Outdoors Maryland; 1008

Coming up. Doing what has to be done to forever save the beauty of Maryland's Far East and Eastern shores. Plus. Walking the state's western edge in search of rock bound clues to our ancient heritage. Next. Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DENR. Inspired by Nature. You know.

Chesapeake forest is the collective name of a vast array of forests and wetlands spread across 450 tracts of land in five counties and on five major watersheds on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Maryland recently acquired these fifty eight thousand acres in the single largest land acquisition in the state's history for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources planning for management of these diverse lands poses an unprecedented opportunity challenge and responsibility. John F. Wilson chief of the Eastern Region heads up the natural resource planning program on the eastern shore. This was a really unique opportunity for the state of Maryland as well as the Department of Natural Resources. Originally it was a two part acquisition with the department receiving twenty nine thousand acres. The conservation fund received the other half developed a

sustainable forestry management plan on that and then gifted it to us. The Department really has a number of goals that we need to keep in mind when we're developing our management plan for this land one of the things we wanted to do was to maintain the resource for Earth based industry that's located here on the lower shore. We also want to manage it in a way that either maintains or improves water quality. We want to protect the natural resources particularly those sensitive resources that are found here. And we also want to allow for public use provided it doesn't take away from any of these other goals because these goals involve the life cycles of forests and the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. The impact of how these public lands are managed will echo beyond decades to centuries. Rich Dawlish is director of the DNR spar ist wildlife and heritage service.

The state purchased these properties primarily to protect the natural resources of the state of Maryland. It's the highest in the primary goal. But there was a secondary purpose of great importance. The hope is that the Chesapeake forest will become a national model for sustainable forestry. These forest resources on a continuing basis on a self-sustaining basis produce economic benefits across many sectors of the economy of the shore. We support the regional and local economies the natural resource based economies that are dependent upon this forest products industry. It's a means of allying the public interest and the goals for preservation of large tracts of land that are held publicly with solid economic benefits that accrue to the local and regional economies. In this case of the lower Eastern Shore. One of the first steps in the planning process is documenting what resources are

on the hundreds of tracts of diverse lands. Well the DNR is coordinating its resource professionals from many different disciplines to conduct site surveys a complex and labor intensive process expected to take years. Public input will also be important. Officials estimate that 40000 of the total fifty eight thousand acres acquired were being managed for loblolly pine timber by the Chesapeake forest products company. The original private owner Kip powers Eastern regional forester for the Maryland Forest Service DNR is among those determining which tracks will continue to be managed for wood products. The forest products industry is the second largest industry here on the eastern shore. Forced economy contributes about three hundred fifty million dollars annually to the local economy here on the shore employing about twenty one hundred people directly and either in the primary force industry Bean saw mills and. Chip plants or secondary

industries bean things like furniture factory and focus. Basically as we look at the tracks the factors that we're going to use to determine which areas will be maintained and. Timber production. Is basically the areas that have originally been established by Chesapeake forest products. And. In their original management plan as for Pine spans. Some of those areas however may be taken back out once. Additional surveys determine if there's any sensitive species that. Might border or be in the middle of those tracks. In the survey process the forester is out here in the woods collecting measurements of the particular trees in the stand on this site and Wester County which borders Corben branch. We're looking at approximately one hundred twenty nine acre stand that we're going to be making a determination on if it's ready for a first thing. As you can see it takes time to do each individual stand so this will be a long term process.

Companies involved in the forest industry on the Eastern Shore have a keen interest in the future of the Chesapeake forest lands. Larry Walden is area manager for Smurfit stone Container Corporation which recently acquired this long established chip mill on the eastern shore. We've been here. Thirty five years on this site. And about 50 years on the shore we also own a sawmill and hopefully when the management plans are in place it's still going to supply some wooden sawlogs to the local industry. I think it's critical. It's a large part of the car slammed base for the industry. The forest industry impacts communities far beyond the jobs at individual mills. Kenny Pewsey is president of Paul Jones Lumber Company. This is a family and operation that I really took off probably in the in the mid to late 1920s. What we do have 51 people employed at this facility but we also support a trucking contractor and drivers for that and also

two logging crews. Arthur eagle is an independent logging. Contractor whose livelihood depends upon the uninterrupted availability of timber. The logging industry as a whole over here on the floor consists of bloggers out the wood. And. People working in the sawmill and they're out of the view of the general public the general public has no idea of the magnitude of this industry. It's one of the largest industries in the state of Maryland. Not all of the Chesapeake forest lands are destined for timber management. An estimated 15 to 20 thousand acres are hardwood stands wetlands or other sensitive areas. Teaching is eastern region manager wildlife and heritage division DNR one of the exciting things about the Chesapeake forest acquisition is the different types of habitat that we have acquired. A lot of the areas are very unique and it gives us a lot of diversity a lot of different habitat types and a lot of different wildlife species associated with that habitat. So with this wealth of wildlife we go from the very common

like white tailed deer to very rare. And one of the tasks that we're doing now is inventory the size to see what rare plants or animals are using these areas challenge for us today to maintain these tracks in a manner that keeps the species around. Glenn Faris wildlife and heritage division supervises the state's endangered species efforts. Some of the habitats that the rare species are found in include the non-title wetlands Delmarva bays ancient sand dunes which have a variety of rare plants. There's also a number of endangered animals including bald eagles and Mara Fox was a watcher on my variety of the property and there is a good variety of Tory song birds that utilize the forest here for breeding purposes. Not only rare species will be protected properly managed. The diverse habitats on Chesapeake forest lands will help preserve the region's

biodiversity and improve water quality for the Chesapeake Bay. Jim McCann is regional zoologist with the wildlife and heritage division DNR long range planning the Maryland DNR nowadays involves ecosystem management. That's not just talking about one resource or we're narrowing it down to one focus considering all the plant animal species all the resources that are of interest to the state of Maryland. Scott Smith is regional heritage ecologist wildlife and heritage division DNR. This is one of the areas that really gets me excited about this acquisition. This is an extremely beautiful bottomland mixed hardwood pine Cypress area. And it has some of the oldest trees are going to see anywhere on the eastern shore. Well this is an old growth. It's on its way to being old. It is really not that many areas left on the Eastern Shore where you going to see this kind of diversity and age of the stand these hardwoods particularly old enough that they have cavities which are habitat for

mammals birds and reptiles. And you're going to get those in a really young forest or just a pure Pine St. John Lauren McCoy is with the watershed evaluation program in the watershed restoration division. DNR some of the opportunities that exist with the Chesapeake properties acquisition with water quality are using. The properties existing flood plains and some of the restored flood plains to treat runoff and the movement of nutrients and sediment from other sites the properties are all spread out over these counties. You have public and private lands adjacent to it and all of that water that moves off those properties onto Chesapeake properties we have an opportunity to work with as it moves through prior to their entry into the larger rivers and into the rich delicious director of the forest wildlife and heritage service sums up the importance of the Chesapeake forest lands for Eastern Shore economies and ecosystems. This acquisition is extremely important for the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay. In one

fell swoop we have fifty eight thousand acres of land five major river systems 23 sub watersheds includes 11000 acres of wet. Chance collectively is fifty eight thousand acres is a living breathing forest that is the highest and best land use for the health of the Chesapeake Bay. A lot of people fear that their open spaces the forests and farms of the Eastern Shore will be lost to develop. Sustainable forestry as a hope for the future. True smart growth and its best sense. For. The soul of the landscape is made of stone. The lay of the land is an expression of its underlying rock formed by planetary processes huge and old beyond imagination.

The oldest rocks in Maryland are found in the Piedmont province of central Maryland. These metamorphic rocks lie north of Baltimore formed under tremendous heat and pressure. They are 1.1 billion years old. Heading west the rocks get younger as young as 250 million years old and Garrett County most of Maryland is made up of sedimentary rock. Stone made from other even older worn away stones. More resistant sedimentary rocks like sandstone for mountain tops in time eroded valleys. We discover shale and limestone scratch the surface of Marilyn's many landscapes and the stones will speak of ancient seas and giant ferns in these

prehistoric rocks. Life fragments of the living past fossils. A. Ken Schwartz geologist with the Maryland Geological Survey fossils and the stones in which they are discovered. Tell us much about the ancient past long before Maryland was a state before humans walked here even before the age of dinosaurs. He launches our journey across the state in search of fossils taking us to three sites in Washington and Allegheny counties. Each geologic age has a certain assemblage of fossils that pretty much dictate what age and what environment they are in so the

geologist looks this as a chapters in a book that I can read the geological environment and determine what kind of environment they're in and the kinds of ages of the rocks there and the chance of finding fossils is pretty remote and that the specimens that are preserved probably reps and anywhere from all one out of a hundred thousand one out of a million that are preserved. And so when you see a fossil sometimes you'll be pretty well preserved or you'll just see a fragment of it. When people look at fossils most people think of dinosaurs but they kind of rocks will be looking at today in the kind of fossils we'll see in these rocks are rocks that are about 100 million years older than any dinosaurs that ever existed in Maryland. Hundreds of millions of years ago the land beneath our feet lay submerged under seas at the Earth's equator. Ken Schwartz knows how to decipher the ancient story. The first stop we'll have today is in an area just south of clear spring

in Washington County and we're looking at a shale section approx 350 to 400 million years old. And as we look at this we can see fossils in there indicating that this is a sea water or marine environment. Here look of this is a good example of a bracket pod which is a seashell. You see the ribs on it and it's only a fragment of the animal but that is good enough indication for a geologist to determine that this is in the marine environment.

Wow. Another fossil we find here is a crying Oh I don't normally see the little circular features such as this one right here and see the radiating structure there. But that's just part of an animal call it a crying oid which resembles a lily and that has roots and a stem. And ahead. And what it looks like you wanted to know suchan is what you see right here. And each of these fragments will break apart when the animal dies and you'll end up with these little circular features that we see right here. That's a marine animal that has evolved very little in the past three hundred and seventy five million years. Actually we still find them off the coast of Australia and the seawater.

Oh here's a good example of the bribes are which is another type of marine animal. And you can see the interconnecting pores between each an individual animal a growing colony and this one is very similar to a coral colony is that we see in today's scenes. And other outcrop will see of rock. Today is the sandstone which is and here in purple It's about four miles west of Hancock and it's composed of sandstone that is about 400 million years old. And we know what it's sandstone because it feels like sandpaper. We know also that it's from the marine environment or because the you still see the sea shells. What's different here though is that this these fossils are in a mold where you see just the impressions of the fossils and the fossil shells themselves have been eroded away. It's a beach deposit very

similar to what you would see in Ocean City Maryland today along the beach adjacent to the ocean. And so you'd see a lot of animals that would reflect that type of environment. And there's quite a variety of them here at the stop. Here we have two different types of fossil preservation of these bracket pods. This bracket pod is lying parallel to the bedding and leaves an impression of the fossil. Call the mold. If the preservation is a cutting across the section of the fossil it actually leaves an impression similar to a crescent shape as we can see in the specimen on the left. As we head west now. Another stop we have is in Allegheny County just

east of Cumberland and we see a different environment deposition this time it's a mud flat in a river floodplain and we can determine that from my specimen of rock that we see and crop and it's nothing more than a mud curl. And in this case it's fossilized and tells the geologist that this is a flood plain from the river. These mud cracks are caused. In a big month flattery when they see had retreated and you see. The river is ringed the sediment and as a sediment had dried up by the sun they form these mud cracks and you can see a similar type of feature in any mud puddle today that dries up by the sun and you see these little mud curls come up there. These unique features are preserved in their geologic column and there are about 400 million years old or so.

Still further west the mountains of Garrett County are the highest in the state formed from the youngest grass. Roots and the way down. Yes. The area that we're at is little meadows or if you're on the grants Hill area you know it is Davey's lake. This area was surface mined for coal. From where you are right here. Joseph L. Winters is our Gary County fossil guide and this was 30 to 40 years ago. Joe was coordinator for the hickory Environmental Education Center for the Garrett County school system. He strives to enlighten students about the natural resources in their own backyard conifers the way you see back here. Cole. What is the most unique feature about Cole as a rock. It will.

Burn. The source or carbon is the plant material that's in the coal. That you find today. How many of you heat your homes with coal. Today Joe leads a field trip of Northern middle school students to a site rich in ancient fern fossils. As much as 300 million years old. These fossils are a testament to an era vastly different in climate and ecology than our own. It is interesting that the kids that you see around here today their home some of their homes are heated with coal. The fossil fuel that they're around right now getting a fossil is for. That's that's what they're heating their homes with. Their cereal was definitely quite different. Hundreds of millions of years ago it is now the climatic conditions have changed and. The type of plant life or family life around has changed also.

The beauty and finer than look at that. Oh good job. This is very fragile or some of these ferns or were tree sized for and it was probably a very swamp like area. There were probably horse too. Growing here other members of the fern family at that time so it was quite different than it is today. Jeremiah you've got. Here that I was. OK. You want to. Make it and then layer after layer taking off in this rock. You know I'm really good Darrin Wilbur and teaches these seventh graders science. I actually was a student at Northern middle school myself and I think I'm one of the first to come back as a teacher. The thing is seeing the excitement in the kids

eyes for the first time when they crack up in Iraq and they see something and there is something to behold. There's nothing like seeing that glitter in their eye like wow look I found something really cool here in the Rock and I think that most of the time with most people students learn by doing and if they're doing something they're going to remember it much better than if they just hear it or see it a lot better. You know I think that students at this time are forming stages of what do I want to do with the rest of my life as far as their career and my job as a teacher is to excite students in careers and science and this is one career that you really can explore in the classroom. Fossil hunting an archaeological type studies are things that you have to do outside. Sooner or later every group that comes out here finds this rock right

here and they want made to break it apart. You can do it I. Think. Take a look at and enjoy what's there. That is a neat one no. My aim here and has been over the years that I've been with hickory is to have the kids be aware of what is around him in the natural world and hopefully to appreciate it. And if they're aware of it and it's something that they really get excited about they can go their own way and pursue it a lot further. Maybe they'll be a little bit more observant and see rather than just look when they're outside now. The nature of nature is change. Tiny fragments of the

past. Captured in stone. Remind us that only time itself is invincible. The impact of the human adventure on the planet is yet to be discovered. Our final chapters are not yet written in stone. Yet. Drop into our website at w w w dot and BT dog

o r g. You send us your comments and suggestions.