Outdoors Maryland; 1003

Are you coming up training me eyes ears of Maryland for. Tonight. A relaxing day chasing perch rock and anything else that bites on the big band. A leading authority on oh we need friends right. No backyard. Outdoors Marylanders produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DENR inspired by nature. You know.

They come from all walks of life but share a common devotion to their horses and to the great outdoors. Today these horses and riders will run a gauntlet of challenges and obstacles designed to test a delicate balance between skill trust and control. These are the assessment trials for joining the elite volunteer mounted patrol. The BNP is an organization of trained and dedicated riders and their horses will give of their time and expertise to patrol state parks helping to keep them safe and enjoyable for all. Linda Emond isor is founder and state coordinator for the BNP. The purpose of the volunteer troll is to support the park ranger. We are known as the eyes and ears of the Rangers we can go into the woods deeper and further Rangers can do it. We have contact access to the Rangers if we run into a problem. But I always feel like the

primary role of what's what's developed into the primary role of the volunteer mounted patrol is one of education. It's just become an incredible opportunity because. We attract people so quickly. Yeah. We are out there informing the public of the rules and regulations of the park. We share the vailable programs that the park offers with park users on a daily basis. Holly Niles has ridden horses all of her life. I've been riding since I was a child. In fact I can never remember not riding so I've been riding for 32 years now and I started out showing and then I got into exercising race horses and doing some training. Now I mostly just write for pleasure. Having completed VMP classroom training Holly and her mount August son nicknamed Gus are ready for the assessment of horse and rider are first tested individually then as a group.

But tests are designed to anticipate park encounters and emergencies. But the VMP must be prepared to handle item moments notice. Our goal for our horses through our assessment program is to make sure that when we bring a horse and rider in that the horse. Is controllable by the rider. We don't expect horses to be perfect. Yeah they're they're animals and they have a mind of their own. What we do expect is for the rider to always be in control of that horse and that's critical. OK Holly just walk up to the car. You know hand you the pad write your name down on it and hand it back and keep your horse quiet and calm while you do the whole job. Morning morning. If you were designing their plane actually. Their. Fans. Fan. Gus's unexpectedly spooked and for good reason. He has been stung by a wasp on this first approach. He

resists going back toward the car. Polly must decide to persist or quit. She urges Gus to approach the car again. It's a true test of the trust and resolve the NC of the relationship between horse and rider. Ranger Jerry Kirkwood with the Department of Natural Resources has been assigned to the VMP since its inception. Like Linda Emond eyes or he is specially trained to assess the horses. The reason for the flares is if wherever and this is the scene of an accident and we are trained for that is that our horses won't spook if they have to walk past already around a lot of ways that in that way

you would. Know. Any. Good way. Yeah yeah yeah. With a single practice. Gus strides through and on to the next challenge. We test our horses with bicycles because we do work on trails and as you know in today's society everyone likes to use the trails including mountain bikers and it's very important that we that our riders and horses know how to share trails. That's a very important aspect of what we do. My horse really loves jumping when we're out on the trails especially if he does can hardly contain himself he wants to jump so validly. I knew that would go really well.

OK guys but we need to do in this next obstacle is to circle the van and as you're startling the van jury's going to start this hour and so I want you to keep your horses quiet and calm and circle the truck. Once we've completed our individual assessment we move into a group environment. Horses are herd animals and the purpose is is to keep the horses. Focused and together and each horse kind of feeds off the other horse so that works better for the starling type of exercises. I am going to ask Jerry to start Darren. We expose our horses to the foreign because you never know where I'll be or in a situation where we were going. There and we're going to cruise my car on our horses cannot. Become a hazard to that pipe.

Walk up that way. OK he. Is going to drop the bomb. He did not invent a new one of course you can't do this no. We expose our horses to smoke because again we're in the park and if we ever approach a situation where there is a far we have to know that we can still control our horses and do our jobs. You know many of us not just just pass through. More troubling than smoke is a sudden explosive his spy the bomb. But writers and horses stay remarkably in control I think. Down is over.

That's why we have not just got him in the snow and all we're after going in the snow. OK good job. We have to be exposed to gun far hope we never have to use it. But if we're out and about and we're out hunting season gunfire should not be something that should concern us about how our horses are going to do. Yes the final verdict for Holly and Gus passed with flying colors. Good boy good boy. At last it's time to hit the trail. We're tracking me as a volunteer ranger program as I've always had a great interest in the parks when I

found out that there was a program in which I could combine my love for the park and my love for horses it was just the ideal thing for me. The currently have 45 volunteer mounted patrol members throughout the state. They're predominantly in the Central Region parks of Maryland and they are covering six parks at this time. Can you tell us where to get some water. Yes about the volunteer mount patrols very important to the Department of Natural Resources. We've almost doubled our staff with our volunteers though they don't have the law enforcement powers. They are an extra set of eyes and ears. And the response has been tremendous. I'm a real horse lover always have been even before I had horses. So this program has given me the chance to educate myself in a whole lot of areas of horses that that I was not involved in. So to me it's just become a part of what I am to do this program.

It's quite exciting for me to see the kids and those who are not used to fishing catch fish. Charter captain Gary Sacks has been plying these Chesapeake Bay waters for nearly 20 years taking want to be fisherman out for a day of thrills on the water is what he does best. The people are very interesting. We like to try and treat them the way we would want to be treated. We want them to be able to catch fish we want them to have a good time. We want to be able to show them and take back some some memorable thoughts. Right. Howdy. That's how we start our day in the late afternoon at the Point Lookout marina in southern Maryland. Here the Potomac River empties its waters into the jaws of the mighty Chesapeake Bay. This time of year we do a lot of night fishing and picking up the dock processing three o'clock in the afternoon

going out toward Point No Point and we will anchor up and go chow mein for the striped bass rockfish the fish are our kind of life. People go on vacations they tend to go back about the same areas we're after here and at this time of year there are two places we're fishing for the striped bass in this particular area we were going. Just for the day. Point Lookout area. Conservation. Right. Here. Right. Here. You know one guy. Got hurt in the. First mate but he sure uses the ride out to the fishing spot to prepare the rods and cut the bait. For bait. The crew has all but abandoned the traditional backyard earthwork. Bunker and menhaden ALWIS fatback cornice lots of different names when you fish with us you never have to touch a fish you never have to bait your hook.

Will be done for you. We we encourage you to do it yourselves and get you into it. Arriving at the designated spot it's time to go fishing right. Boy you're ready. All right here we got some fish here. People frequently ask how do you see the fish Well we catch eight years of a depth finder which shows us blips the depth of water temperatures and we can see the fish on that machine. There they are all we got to do is figure out where they are a little fish you have a for and. It was a question of trying to get out his will further each time. It's morning Charlie. Oh yes you got to pout now use a rod definitely not a real you cannot hide you can't. There you go. There you. See I had to

use a rod tip to work the rod and reel. Yeah that's a nice one ugly. Yeah. Can you get what's going on with this. That's a nice one I believe. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's not enough to know where the fish are hiding however. The trick is to get them to find your bait. That's the job of the chum line. A steady stream of ground up fish that's constantly spooned overboard way out there as far as you can see the exact time line will start sniffing and fall right up until they start feeding on that. Right now we're probably 25 30 feet from the boat. We're going to turn him loose. Oh sure he gets a little short on whatever. No sooner were those words spoken than the chum line attracted its next victim a company keep it zipped up high.

That's it. And sometimes these fish are just barely touched and other times they're hit hard. Streit Das you think you're normally those fish are within 50 feet of the boat when you hook up anyone would set the hook straight up you know here it does look the fish better. Tip up now here again tip up. The rug. Now you got to hold it. I don't have nice fish. OK. That's a keeper for the growth of a rock it's a very small very slow but we got a lot to speak about three to five years old. The non fisherman or the person fishes once or twice a year the ones that we enjoy having Most Out here we think they get more of a thriller as much of the thrills the old salts and be able to teach someone this is what a fishing rod looks like and this is how it works and this is

where you turn a handle at the beginning to them looking like old pros at the end of this is fun for us. So I found a spot where I was going everywhere it is it's all rotten fish is a local term believed to have its origins in the fact that these fish love Rocky uneven bottoms. We've had a few most of these fish are born here in the Chesapeake Bay and travel up and down the East Coast. There's a local time rock you know that we've always called a mad up and down the coast there of striped bass. In your New England states but I've always been rock fish here. Key for other people. Yeah. Sure. Made of. Yeah I noticed of course no fish story is complete without a tale of The One That Got Away. We had one last year last November that didn't get away. We have a roof

three roof rods were trolling about 40 yards right here. Perfect roofer I took off from there so much torque on the rod I think you see that we have difficulty getting you know the right horse. So I jumped up on the washboard finally pulled out a fish pulled the boat rolled I slipped I fell to the deck. The fish took my rod and reel and stillborns a sizable way. OK you have about six feet you know. OK there you go buddy. Keep for other people. Yeah. Luckily for this trip. The One That Got Away will be a tale for another day. Huge ships are huge. Huge huge. People of vision show us the world in new ways. By nature

expanding our horizons. Chandler Robbins is a legend. Renowned worldwide for his work in ornithology the study of birds. But his vision and impact on scientific research and Wildlife Conservation ripple far beyond any single branch of study. Among those who know him well. Chandler Robbins is equally remarkable for his unassuming ways endowed with patients nearly as infinite as his knowledge. Join us for a walk with Robins. A winter bird count in a rare old woods. We join him at Belt woods in Prince George's County Maryland. This Woods is accessible by permit only because it is one of the best remnants of old growth forest in the mid-Atlantic. Saved by Chandler Robbins and others determined to protect it from the bulldozers of encroaching development.

Now Woods is a Four Seasons away says for the Study of native and migratory birds. The perfect place for a winter count. But what accounts actually started back in 19. Forty eight was when we did the first word account of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland has become sort of a tradition. The reason we started that Midwood account was because of the kind of steak at a Christmas time include some birds that are still heading south. And those cuts do not actually measure the. Wintering population this is why we started the wood accounts. Oh no he's very looking. So it's a red tailed hawk circling around. You stay here year round. Who I've been birding since 1930 that's when I first began keeping

notes that I can now go back and look at. People ask me how many kinds of birds I have seen or heard throughout the world and I don't have a clue huge huge huge find that since I've been burning for many years most of the birds I see of birds that are fairly common of those that I've seen many times before but I still get a thrill out of seeing them. Everyone's a why you see something unusual. So it's always exciting because you never know what's just around the corner humors huge ships. Well I've had these binoculars for something like 40 years and they've been around the world they've been on all seven continents and there are a lot of good birds inside there was by now it's I wouldn't part with him for anything. Huge fish someone junkers up there. One of Chandler Robins most important contributions has been turning thousands upon thousands of bird sightings into usable scientific data.

In the 1960s Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. I don't like to fight scientists and the public with reports of widespread bird die offs. Chandler Robbins devised a method of tracking breeding bird populations and their decline across the country providing the scientific basis for such pivotal conservation efforts as the ban on the pesticide DDT. Thanks to Robin's declines in song bird species can be detected in time to save them from becoming endangered or extinct. Sam druggy ornithologist and biologist with the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center was inspired like many other scientists by Chand the robins in these early years as a kid I grew up in the area and I was enamored with birds and I spent all the time in the library. Chan had written a book that I had out all the time when I tried to track down that book. I ran into him. I then started going out in the field with Jan and then in the long run I ended up running one of the programs that he began the breeding bird survey. Now the surveys after

being done for over 30 years. It drives a lot of bird conservation in that the data from this survey tells people what the status of the populations are. It was like a national census of birds so we could use our census data to say yes we've got a problem we can demonstrate that to non bird watchers and to bureaucrats and we can back it up scientifically. So that's really one of the large values of what Chan has done. Most scientific bird counting today is done by ear. Chandler Robbins pioneered birding by ear when he launched the breeding bird survey. When I was a little kid I remember wondering whether it would ever be possible to identify birds just by this songs because you can hear many species at least the peak of the breeding season. You can you know five 10 15 maybe more species from a single point. And I wonder if it would ever be possible

to identify them all. It didn't take me very long not very many years before I was able to do that. He Chandler Robins continues his work still based as he's been for over 50 years at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. U.S. Geological Survey in Prince George's County Maryland. He and his team have led the way in demonstrating that breeding birds are threatened not only by pesticides but by loss of habitat. Many migratory birds and forest interior dwelling birds are on the decline because of forest fragmentation and loss of old growth forest. Do we have. Usenet from last here. A very. Neither read either very or they both missed here. And both the very O's winter in the tropics from Mexico south to northern South America.

So this whole area is very important for many species of what we call neo tropical my group says greys are not here at all the winter time. Period insectivorous so they have to go south for the winter. Importance of old growth forest is it's the condition that most of the plants animals in this area of all to inhabit and we're only beginning to realize that through the studies of places like Bell woods and Chan Robins as research that has really focused attention on on the importance of having older forests especially larger box of contiguous old forests. Daniel Boone forest acknowledges is a program manager at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Fifty percent of Maryland's forest is now gone and. There's. Virtually less than one tenth of one percent it's in an old growth condition. The old forest is what. Many of the birds and plants optimally do best and that's their preferred habitat.

It sure is a populous partnering. Up there that we have 3 bluebirds drinking age of the biggest Hackberry I've ever see. I've never seen blue bird drinking from a natural have the like or rules or why you see something unusual. So it's always exciting because of your special moments what effect your. Barbara dour wildlife biologist has worked with Robins at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center for over 20 years. Chan is very. Famous internationally. And yet. You forget about that because he is so unpretentious or he is not pretentious in any way. We can talk to the president of countries or we can work with the local farmers. Chan is an inspiration and

he actually still leads the pack and though he is eighty one years old now he continues his work in the tropics. And he recently returned from a trip to Antarctica. It's really hard to put Chan into context because. Chan is the godfather of Ornithology right now for Maryland. He's organizing around or the logical society he's known as respected. He's just everywhere in ornithology in Maryland but he's also the same way. Nationally he's respected for the work he's done in conservation. Forest fragmentation the papers he's done has led science in conservation and then internationally his work down in Central America and Mexico were before their time is the type of thing that. Has caused many young researchers like myself to follow in his footsteps with our own projects and plants he's been a leader for over 50 years.

The one thing that give me the most satisfaction over the last 50 or 60 years has been the increase in public awareness for preserving habitat for wildlife. In my early years of the interest in wildlife were strictly in the rest and hunting in and gradually the emphasis is changed so that now there's an interest in preserving habitats for all kinds of wildlife. We need to take a long view. And anticipate what changes are going to take place and by planning ahead. It's possible to. Provide what people need as well as provide the needs of wildlife he says. Ships stores. The whisper sound that's and that's Iraq been. Such.

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