Outdoors Maryland; 808

Coming up. The unrivaled night of American Rivers beauty and the Struggle to Save it is a no go or sports night he speaks man and woman against Clay and the other generation lays claim to the Chesapeake and its destiny. No. No no is my world just produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources unique DNA. Inspired by Nature. The waters of the Nanticoke largely ignored by outsiders continually

surprise those who take the time to seek it out and listen to its message. I love this river it's a it's a beautiful river it's one developer doesn't have who develop at all up and down the shores of a lot of the rivers have. I love how I've lived my whole life. You go forever and say nothing but nature. The Nanticoke is one of the least spoiled rivers near the Chesapeake Bay from the salt marshes around Elliot's island to wouldn't shorelines near Seaford Delaware. Its waters flow largely clean and clear. Ever increasing numbers of eagles roost the nest along its banks and.

Villages seemingly transported from the past are nestled by its side. Nanticoke lovers swing on ropes into it. Glide on skis on it. Or play community baseball games near it. Don Jackson of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It's one of the rivers left on the bay that. Hasn't been so heavily impacted that. It is in dire shape. It needs some need some help and we hope we can do some things to help the river. But it's not one of those places that is has been trampled to death. Lisa Jo French executive director of the Nanticoke watershed Alliance agrees. I think of it as very clean water and if I was willing to wait for me I'd jump in right now.

That's only my favorite river to swim. We have an opportunity to do things right here. Because it hasn't been over trampled because it hasn't been over developed because it is so clean because it is so unique. We have the chance to do the right thing. Not too many people can say that around the Chesapeake Bay. Or the girl. 0 0 0 0. 0 watershed doesn't necessarily keep the ground from getting rained on. But what a watershed is it. It's an area of land that drains toward a body of water and water. The watershed that we're in right now is the Nanticoke River Watershed. This is a very healthy watershed but it's not. Angela Hall is the area forester for one good neighbor of the Nanticoke the Chesapeake corporation. If you look around this this is a four hundred fifty five acre tract of land and

we manage it actively for timber. We also have a nature trail here but we are going to have a demonstration force as well much of what you've already walked through has been finished but the river we've got a buffer to the river. We don't want to we don't want heavy equipment driving right up through the river it might cause some erosion we don't want those sort of things so we're going to manage this properly. Telling that the US helps to keep the ladder clean and that plant help to keep the ladder from police the. Neighbors have banded together over the years to help maintain the waters of the Nanticoke. The efforts been a tough one. I think it's important to remember that when we say the Nanticoke River is one of the cleanest rivers in the

Chesapeake Bay that we're using a relative term. It's cleaner than most. It's cleaner than many but that doesn't mean that it's as clean as it could be. But. The Nanticoke watershed alliance and its 28 organizational members. Is beginning to address these concerns. Those 28 groups. Consist of. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation the Nature Conservancy the National Park Service but also farmers bloggers realtors academic institutions private businesses. In Maryland the Nanticoke watershed spreads across nearly one hundred twenty five thousand acres in Dorchester NY comical County the river empties into Tangier St.. I think our experience today really beautifully

illustrates the magnificence that is the Nanticoke. From the open salt marshes down to the lower river where it flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Where it's a salt marsh environment. Dominated by the spar time is and the bullrushes. Right on up into the middle of the river and places like chicken creek where there was a historical Indian settlement because the river was so rich and bountiful there. One of the biggest settlements in the region was right there chicken creek. Ending up here in the cipher swamps is just again spectacular to think that you can have cypress swamps here in Delaware. It's absolutely gorgeous it's absolutely

astonishing that it's all part of the same river system. Connective. Another good corporate neighbor build fish breeding ponds and its Vienna facility back in 1985. Sunder a biological consultant worked with connective on the ponds. The striped bass in the American Shad are both and have historically been recreationally and commercially important species in this river. We had the opportunity here being located right adjacent to the spawning area for these species. They migrate up and down through here we could collect them right here. Spawn the fish right here turn the adults loose raise the little ones and release them right back into the river where they where they should have generated themselves but we just gave them a helping hand and speed up the recovery. The nice things about fishing is this river is that certain. You're kind of in

between. Catching a salt water a lot of the salt water stuff like trout things like that you catch the speckled trout sea trout right in this area here but you're also going to pick up the perch. And of course the rockfish which tend to be more on the freshwater side so it's nice right here this place. S. you'll you'll get a nice mix of. Those experiences have given me a charm and a sense of the beauty and the power of a tidal river in particular and the Nanticoke has a particular pull on me through those it's. One good neighbors nurture their special River their hearts are held captive by and. For the Nanticoke creates in the river steward memories of moments and a promise that beauty has power over man is not fleeting.

Why did you start shooting targets clay targets. Three years old that's about four years ago. And it. Just got. Completely hooked on it. Once bitten by the bug when shooters can't seem to get enough of Maryland's hottest shooting sports. Well I love it. Yeah I love the target being out. Like the. Beauty of the days and the people I met. Socialized part of. One. Great area. Constantly challenged by the wide variety of angles use speeds ranges and topography as

well as singles and pairs. Scatter Gunners are finding this a great way to smoke the bird. 0 0 0 0. This form of sport shooting first came to the US in the 1960s right here in Kent County. Sporting Clays took off like wildfire. And nowhere does that fire burn hotter than on Maryland's Eastern Shore. I really enjoy sporting places it really simulates or tries to simulate hunting situations. So you can get out on any given course several courses and shoot a lot of different presentations of targets. So it really teaches you better as far as your leads you're not shooting the same target over and over. So just a lot of fun. It's a fairly inexpensive way to go out spend a day and shoot 50 targets and just really enjoy it. The shooting skills honed and sporting clays transfer quickly to the field. Yeah I think once again the thing it really teaches you is how to react to each and every target because every target's going to

be a little bit different and helps you determine up look at targets 40 yards away it's moving straight away from me you know how much lead to give it the same thing as the next target you might shoot might be a 25 yard quick moving target. So it just really as far as teaches you leads teaches you how to react to a target instinctively following fire ready. I shoot sporting clays to help me shoot in my in my hunting as far as my shooting point works out real well for me. All of the targets presented simulate actual game movements tolling geese flushing quail rising ducks passing dove and racing rabbits left and right. Back and forth. High and Low. Fast and Slow. The philosophy that we use here are more of a sporting clays as such that in hunting situations. You're never going to see the same thing happen. Again. So in sporting clays when it was designed. It was designed to put you in hunting situations to simulate actual hunting conditions. So what we

do here will throw you a course of fifty. One week and then you come back the following week and you're not going to see the same targets. We don't have courses and that's basically what you're going to see a field you're never going to see the same thing so why should you see the same thing when you're shooting sporting clays. You should see a variety of targets and the end result is the more you shoot boarding place the better you get because you're seeing different targets all the time and the key for success is proper instruction. Do the same thing on this pair. Just do it. You know. As freedom is single. Ok come back and. Then come back to us you know another signal in this program. Go again. Well. I'm back. Well done. Sporting Clays was a Victorian era sport created an English shooting schools in the late eighteen hundreds and was popular enough to attract the interest of Maryland there Annie

Oakley an avid shooter and Hunter. The Pheasant quail or or both upland birds which are in the actual hunting dish and they are flushed either by the person hunting or with a dog in which the bird is rising from the ground going away or in a courting away in a hunting situation you don't know. On the sporting play force you try to simulate that in three or four different areas where the bird is a rising going away from you cornering crossing coming into you at times because that does happen a field. The rabbit is a different clay target and it's made to withstand the bouncing off along the ground and it's thrown from the same type of machines. It's just a vertical machine where the target hits the ground and bounces across the same philosophy as a target flying across the air except it's bouncing across the ground and the unique aspect of the rabbit is that when it hits the ground it's always moving held a little different location you never know what it's going to do next.

Some pointers now will help out a lot in the field. Joe with his targets coming across this here remember when the gun comes up to the shoulder it wants to be going off you don't want to follow the target when you're following the target you're behind it's like driving a car and you're behind someone you're always behind and you want the gun to come up. And when he comes up it's going off in your body your body motion keeps going in what we call the follow through. Remember what those you know those key points you were talking about looking for the bird with your eyes when you get into your target window is mounted and pull the trigger you know and remember he positioned with your right your way you know you're looking for the bird and then the guns coming across you know as soon as it meets a target in the shoulder a fan. Or. A proper gun man is one of the rules because you have consistency with a proper gun mounted. You know it's awful hard to get breaking targets over and over again. Action here too.

When I started years ago there were very very. Orson out. There. Like a 5 to 1 ratio now I think that there are more and more women interested in the sport there's an active national organization that promotes women in shooting sports. Well my husband got me started on it and. I just I like the reporter that we have together while we're out shooting and it's. Challenging and you go for it it's like golf and it has terrorist action. I like to shoot it because there's a lot of people out here and it's just a fun fun thing to do. It's good sport history that anybody can do it. You don't have to be a muscle man to handle a gun or anything. The Delaware State so junior champion. Is pretty good. Well my wife competitively shoots and my daughter who's 12 is already shooting and the sub junior and my 8 year old son is starting. Well I think it's a lot different than a skater trap for example a lot more variety of the shots. And it's more challenging.

So I've been shooting for about. Three or four times now and I've been doing consistently better every time. If you're guaranteed shots out here. Unlike unlike a haunting situation where you're not guaranteed anything the people are probably. The most fun. You want a friend that you don't meet many grouches on the. Way. And. It's a very versatile you just keep you coming back every every tournament and every course is different every day and every day is different and you just can't wait to try it again because. You know you're going for the next. Competitions shooting against yourself. Just like golf but you don't have to sort of go up. Don't. Get. Up. Again you're going to give your all. Knowing of where is all it takes and a little practice to smoke the bird.

They came. They saw. And they got drenched. Literally and figuratively in the ways of. These twenty seventh graders from such a magnet Middle School in Park Hill Maryland spent an intensive work at Smith Island in the just a big way. Every year the Chesapeake Bay Foundation provides hundreds of such environmentally based field trips to more than 30000 middle and high school students. And for most it's a lifetime experience. Chesapeake Bay Foundation has 16 education centers all over the watershed and the main focus of the Smith Island education center is to get the kids through realize the connections

that their classroom curriculum and the activities they do there with the ecology of the bay and how the things that they do up in the Baltimore area eventually affect the wildlife and the people that live down here. Can Officer Smith Island education center manager raised in Brooklyn. He came to work here two years ago captivated by his own field trip to Smith Island while studying environmental science in college. Everything's interconnected down here all the water quality depends on the things that are in the water like grass beds and oysters and the things that live in the water depend on the water quality. So it all goes around in a circle and the kids are down here to get into that circle physically to actually be part of it and realize that they are part of it in their everyday lives and they can make a difference. No time was lost plunging the kids into a life after orientation the large class divided into two manageable groups making alternate trips.

Placing crab boats in the bay and exploring the unique Waterman culture of Smith Island going crab and basically gets the kids to see what they've been talking about in the classroom to get to handle crabs hands on and to learn by doing things rather than hearing somebody talk about and by experience what a waterman. And the way of life down here. Ahmed was among those discovering that life on the bay is not always so easy. When I signed up for the trip I was looking forward to learning about how these people live. And I like crafts and it's fun to learn how people really cuts. I found out that it's very hectic and I thought it was easier but it's really hectic. I think their will and that we need to pay attention to more what we do because it affects other people in the back. If you don't like kids you can do this job. No way. Denny Bradshaw born and raised on Smith Island is captain of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's education boat the known sea.

I usually tell the kids just call me daddy like they call cabin cause it makes me sound old. I like teaching kids about the ballet and showing them all the life that is in the bay all the bird life all the critters in the water. And you'd be surprised how many kids that's never been on a boat that's never seen the bay been out on the water just looking at the expression on a kid's face. That's something they'll never forget and something you'll never. Forget. Nothing like doing a run Smith of a place like Smith thought we're out here in the middle of nowhere. I think it's pretty neat and it's a culture all its own. Just hard for you to believe that people live like this nowadays. I was looking forward to the steal check because I've only gone camping

once I really want a sense of the outdoors and how people work with nature and what Mackenzie discovered was a Waterman's village in scale with nature and not finding it. What I found most interesting about piloting as a fact that everything was so small and minuter for example the post office. It was a house. So is the fire house on the market and the school. There are houses but to these people it was everyday life. This is how they expected it today and I think that was really me. The next morning brought an intensive introduction to the diversity of the bay's marine life its complexity. And fragility. The screen for soft crabs teaches them about what a waterman does and it also serves to teach the kids a lot about the ecology of the crab and the life history of a blue crab and the changes that it goes through the molds and different ways that it grows and reproduces. So it's a great way to get them out there doing that hands on just telling them about it or

having read a book about it. As a seventh grade teacher I found that concrete experiences are real important to these kids. They're beginning to think abstractly but they're still very concrete. And it's a good window into what's going on with if you can give them a concrete experience to begin a lesson or some learning that you want. It helps them a great deal. Dave Morris is math and science magnet teacher it's a book magnet middle school experiences a grade as a follow up to what we've done in class but it also sets us up for things we can talk about once we get back to the classroom and connections that I can make with kids all year long. The trip that we had this North Island. The phrase hands on proves utterly inadequate however to describe that afternoon. The auction marshes or more precisely. Marsh. Camouflage it is a great game to get the kids to think from the perspective of

some of the animals that live out here and place themselves down in the resource that's a big part of this. Letter jacket ducking down right here right on the right. If you read about Martians in school and do the curriculum but the real important thing that we try to do is make it real form connect it for them and get them out there in the mud and realize hey it's a lot of fun as well as it's a very valuable experience realizing how important marshes are very. Solid. Food shelter flood control and you have a cat you got to get that but you don't really have a. Lot of sense that you might enjoy it. Yes McNamee Yes but that has kids remember things better if they have a good time doing it and they have a real good time out here. Marsh knocking is great and it's something that when you talk about Marsh liking and I talk about what happens in the minors they can really connect it and it it takes a lot more sense to learn

that. Their discovery of the bay came full circle late that afternoon on the kids last at Smith Island. It was time to gather the fruits of their labor pulling in the crab pots place the day before. Tunisia tapped into the spirit of the save the bay community pulling together for their cause. We had the right to have. Yeah I have. Discovered there's much more to the bay than meets the eye. We look at the surface of the Chesapeake Bay. You don't see all the things that are under you like

different types of species of plants and animals and fish. Well you know it's a blue green color the water we are polluting the bay and that's causing a lot of dying soon we'll have just learned how to not over fish and just try different. I'm sure I'll use the save the you know the kids are our future. As you may have heard that Native Americans believe seven generations into the future is what we're responsible for. And I pretty much believe in that that if you reach these kids these kids can make much more of a difference and we're able to make right now the lives that were set into they haven't chosen their path yet. And if this makes a difference and gets him moving down a different road that's what we hope for that they'll at least keep the environment in the forefront of whatever they want to do in their life. And of course then they teach their kids. And that's where the change really comes. As the sun comes up each morning something is always born in. The dark. The dark.

Clouds form with incredible colors red orange yellow. The beauty of the big sky has made the life of us all. What would life be without the sun and of all beauty as the sun rises over the people of the blue cloud surround the orange of the needle grasses act the sword and pierce the sun. But the song fights back with its great beauty and overcome.