are registered with us with Wildlife Service for all the data comes from that's how we know where the birds and asked where they disburse after they leave the nest where they go how long they live. Longevity comes from. Do you think you should show. What are some to be very Rizal you after they've declined very rapidly. They can make a very rapid comeback. This resilience is one reason why we feel very hopeful about this project. If we provide enough. Nothing slides for them and they discover that we feel that they can make a very rapid

comeback in this area and perhaps around the whole country. Driving busy Interstate 68 motorists notice the irregular shape of the mountain. It was a massive project. An engineering marvel. It took most of 1083 and 84 to blast through the mountain and dig out 10 million tons of rock to build this past. Maryland Department of Natural Resources geologist Ken Schwartz eagerly anticipated the exposure of 340 feet of rock face. But mankind's marvel of construction mathematics and muscle revealed an unexpected geologic surprise a beautifully ordinary twist in the rock

called a syncline. And upturning or U-shape in the folds of the earth. The fact that it is a perfectly unremarkable feature to geologists yet a fascination to laymen makes it a natural scientific draw. Realizing this Ken Schwarz and fellow DNR geologists recruited the state highway administration and the Maryland Department of Economic Development and seize the opportunity to turn the engineering marvel into an Earth history lesson with a very large open book. A human life span is a mere proverbial wink of an eye when compared to geologic forces. These layers and folds in the earth are the actual residue of a long geologic history. The layers were deposited over a period of 20 million years beginning 350 million years ago. During those 20 million years sediments were deposited in watery environments to

make the sedimentary rock that is sidling him. From an Indian Ocean to rushing rivers to bogs and swamps flat layers of sediment settled here Mullaney I'm after millennium. The top layer being the most erosion resistant. Here's a piece of carbonaceous shale and you can see from the glimpse of it that part of it is the coal layer. It shows us that this is a swamp environment. This particular rocky outcrop as the farthest east the coal has been found in Maryland. Almost 100 million years passed after those primitive swamps bubbled up surrounded by flatlines dinosaurs were just starting to impose their rule when a collision of awesome power changed the landscape the sea bed and the river deposits were laid horizontal and then when the African continent collided with the North American continent it cause the compressional force across the ups and downs and that's

when these mountains on either side of us probably were created. Incredibly soon Kline's like sidling Hill were actually the valleys of these mountain ranges. And he climbs a shaped or down turn folds rose to magnificent heights between them off in the distance is a ridge called tower on the Hill which is the next mountain to the west. And it also is a syncline. And what you have to visualize in three dimensions is a huge and a Klein or a shaped mountain that used to be here probably a thousands if not tens of thousands of feet high very much like Mt. Everest or the Andes or. And the other big mountain range that we see in the world today. The reason the mountain tops or attic lines are gone and this inclines remain is simple. As the continental collision forced the layers upward. The tough resistant top layer was pulled apart at the peaks and fractured. Handing erosion a destructive foothold. What remains is the difference in erosion rates over 240 million

years the Sidling hill cut affects the erosion rate. But it's not the only reason for the change. Another is the constant and substantial flow of water. From inside the rock. Some of the sandstones also are what we call Aqua herds they carry water and they Venner intercepted. The water that you say probably has tens of thousands of years. Yours is about 55 degrees temperature this is the temperature of the ground water here so it's a nice icy Plath during the summer time. But it tastes horrible it tastes just like iron oxide so you would want to drink much of it. We have structural geologist from all different universities and the NE here come just to look at things like that. I don't think there's probably any better place around the show's downfall and some clowns

like you see right through here. So it's an experience that you can talk about in class but you can't really experience unless you stop visitors who do experience sidling hero are rewarded with a better grasp of their earth. Geologists can translate for us the history frozen into the text book layers and folds of sidling here. But these gentle valleys and hills tell their own story of a ceaseless geologic tale. A reminder that nothing not the flora or fauna not even the song of earth below us is spared. Times March 4. Drop into our website at w w w dot MP t dot o r g to send us your comments and suggestions for. 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.