Outdoors Maryland; 1404

This program has been made possible by the members of NPT. Thank you for your generous support. Coming up. A man's best friend at work. While going. Like you. Don't. Want. A jewel of Potomac River reclaimed unveiled just in time. For floating. And. The lessons learned from King Neptune sting. Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DENR inspired by nature. Let. Me ask. You.

These competitions have all the trappings of serious sporting events. Just there's the panel the judges. The deep voiced announcer disarray and officials looking official. The only difference is what happens on the field itself. Welcome to the wonderfully wacky world of dogs boy. Important but the most part from the west these light hearted games are designed to test dogs athletic prowess like abiding in how bad boy humans can better the verge. Of the new games taking hold in Maryland parks and stadiums. None is more

rocky than the relay team sport known as pliable. Pleasing him is you at the bottom of my boat. Called no speed limit. Is basically a drag race for ducks. In a relay race for dogs way down and back over for us because we're down over. A way. At 51. Only. And over four hurdles they've got to pass the spring a request for. And they grab the ball and come back down over Africa. And the fastest team have. This week than a fast team runner and night and tackle. That. Breakdown the somewhere around for four and a half seconds per bag. Teams use various strategies to shave seconds off their runs. Going down is not a big problem get them back fast day because they love coming back. Harder to defend come back equally as fast but they already have the

balls we have to find that I will be a two way to get them to come back. T's isochron their times by including a small bomb I can tell you along with bigger dogs like labs or border cameras. It's advantageous for to not have a very small dogs because when the whole team to jump only is higher than the smallest dog is required exam. So border collies who are a lot faster are adults who don't like. The 70s. That's. Another strategy focuses on the turn. Our backs now. What we've tried to strive for is the swimmers to. Hit the backs of their front paws and push off with their back to the value of swimming in the pool. And to get that process takes a lot of repetition. The payoff comes of trials like this region Levante in Westminster where you read in the races are tighter close and your dog and your whole team pulls it out and wrote a piece about the role that would approve.

A somewhat more sedate event is called lure coursing. Lure coursing was developed for sight hounds dogs that use their keen eyesight to chase down prey only in the sport. The live quarry is replaced by a more politically correct plastic trash bag. With. K-Fed. Yes it does seem strange to me for the dog to throw from the plastic bag until I understand it better and understood that this is the function of the dog to chase prey that was moving away from them and so rather than Course game their course and plastic bag lure coursing enthusiasms came up with a novel way to simulate a scared rabbit zigzag path. Bob Jordan is president of the district area sight hounds club. The course is made up of pulleys that are attached to the ground in various places and then we have a 200 pound test string that goes around the polies and then thats driven by a machine which is made of automotive parts. And

drive through around the person on the ladder is the operator and it's his job to try and give each of the three hounds that are chasing a fair chance and so he's he's attempting to keep the lure 10 to 40 feet ahead of the lead dog and keep them from catching it. But at the races in dogs are allowed to move in for the kill. Getting a Mac for the plastic bag issue of enthusiasm for the prey is considered a good thing. It's not a penalty catch the bag. Some judges actually award them additional points for that. If speed is of the essence and laboriously artistry comes to the fore in freestyle a frisbee throwing event where contestants gain points for creative choreography. Kristen Barth is president of National Capitol air canine. I think the biggest challenge is in putting together a good first freestyle routine is choreographing it to the music. If you just have music playing in the background while you're out there doing tricks it's not nearly as exciting as if you could actually get your kid to go with the music. That's what

makes the difference between the top level competitors and the beginners that they really have worked on creating a whole performance the whole show. At this rock field competition Frank Buckland added a little humor into his routine with his Australian cattle dog Jimmy. He badgered my guide. The crowd. Writes that. She needs all my back in the ball in this in that the back flips it is very entertaining enjoyable. CRAIG ROGERS routine with his Border Collie bandit wasn't as polished but Rogers had an excuse. He'd only owned the dog for three weeks. We rescued him from a woman in our area that just acquired a disease and she couldn't keep up with him. Extremely active dog. Amazingly enough. With that story alone he has three parents and is right here for a month alone accidental but bandit may have the makings of a winner. He's just obsessed for a frisbee I told TOI he's just ready to play.

Crisp Itai and it's Australian. Record there are among the area teams that have gone on to compete in national praise be competition. I didn't mean to get a dog to play frisbee it was. Just a pet family dog and just him playing in the backyard you know he took to really like playing frisbee so. If he likes it I like it. If it wasn't for him I'd probably want to be no less. Than. Vitale and other top competitors pick up their share of awards but the beauty of this event is that it's about more than ribbons and trophies. Jeffrey Hawk it's about the relationship people have with the dog. And that a body that exists between the handler and all you see very very few people that are out there with the sole purpose of winning at any cost. A lot of fun with all that. And. In the shadow of Dan's mountain a fisherman's Valley paradise clings to life

murmuring its story of hope in a place where not so long ago a river's very life hung in the balance. When you look at the state of Maryland in the rivers that have. Been restored back to productivity in terms of the fishery this is this is like the last frontier really. I think I think of it that way. Nestled near the shady banks and cruising in the deeper pools of this 30 mile stretch of river. Part of the north branch of the Potomac. Are record breaking brown trout and small mouth bass. Inviting ripples and dramatic vistas punctured. I must comment on the longest stretch of water. Still there's not much talk of that even among avid fisherman. Almost as if it's been forgotten. Gary Yoder grew up near the banks of the north branch. This river was written off. It was just too putrid

it was too dirty to get on. There were advisories not to eat the fish so people stayed away from it. People simply said that's not a place I want to take my family. But now as a result of a lot of effort including the industries which have have taken strides in cleaning up the small towns were put in treatment plants that you know now it once it's taken the turn it's it's gone from being dead to showing signs of life. There is literally rising from the ashes like a phoenix. I think I can do this much longer I. Want to go down that river and catch fish is something I would not have bet nickel on 25 years ago. Low tech lime dosing by government agencies now helps reduce

acidic drainage from coal mining operations upstream. Cities and towns have modified their sewage systems. Owners of factories and pulp mills have cared enough to clean up and improve their operations. Or have shut down. Yet the water of the north branch along this 30 mile stretch remains brownish. Nothing like the clear blue water just above western port. That tricks many people even locals into believing this section of the river is dead. You know we've got 30 miles of river here. Can't pay Vold is the DNR is Western Region fisheries manager. I always like to. Point out that I studied the north branch about 15 years ago and concluded that it was dead and that it I didn't see how we were going to be able to ever manage it for more fish.

And. I was really pleased and very surprised I was proven wrong. Within 10 years for example with the trout we stocked many thousands of trout some very small and the conditions were there for their survival and growth they did they began to reproduce naturally which was astounding one hundred years of Dead River now trout are actually reproducing successfully. Farther down river. We introduced bass when we felt that water quality was as good a forge bass with was developing that would support him. And sure enough four years after we stock very small bass the adults that resulted from that sponsor excessively. Failed and sequestered this 30 mile stretch of paradise carves the West Virginia Maryland border from western port to Kaiser West Virginia. Making its way through rough and undeveloped land. Then it passes beside a long line of mountainous ridges wending its

way by what once were prime dairy farms until it meets up with Cumberland. Except for these towns. There were no public drop in stations for boaters along this stretch of the river until the state of Maryland in 2001. Purchased a one acre tract near black oak bottom in Allegheny. Kan PayPal's fish management efforts can now be enjoyed by anyone who cares to float down this secluded stretch of the Potomac and drop in a line. There is a north branch that we're managing as a tropical area it is. Essentially producing one state record after another in terms of drought. And our bass management has been. I've taken people out to fish the bass area.

Who haven't had any better bass fishing any more of a town or kind of a town that is famous for bad fishing farther down the river so I think we've certainly arrived at the point where we can claim that we have some excellent fishing opportunities for fishing as it's called fishing and I call it catching you know it's up to the fishermen and Yoder are serious anglers long time friends and fishing partners. It doesn't take too much to tempt them to cast in a line just to see what's lurking within range. After they catch a few fish they're good natured fishing rival resurfaces in the form of dueling fish stories. Well it happens all the time. It's not a story I do it a lot. It's just something you have to practice. The bigger fish just C'mere for the little one. We now cut into the time. Yeah these fish on you know in some instances if you do.

It you can actually catch three because there's three sets of travel hooks on the horizon. But you know I mean when do that to a time there. That's not bad. This happens a lot down here. I think yeah. It would be a double. The one in the in the big one started chasing it slowed down a bit and took it. And you tap this one I would say this to fish on a lure doesn't stop this fish for the day with a. Hook Well Hannah line is not so. Beautiful. Look at that. But what a headline you know that the great mystery of catching the largest bass of the day on a hand lying or hooking to bass on one lure pave all in Yoder confirm these are not unusual fish stories resulting

from a day spent on this stretch of the North Branch honest. Next time you stop to admire a mountainous sunset in western Maryland give some thought to the rivers that Norrish all that lives and moves in this fairy book world. Remember a magical 30 mile stretch of near forgotten river attempting last frontier. The north branch of the Potomac. You're. Beyond mystery is the realm of myth. Some of Earth's creatures are so strange and elusive they seem a thing conjured from another world and indeed they are in the great oceans

flourish organisms that defy landlock notions about the laws of nature. See horses like these at the National Aquarium in Baltimore is a new exhibit never cease to astonish. Even stranger than their bizarre appearance is the startling observation that the smooth bellied males get pregnant and give birth when it's just one of the puzzles presented to scientists trying to understand and save sea horses. One specie of sea horse is native to the Chesapeake Bay. At the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons Maryland aquarist Karen Stringer is charting unknown waters and her research on this species.

Hippocampus. Right this is the only species of sea voice in the Chesapeake Bay and nobody knows much about it at all. They're hard to raise. Nobody's to this point publish anything about raising the species or you know has an include data on it and will be the first ones if we. Get any good. Information. I think people are fascinated with sea horses because they have a head that looks like a horse. They have a tail that can wrap around things like a monkey and they have these eyes that move independently like chameleons do. And they also share with chameleons the fact that they can change their color readily as they move so gracefully through the water to hit the campus their species name actually mean sea monster. This species of seahorse is also known as the line or northern sea horse. It's range in North America is thought to lie along the Atlantic from Canada to

Florida. At this point there are thirty two main species of seahorse in the world. There were one hundred and twenty. But as they did genetic tests they found out that most of them were of the same species and it's hard to tell which sea horses which their sea horses that are brown. That in a minute can be black and yellow white and red. You know they can change so easily. So that's a lot of the work that's being done now. Genetic research to determine you know are there 32 species. Or are there really only eight. Sea horses that are unique in their ability to camouflage. They can change color within seconds to match plants or rocks or gravel or you know whatever they might be holding on to. They change colors when they're mating. Are when they're hungry when they're feeding.

The horse was brought to Karen by a waterman. A climber. I had been pulled up on the conveyor belt which means had been sucked in through the vacuum and survived all of that. It's a small male he's seen appears to be pregnant and has started giving birth already this morning. He's covered in gorgeous skin film and sore from as they call him sometimes which is part of their way to camouflage themselves. He'll be in quarantine for a little while. Today I tag them and measure them and check the salinity of the water that they have come in. And make sure I get all the water quality right and then hopefully help contribute to the new stock of the current ones that we have and maybe become a mate with someone else that doesn't have a me. She horses are unusual in that they mate for life. This is a mating behavior between a male and a female they call it the courtship dance and

it starts with their tails wrapping around each other and they sit side by side and put their stomachs together and put their heads down and they just kind of float around with each other along the bottom until in total take up and go up into the water column and wrap around each other. Hopefully if she has eggs or eggs in his power and then she'll be pregnant. Kind of strange the male gets pregnant. That's what all the women love about fiords. Males are not a good father though if you don't move them in time from the tank you will eat the young. As far as she knows Karon success in raising this species is unmatched in the world. Eventually Karen hopes to release her sea horses to the wild to help restore the dwindling numbers. This batch that's three or four days old. I was from one male. And.

It was between 250 and 300 best. Estimate. My survival rates have been anywhere between 80 and 100 of those will live to grow up to adulthood. Nurturing seahorses through stages of growth requires a complex feeding system wherein the sizes of food must get incrementally bigger as the seahorses get bigger. And much of the seahorse food Karen raises live. And so the food needs special feeding to. Be there about 24 hours. The right term that we raise for the seahorses and then over here we have 40 and 96 in our mind here and we are now the 30 in the U.S. border and then we grow they are the right thing to. Do. See horses take. Between three and four different types of food that I feed them up to six times a day almost daily. They'll change what they want to eat. There's a huge amount of food a huge amount of work.

See we're aware an important fish you know to bring attention to the fact that the grass beds are declining but they're not something that you want to take home to help us out that by not using them in their aquariums at home especially taking pregnant males. Out of the crab pots. You know take them home you end up losing all of the babies too because if you don't have what it takes to raise them. Sea horses have remarkable locomotion. They glide through the water propelled by tiny fans. But they're not strong enough swimmers to chase each prey or probably to migrate long distances. Instead they cling to grasses waiting for food to come to them. One of the biggest threats to see worse is his decline in sea grasses. Like most species of sea horses worldwide the line seahorse teeters on the vulnerable species list. One precarious step before threatened. A

good number of sea horse species are endangered or already extinct lost forever. Scientists estimate 20 million sea horses are harvested from the wild annually. Many for traditional Asian medicine the loss of coral reef habitat accounts for decline. And hobby is stocking their aquariums also take a toll. Sometimes Karen ventures into the bay to collect new seahorses to replenish the museum's gene. It's a good way to check on the health of the bay and its web of interdependent creatures. With her call my curator of Esther in biology at the Calvert Marine Museum and by the way where is Laura Magot burger with their area like this. Sure what you're going to get from here to here the ecology of the areas doing.

Horses are on the first year. That's. Right. So it's. Real for. Me. Keep track of these OK let it go on as best we. Drop in to our website at w w w dot MPP dot. Oh RG Just send us your comments and suggest. This program has been made possible by the members of NPT. Thank you for your

generous support.