Outdoors Maryland; 18

Are Gay. Or gay. Underground is a world few people ever see.

A world with a life color. A world alive in total darkness. The world inside a cave is familiar territory to members of the Western Maryland grotto a hard core group of speed loggers. For Debbie Meyer and the others a caving day begins with a ritual filling of headlamps with carbide and water. Underground a flammable mixture will be the group's main source of light. Will.

Slow down. You. Never. Think this is oh it's not nice to just love it. No it's not. What you're good. OK. You're. Going there. For years no one paid attention to the fragile nature of caves. That is changing this cave in Garrett County is now owned and protected by the Nature Conservancy. Oh. When I first started came in on this extremely close to phobic like in two years when I had to enter a tight spot for the first time and I just worked on it and learned to relax and you realize that you're not going to run out of beer which is a popular misconception that people have and there's always someone there to help you because we never had to cave in alone and that's

just not a safe practice. Now I'm just the opposite if I don't get to spend time it. Bothers me rather than in the tight spots I think Darkness fun. You. Know OK this time resident. This is an eastern pipistrelle surprisingly is coming. Seems that. We're all thieves. It's also the smallest that Marilyn. There's about six different species

that can be found in Maryland caves. Only a few. Actually ever winner in case it's sort of their way to to get out of the worst of the weather. All the species in Maryland are feed only on insects. And. Bugs as. Mosquitoes. Journalists use common species or are not too easily disturbed. But some of the rare species especially when they're having they're young are very susceptible to disturbances and the culling will get up and leave and may not make that year and that can be detrimental to an endangered species. There's dates on some of the names in there in. The script type writing. Most of them are

like from the 19th century there's Or maybe some from the 18th in here too. And a lot of them have the family names from the his area so it's of historical interest. On one hand like this is of interest to see how many people came in here in the early days before anyone knew that much about capes but it encourages people to leave their names now and with spray painting different medium that aren't really as romantic you might say. And now the worst possible case for pretty much fall is the sick leave nothing but footprints. The environment of a cave is based on water and where there is water there is life. Like other creatures adapted to living in caves year round the Amphipod is colorless and blind. Where there is no light. There is no need

for eyes. Not all caves are deep and dark. Shelter. They have large openings which gather in light. Here where daylight fades gradually to black is an area called the twilight zone. This is the cave world's Manhattan. A place teeming with life. Many Maryland caves have entrances no bigger than a rabbit hole here. Speed

walking and rock climbing merge into one sport. There is a payoff for sliding down the slick mud of this k. And underground rail lined with a cage lover's treasure still tights. Formed from the sediment left by dripping water. These hollow to us are called soda straws. Where enough water falls a stone like Mike emerges from the cave floor.

Just anyone that's willing to kind of go where it's unknown and squeeze through and get dirty and have a good time while they're doing it has to just be of a different kind of person emotionally to begin with. Just kind of go with whatever happens and not panic. If it's not exactly what their expectations were just to go with it and have fun. To fly to the bonds of earth and climb somewhere to soar and your sun split clouds might catch the changing thermal. This is the beauty of hang gliding. Expert pilot friend her mentor has been flying these Maryland skies over high

rock near Hagerstown for 13 years. There's the freedom will being free. Doing what you want up there. You can see the panoramic view of the whole countryside looking down at a Christmas card. For Fred and his wife. And there is no greater challenge than facing Mother Nature one on one. Special wind and weather conditions are essential to a safe flight. One thing about this I think it's probably one of the hardest places to learn how to fly. The weather is kind of can tankers in Maryland we wait on it a lot for training purposes and for high flying the benefit of that is well out in California they make it 500 hours a year really easily. Here you're lucky to get 50. But it improves your flying to a degree because you'll fly in fresh air conditioned space center. You take what you can get out here and I think it makes us better pilots but you have to realize that Mother Nature can harm you. You have to look at it real carefully. That's why we have to learn a great deal about meteorology. And. It gives

one. A sense of accomplishment achievement when I fly it really well. I know it and I think it's a real deep sense of self-satisfaction more than I get out of any other part of my life I think. Launching a glider requires a group effort to ensure a good liftoff. Once several gliders take to the skies all the earthbound spectators can do is harmful. Many spectators have been so envious of the beauty and freedom of the sport that they too

wish to test their wings. Alex tours explains her fascination with the sport. I've always wanted to do it. You know it's something to find an airplane but it's it's it's it's very different to find a glider because I think it was part of your body. And. You know you can really fly close to the closest thing to flying you know like birds. And that because. Here at Oregon range just minutes from downtown Baltimore instructors train future pilots. Safety is of utmost importance so all beginners learn the basics in ground school. Richard Hayes volunteers his time to teach eager students in hopes that more Marylanders will become avid gliders. The key and success of the whole can success to learn how to launch the glider. Again I emphasize on proper placement on your shoulders what you're wanting to do right now. OK. And letting the shoulders take the burden and the weight of the glider and then when you begin to get to the point in which you run with the glider and launch the

glider OK your shoulders act as a pivot point. Then after several lessons it's time for that first flight. Or run it run it run it harder harder harder radhe radhe radhe easy out easy at that point and a little bit pull it out a little bit. Yeah up all good bipolar and a little bit beautiful. Keep up your big bold and a little bit. Begin bleeding off your. Papa bar out pump it out. On your feet. Why oh why oh. Why. And another successful launch. It's just something that you just need to do and I guess you get tired of it but there's always a calling for a certain people that really want to pursue it. I think. I'm for something if I go back on the fly. And maybe someday soon. These students will join Fred Gray and the other pilots on the cliffs of high

rock for an incredible flight over the scenic Maryland countryside. Today it's thundering. We seldom chant the rhythm of the rails. And sadly few will ever hear purposes. Ernest mournful tone. It's. Living on in song and story. It is the stuff of legend. The mighty steam locomotive. But by the 1950s the diesel engine had taken over the railroads. Coal was no longer king and the semi truck had captured the lion's share of the freight industry. The steam locomotive all but forgotten. Many of Western Marilyn's rails sat empty and idle.

Their gleaming steel gone red with rust. Empty and rusting That is until Jack show Walter brought his big Canadian Pacific for six Tuesday Cumberland and polish the rails again. As a child. Like so many children of his day Jack show Walter dreamed of being an engineer on a powerful steam locomotive. More young boys who were part of a railroad engineers and i've ever aspired to be president has got good that wishing anything to do. They'd say the same usually went to town hell bent for election that. One guy would take the broad. They were folding the whole train more naturally won't do it.

What is it in this age of supersonic jets aerodynamically designed automobiles that still attracts people to the steam locomotive. Heated sure signs. It's power. Or is it something in the very nature of steam itself. The steam locomotive seems to be alive. It breeds us and snorts and bellows. Laboring with panting pygmies who's in the effort to propel the cheer mass. It strikes a chord in each of us who has ever struggled to overcome an obstacle.

And. Since its arrival in 1987 the Alleghenies simple real world has lured hundreds of thousands of writers to Cumberland station. Finding a boy the stately coaches they greet a plush vision of a genteel past where. You are. Thank you very much.

The train begins its 35 mile round trip to Frostburg through the Cumberland narrows a 900 foot deep gorge cut over the course of 150 million years. As Will's Creek slowly split a mountain into. Four hundred sixty million years of geologic history are written on the stones. Below the red shale of the journey out of formation and above the white Tuscarora sandstone fifths span a large part of the Paleozoic era a time predating the Earth's first reptiles. It was blasting for the bee and I was right of way that sheared the face of chimney rocks. A popular site for climbers and repellers. A member of the Allegheny expeditions group takes boys from a training session to watch the steam train as it passes.

The rich are a role model of cool small steam and hot grease. Make a heady mixture in the cab of the big Pacific engine with a hand on the throttle and his eye on the track ahead. Jack sure Walter is all business when it comes to running this railroad. The attitude is businesslike but the romance of driving a steam train is never lost on Jack. There's an intimacy that can only exist between an engineer and his engine. And show our. National Brain. But there seems to be very much allowed to tie up. Every right contrary. And you discover stand that all of how to get it to perform like you wanted to. Say a photo like proud of the name of your church.

As the training winds westward October passengers are treated to fleeting I know Rama's rushed from autumn's fall and scarlet so much it's red and golden made perhaps mingled with the amber ash and the burgundy of us tied together in a rich tapestry of pine and spruce. Outstanding among these vistas. The Helm stutters currents taking its name from the family that has farmed this land for as many years as these rails have run through or its graceful arch frames a pastoral setting impeccably suited to showing off the sweeping grandeur of a passing train. And it is here that a sharp eyed traveler may catch a glimpse of the local wildlife.

Like up there. Oh. Look I see you know what I have right there. And then I see this train go by. Ridiculous. War a majority of the scenic railroad's passengers are senior citizens. For many of them the window seat in the Pullman is the ideal vantage point from which to admire the rugged mountain scenery. But for these older Americans a ride on the steam train is much much more than a comfortable way to take in the fall foliage and charming mountain towns nestled beside the tracks her Earth. I like steam because I like to listen to the whistle whistle just give me goosebumps because it's part so much of the history of this country the steam locomotive and trains that love it. Growing up in the age of the steam locomotive many with fathers and grandfathers working for the railroad it was often a train schedule that marked the occasions

of their lives and the cry of a whistle that spoke of their comings and goings. Us or. You're When I hear the whistle It reminds me when I was a kid the place where the road. I get sometimes would blow the whistle when. I hear that I think of old times. When I hear the sounds of the train at night you know and I remember lying in bed. And I was a kid. Here in the trains go down the track you feel. Sort of homesick. Those were the good old days. Now probably the best times a world of ever saying but they were the good old days. And maybe they weren't childish but. The real road deeply woven into the fabric of their lives. The many miles traveled can be measured by these tracks when memory rides the rails built on time to the past.

You're. The board or the St.. Daybreak in the mountains of western Maryland. Snow machines send up

clouds of icy mist over the ski slopes. Here there is no such thing as too much snow. The fresh powder draws the young neon colored snowboarders anxious for another day of bump and grind. Some of surf. Or skate warded. Some like 27 year old Tony Lincoln have done it all. I used to be a skier. I quit after I started snowboarding. I started stewarding three years ago and I've only skied twice since then and also I want to do is be back on a snowboard. Because snowboarding just combines everything and combines your skiing skills your surfing skills and your skateboarding skills but it gives you a couple things that none of the sports can offer you like a snowboard can and that's nice speed you get a lot of speed on a snowboard and you really get some strong carving a long ride that you really can't do on a skateboard or on a surfboard so it's

really nice with those two respects. And it's just a great sport you know it's a good break for the winter time when it's too cold to paddle out in 40 degree otter. Just grab a snowboard headed for the mountains and just let it all flow. It's great. With better equipment. Snowboarding has gone from an obscure fad into one of the fastest growing winter sports in the country. Like skis snowboards have steel edges for turning. Bindings are fixed. Unlike rigid ski boots mortars where soft rubber bullets which are oriented on the board much like surfing or skateboarding. With their hands free and upper bodies twisting for leverage. The snowboarders resemble high speed disco dancers.

It looks easy. But first there's that problem of getting your balance. To turn. Or stop. And then there are. The established in the West snowboarding has not been allowed at Maryland ski resorts until this year. We've been looking at snowboarding for about the past three years when it started to really come onto the scene and there were a lot of concerns with it. The safety of the equipment the safety of the skiers the safety of our everything worked together. After analyzing it and talking to people around the country we just felt that it's arrived. The concerns that we had aren't there. And so we decided

to do some things here to enhance the program and so far this year it's it's been a plus for us. A major enhancement to the wisp ski resort is one of America's more just snowboard past. Similar to the ranch used in skateboarding. The half is where snowboarding takes on the appearance of an area sport. Snow boards are going to eventually within the next five years probably take up about 20

percent of lift ticket sales in mist ski resorts but it's going to pretty much stay younger sport I think it's going to be you know your age is between say 12 and 27 but there's still going to be a lot of older people get into it. I haven't seen anyone over 30. Except for myself I tried it. It's rough. It's a it's a it's a real experiences. It's a little more difficult than skiing but. I. Plan to get back out and give it another try. He won't be alone this year more people than ever grab their boards and head to the hills for a little surf on the snow. We were brought down to this guy right here. Right on Your right coming up here my partner right there. All right here guys hang out.

With. The right. Now the fish. Potomac has just got energy and it's old energy it's energy it's been around a long time and I get a lot from them when I come up from the city you know driving up here I get close to the river man I'm going to give a hoot. You know I'm going to drive my car. Let's go you know I want to pass over the river and I'm always watching and looking at it and I just I get turned on about it. You know the Potomac is great. History and energy. Are intertwined in one of America's greatest rivers. George Washington saw in it a passage to the west. Thomas Jefferson said it was worth the trip across the Atlantic. Oh. This one here is one of my favorites it's called the finesse fish and that's on the lately around the water it's

it's tops White's probably favorite color but they do good with black and chartreuse too. Marco watches drawn by their rivers strength beauty rivers and small mouth bass for over 10 years Kobayashi has guided float fishing expeditions on the upper Potomac. It's a trip as unique as its leader. Charges of LAX illiteracy charges are just. The starting point is just about Harpers Ferry West Virginia. In a narrow twisting section of the river called the needles. And shots and. The. Whole. Another I spot a couple good pockets on. Either side Michael. Kicks from fission as a guide are from turning your sports on and watching them catch this. Because when you call the shot out and they can make the shot and you're holding them in the position so they can do it what just like you do in fact it's better because you've transferred this information you've transferred

this knowledge and they're enjoying it too and I enjoy it. As it slices through the Blue Ridge Mountains the Potomac offers prime bass habitat. Whitewater rapids rocky ledges. And deep quiet. It's. Nice. If you have experienced people in the bone. I don't think I've had I'm doing going to bed. But you know like you've got good people and about you it's really easy to push your honored right. That's the big. That's a big fish or for you. That one really brought me back to spend fishing last year. There are no scramble on their egos. I don't. Hold out. Probably with people learn the most about

our trips is how to find fish until. They've done like fish and stuff. They don't have any idea where to go about it in a flowing water fish are always going to be where the most amount of food goes by in requires the least amount of effort for them to be there. So they're in little ambush spots little eddies off to the side behind ledges in front of ledges and of places where the water breaks current split. You know we're slow motor meets fast water and those are the targets. So a lot of that is that most cargoes come on maybe coming. A small mouth will fight as hard as any fish its size allows his clients to keep only two fish a day. One of which must be over 18 inches. But he encourages the release of every fish. Fishing is the most genteel of the Bloods.

I mean you can have all the pleasures of the hunt. You know you get your gear ready you get your tackle together you know you got a you got to map out where you're going to go you know you go into the river and then you start hunting. You know you look for the spots where the fish are going to be you understand their environment. Right you set up or you make a toss into the area and then you have to trick them. You know it's not like pulling up a gun on you got a trick and they've got to take the bait. Right. You got to set the hook. You've got to fight where they always have the chance to get away. And then when you get into the boat you don't have to make the kill. In fact his efforts go well beyond what Maryland Department of Natural Resources officials believe is critical to saving the rivers fished up. Vastly improved water quality combined with a state mandated five fish a day limit. Has the Potomac responding well. The bridge into Harpers Ferry once carried John Brown on a crusade and slavery. That bridge is gone. But new ones carry commerce and commuters above the POBox ran. OK in trying to.

Bridge parallel. To. Get Shots on the right. Very. Pretty. Bright. Yeah. I think it's. 14 inches. That's right it's not a pretty nice color and you know I got a thing I was get my get my clients out I'm real big about kissing your first fish you know you kiss your first fish and then you let him go and then they know you're friendly and they give me more cooperate and I think it brings good luck.

I don't know I guess it's a sign of affection you lots times and something brings you a lot of joy and you get. Pleasure from it you know and even though you may I guess they get a little uncertainly and bothers them some in the process. But you kind of like to. Pay your respects you know kind of get a little shown little affection to get in the cast and I never hesitate because fish. That is a beautiful view. Of the sea. A colorful Cumberland dog signals the onset of another harsh western Maryland. It also draws one's eyes to an area locals call the narrow. Rugged and hospital nature built this jagged monument

270 million years ago. There are some who view the clips differently than most as perhaps a chapter in their life has. For them. The deer these rocks whisper. Is the seduction of our own. Songs like Gary Green and Darryl Spence. I think the last one is when you do something really hard maybe at the edge of your abilities and you do it and you get to the top and you're sitting there looking back yeah I better get kind of cool. That's what it's all about. Given. That sometimes I get nervous and start singing to myself. Do you. Think it will never turn out. Nervousness or no risk task is to climb 150 feet of loose and vertical rock with a menacing so

much overhead. As far as anyone knows no one has attempted to find this group before. There's another friend. In the world of rock climbing a successful ascent awards the honor of naming his route to the top climbing route will give it a name. Usually something that's happened. One time I get stung by a bee. So we call the beast thing. One time a copperhead literally went right over my boot. So we called it. So we'll see what happens. Give it a name only to finish. Putting it around that is. The guardian angel of rock climbers is safe. Something that won't be taken for granted today by either man. Some of them tell you that these ones are here they're my favorites. They're called friends. That's kind of the way they

call them friends they really are friends is what you can do in the rock. As opposed to some of these other equipment. Is it can stand it allows you. To really attach it quickly. As you can see. Checking to see that hold tight. You know this is saying that we have an old timers and the old plan but there's no old bull. That. There are two areas here where climbers can stop and regroup. Everything from here on up is loose on the left side the right side. Today's ascent will proceed in three segments or pitches. Gary will lead the middle Darrell the first and last. The first pitch. After a half hour and by far the easiest is nearly complete. There's a point where when you finally come to a spot where you're really scared. Your mouth

instantaneously dries up. And then you find yourself it's like a wide angle lens on a camera everything its big eyes blow up real tight. You start feeling every little piece of your body either shaking or you know what's happening. Every minute. And it's a part of racing that I wish could happen everyday life. That is the way that is the rest that's that point in time. You're on a team that in your every day walking on the reader you're working you're jogging around. That. That is the rest that's that. From that point on. I guess in a way you know look you've been looking for that. Found it. Right there. I'll tell you what my cat is on now and. You're going to appreciate your time and money but after your body gets up first thing you want to do is flap has had its a great climb.

Then you start talking about all the different elements or maybe it was rock or where you didn't do a piece of road just right or you make a real gutsy move and you say why did it this way and I did it that way and kind of reflect. Yeah I trust the person with immensely I went to Borneo I went and got into it and was in a trance that Aker beyond like a relationship. You have to trust that person without Pless. Right. Two thirds of the finest finished. The last eight years the most difficult for two reasons. First the climbers have already exhausted a lot of energy and second the challenging overhang. At the top. All right. He's rich. All right. Play on climbing. I would say the most dangerous part of this day will be somewhere or.

It'll. Overhang just a little. And also we lose our crack system or some systems down lower. But as we get up top it's going to be just fingers and toes. That's probably the part a little apprehensive about. Time to Lose rock here Gary. I don't see the mountain because. Every time I fly and after I get to the top and I get back to the bottom. You know the rock should be unchanged it's still there it's just it's just the environment that I live it will play and it just happens to be more vertical than horizontal. She wants attention. Yeah there you go. There you go. Stay within yourself. Man I really think you can do it.

How much hand-holding is there nothing you can really put your hand on. Really not enough to hold yourself enough to get up there take a look at Whitney come back down to or just did OK. Just asking. You need to be a superman and make it up after being the second man up on the previous pitch. Daryl has had little time to rest. Already working on this pitch for 45 minutes. His arms as he searches for cracks in the rock. Strong enough to hold his pro in place. Secure enough to support him in case he falls. For a crack here we get it right. All right. Let me talk to the team yourself. Oh there's one. Oh well nice try.

I'm here just just to feel this. You know just to meet this challenge and deal with. Living on the edge. Of the. Kind of weird. I think what some people like to call it is an adrenaline junkie. I don't know that the junkie idea I mean I don't crave all that I got but I definitely go look for it. Let me know when you want some slack. It's neat when you get to that point you're on a climb and and you're kind of half dangling you don't know whether you're going up or going to fall down and you really get the question of. You know why am I doing this. Do it big. Sorry Gary. I think I'm going to take a fall maybe next life.

Oh God sure. OK thanks on your just kicked out of you guys. Yeah OK. That was a trip. I let me down easy place. Luckily Carol's pros have. The Fall and collision with the rock rattling. But he's none the worse for wear. You know. Gary now attacks the clips to finish the climb. Tell you what. I had a whole new respect for what little room there is. Since Darrow's already wedged equipment in the rock. Gary can concentrate soley on the. Good. Within 10 minutes. He closes on the something. Man.

Slack. That's the craziest stuff I've ever done I've really didn't think I could do it. But. I. Did the hard part. He got the pros already preset So I basically just strong armed it up. Remember. OK. You made good good climb by. Tearing apart and you getting on. I was just thinking about how I was going to hit. I was just worried about my my back and saw you know my arm

hitting some so I tried to hit my foot on the rock when I did I spun around it is kind of crazy I was like OK I didn't I have a right. To tell you what and that's a thrill. That's a thrill. You name it since you took the worst of the brush. Off we have to put a name on that I think we call it yellow. Since I was the. We couldn't make it up and. Play even the trees are yellow so it kind of goes with the. Season there Gary. Yeah. I think that someday we may have to think we have to tell our children why we named this one yellow. Yeah very. It was you that fell. When you see it from the air this narrow strip of sand hugging the Eastern Shore doesn't look like much but as a tea guy Island is a member of Maryland's barrier island chain a very special sort of habitat and home to a fascinating array of plants

and wildlife. The best way to explore acetate Guyland is with a trail map in your hand and a park ranger by your side. Our first stop in the desert by the sea the doomed traitor. When you walk in or Dan's on acetate there are some basic banknote of us and one of the primary down which is immediately behind the big Dan offers some protection for plants that grow back behind it. The primary doing is the hot spot on the island in summer sand temperatures often soar above one hundred twenty degrees. There are some plants that are very characteristic. They enter day and zone on a barrier island like acetate one of them is. Each have their it's a very low growing almost Herbalife shrub plant.

Another area has grass which grows and clumps. A third one is American beach grass which characteristically has found on the tops of these plants have farmed different adapt patients that allow them to grow hair. You know you're in the inner Dan zone when you find these plants. Hoof prints in the sand that indicate wild ponies come here to feed. Legend says the ponies were shipwrecked a year or left by pirates who once terrorized the East Coast. A new set of tracks led us down the trail to a fox confidently taking its early morning stroll. The fox den is located in the area among the bushes and gnarled trees growing here. There are several woody plants that are characteristic of the entered in Zone the most important in these is they bury they bury can be identified by its waxy leaves. This is one form of protection that

it has against the harsh conditions that are out here. It produces a berry late in the in the summer and early fall that's covered white with wax and that's another farmer's protection to the berry. There are other trees and shrubs out here as well. The Wild Cherry is one the crab apple is another. Anybody who walks the trail of acetate Guyland will walk along Baltimore Boulevard. There actually was an asphalt road put down here in the late 1950s by a developer who owned all the Maryland end of acetate Guyland. We very nearly became a second ocean city. When Nature intervened and fortunately said no in the form of a very large storm in 1962 it wiped out a lot of the development that was here and obviously did some damage to the road and cause conservationists to take a new look at acetate Guyland. It's safe to say that we have this national seashores existence to the star.

From the beach and dunes we passed through the thicket and into the heart of acid Teague Island. We're going to go and ask the big forest now. If you go into it in summer you need to be aware of mosquitoes and tags and prepare for them a good time becomes in the fall or the spring. It's quiet here. In the summer the forest offers a welcome relief from the blazing sun and strong ocean winds. During a storm. Deer ponies and Sica come into the forest for refuge. The tree tops churn but the forest floor is quiet and reassuring. Acetate Dorothy zone is mostly loblolly pines but occasionally you'll see a scattered red oak and red maple like this one. What's interesting about the red maple there is that they're very sensitive to salt in the air. And so they'll never grow any higher then the Loblaws that are providing them

protection from the wind coming off of let's say. Near the entrance to our forest the zone trail is this very old lalala pine it's about 50 years old. Notice how twisted it is. It used to bear the brunt of the ocean winds and that's what made it so twisted. Well since that time humans have built a very large primary din and that has allowed the younger pine trees to grow very tall and straight that big primary Boone is doing now what the old pioneers used to do decades ago. The ponies love to feed here. We thought they look surprisingly well-fed for wild ponies but it turns out that isn't necessarily the case. They're rounded bellies are due to the high salt content in their diet. To offset this. The ponies need a lot of fresh water. For this reason. Pools of rain water are very important on national TV.

Fresh water floats on Barrier Island. Almost like a land and out crops in the Forest Lawn Care with say a pond that is fresh water. What's interesting about this pond is that it was formed during the night. Who takes the dawn how a beach house actually was a wharf to this spot and ocean water rushed around it and scoured out in the cold. And the pond has been here everything. The value of many OUR earth is that we allow and crave to remain standing. That's because they provide nesting habitats for not only birds but a lot of mammals. Asking forest is home to a lot of birds. The marsh is one of the most productive areas on the island wetlands once thought of as a waste

lands are now being appreciated for the part they play in the health of the oceans. The salt marsh vistas are impressive the calm swaying of the marsh grasses doesn't hint at the furious biotic activity that makes salt marshes the earth's most productive natural crop plant. A stand of cord grass produces more nutrient material and stored energy than any other crop. With the exception of sugarcane grown in the tropics. Along the marsh trail you may find a variety of birds one of them would be great grit who comes into these areas to food. They do nest on an island located near here and they see a variety of other immigrants and herons as well. In addition though when the migration starting to fall you'll begin to see water fowl a variety of ducks like the. Canvasback who were lucky and mallards and black ducks and. A variety of uses with. Publicans also amassed nearby and are frequent visitors to acetates

Marsh. This area is thought to be the northernmost point for nesting pelicans in the U.S.. Black skimmers are also a common sight skipping along the surface looking for dinner. The areas that look like small ponds are actually salt pans where water has become trapped when the tides come in and that water is not able to escape. What's happening in some of these areas is that the core grass is getting broken down and that odor that you smell is that purple bacteria working on that clay grass and other organic matter and it smells like rotten eggs but it's a very productive thing that's going on around the marsh trail will take you to the edge of the bed. The salt marsh and the beds are connected they're vital to winning the thing. From a bird's eye view as a teak is beach and surf. Giving and taking with each coming time. On foot we discover the plants and animals that make this barrier island more than a sliver of sand

bowing to the whims of the wind. See. Outdoors Maryland is a production of Maryland Public Television which is soley responsible for its content. Please write with your comments or suggestions to outdoors Maryland Maryland Public Television Owings Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7.