Outdoors Maryland; 1708

Outdoors Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you. Coming up taking to space for a view of the planet Chesapeake protecting lead for the sake of the water and climbing up a searchable room with a view next. Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Do you know or are inspired by nature guided by something. The good.

News. First for. Space. Is what makes Nessa thankless. But then that's a Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland is also home to the world's largest array of bird scientists. They use a fleet of satellites to study systems and processes on a planetary scale like monster storm ocean dynamics. And climate change. The planet from space is a huge

perspective. Available nowhere else on earth literally. But data on hurricanes ozone. Algae blooms us all has direct bearing locally to the mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay. One key Nassar earth mission is to bring their discoveries to the public. These NASA's animators turn raw data into complex scientific visualisations that also qualify as high end digital art seen throughout Horace Mitchell is director of the scientific visualization studio. The world is a very complicated place. There's a lot of research that goes on. It's very important that everyone understand how the planet that we live on works. One of the most important aspects and strengths of the work of the

visualization studio is the fact that we spend a lot of time with national researchers making absolutely sure that we get visuals that represent what they understand about how the earth works. We use the same tools and the same processes that the film industry uses in order to produce the same quality of result. Only in this case the star of the program is the planet we live on. Perkins is a computer engineer and a big. Part of my job. That is the most exciting. Is seeing the scientists. View their data a different way. We change the tables around here to to bring out the highs and lows of the anomaly. To see the look on their faces because now that they can explain it in his her. Eyes. I think that that is. The best part. Of our satellites do a great job picking up the surface I think what you guys did here with the stuff it up with your oceanographer David Adams is one of many NASA's scientist

who's had research visualized by the award winning national animators. His work on El Nino has a direct impact on men. That's a plays a big role in taking operations of the ocean and in places where observations have never even been taken before were ships that are gone. The reason water is so important in our apartment is it is the memory of the whole climate system. For Dr. Adam make the ocean's memory resides in reservoirs and currents of warm and cold water the size of continents systems like El Nino and the Gulf Stream. Although unseen and from afar these ponderous processes have the power to send millions in Maryland scurrying for umbrellas and spare batteries. Just like when you throw a rock into a pond it sends out all those waves you got a big splash there South America where El Nino is and then all these ripples moving the storms and jet streams all over the globe. And that does have an effect in Maryland when we have El Nino six thousand miles away. It's not a good winter when El Nino happens in Maryland.

Another NASA's scientist who's no stranger to the effects of planet scale systems on Maryland is meteorologist Marshall Shepherd. Of the Chesapeake Bay area experiences a hurricanes from time to time in fact Hurricane Isabel was a monster a storm I was without power for five days myself. Hurricane Isabel with one of the most well-studied storms in history has affected its face. We actually monitor Hurricane Isabel as it moved off the coast of Africa all the way across the Atlantic Ocean using our radios satellite instruments aircraft and computer models. We actually are able to take CAT scans look inside the storm pop the hood if you will to see the hurricane engine by looking at the rainfall in clouds using our satellite. This gives us information on intensification problems right now intensity forecast of the holy grail of hurricane forecasting. We're pretty good with track forecasts and intensity forecasts are still a mystery and so by looking inside the storm we can learn more about the powerful engine

process even the hurricane and we can also monitor things like the wind patterns the jet stream patterns and whether there is an El Nino that might impact the severity of a hurricane season. The power intensity and rainfall of hurricanes have a direct impact on Maryland. There are many hazards of hurricanes one of the most dangerous aspects of the storm is the inland flooding both from the surge as well as the heavy amount of rainfall with the storm. The inland flooding and precipitation can be a very serious hazard especially for us here in Maryland. Nice oceanographer Jean Carl Feldman begins his global ocean studies with its microscopic life in one of Earth's most fundamental forms phytoplankton. For most of the world's oceans the color of the ocean is related to the amount of these microscopic little plants called phytoplankton phytoplankton a really key indicator of the health of this planet. When they bloom in really really large numbers. They literally turn the ocean a different color and we can see that from space.

NASA's scientists have tracked huge plankton beams from around the world. Including the giant blue moon the Louisiana coast which annually results in a massive oxygen depleted dead zone. Appearing as red. Similar dead zones exist in the Chesapeake Bay. As a result of too many nutrients and runoff. And that oxygen decreases to a low enough level you get these things called dead zones where we there's not enough oxygen to support the fish the crabs the oysters anything that lives in the water. And what's happened over the last 50 years is that these dead zones have gotten bigger the oxygen levels have gotten lower and they last longer. So life on this planet and life in the oceans exists in a very delicate balance with the physical environment. And any time that balance is upset you can have serious consequences. Atmospheric scientist and Thompson also studies global imbalance ozone pollution in the lower atmosphere.

It's called that I was I don't know if the amounts that are at the surface where we're breathing get above about 100 parts per billion. Nasha has tracked ozone pollution in Maryland and around the world including the tropics caused by biomass burning unregulated Urban Development and natural lightning in the U.S. ozone is regulated by the EPA and Maryland frequently has code red violations of the ozone standards in 2004. Dr. Thompson and an international team of scientists tracked ozone pollution migrating from the North Atlantic to Europe. The research will help local scientists recognise conditions causing code red alerts so that we can understand the processes and when you understand. You also then get the power to predict from ocean depths to turbulent surface to outer space. NASA's Earth scientist and artist provide an unmatched window on planetary processes driving the day by day

passage of our lives. The character of a people living close to the land is shaped by the land for farming planning fields worked by his grandmother or father dust on the blues as a second skin. Right in the Chesapeake Bay watershed farmlands are increasingly recognized as Bull works against a rising sea of concrete land trusts are playing a vital role helping government agencies protect cultural lands forests wetlands open space wildlife habitat and fertile farmland to assist in that effort. The Chesapeake Bay program a state and federal partnership to restore the Chesapeake Bay has recently conducted a resource land assessment of the Bay watershed. Conservation organizations can use this color coded overlay mapping to target the

most valuable and vulnerable lands for protection. The Chesapeake Bay program views land conservation as key to improving the bay's water quality. Peter Clegg It is land that a manager with the US Geological Survey at the Chesapeake Bay program. Most of the land in the test be bad a watershed is privately owned and a lot of the large tracts of that land are owned by farmers so farmers are a really important target audience when you're concerned about conservation. Watershed protection begins across state lines with the head waters of the Chesapeake Bay in the mountains of West Virginia. Prime agricultural land along the last good cape and river has been preserved forever due in large part to the efforts of one small land trust. Capen River is one of the three largest tributaries of atomic. So we're actually of the railhead waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Nancy Ailes is executive director and the only paid staff of the capen and

lost Rivers Land Trust. A membership organization focusing on agricultural and forest lands. The economic backbone of this region. Nancy runs the land trust from the Home Office. Today. Nancy's headed for one of her favorite spots the Rudolph farm for which she negotiated a land conservation easement conservation is meant as a legal agreement. It's recorded in a courthouse with a deed and it runs in perpetuity with the land. And basically it preserves the conservation values on the land. Typically the restrictions would include limited building of buildings and also limited subdivision of the property. Property owners may sell their easement for cash where funds are available or more commonly donate the easement for potential tax relief. In either case the landowner always retains the deed while the land trust holds the easement in trust and is responsible for monitoring it. Land conservationists win because the watershed

is protected. Property owners win because they can now afford not to sell out to developers. In this case Nancy put together a partnership of federal and state funders. It was the first conservation easement in the state of West Virginia to be signed using farm land protection program funds. Our family's been a valley here for. All by. The early early on. Now that the generations come and. So we've been we've been out a long time. Jacques Rudolph Jr. splits his time between farming and teaching high school science. I consider myself every bit as much a farmer as I do a teacher. Now this is all this this whole farm as you see yours is protected by the easement. There's 265 acres here. It's kind of hard to get all the picture but. As far as you can see until you get to the ridges over there that's that's all part of it all the meadow down through there and the trees. You become part of the land and then all the sudden development is not just down the road or false in Virginia.

The Beltway. Next. Can be houses that could be motor. It be all that you start to ask yourself that question and wonder what we could do to keep that from happening. The beautiful part about about this is that it's like having your cake and eat it too. We have a farm. We can farm it and do all the things we've always wanted to do and improve we raise our cattle and there's not one thing. About. The land being the trust that interferes that. In fact the land will be under the easement sections of badly eroded to keep the river bank to be stabilized. If we went for water level to the top of that bank you're talking probably 10 feet. So when you start taken salt out 10 feet deep. And this problem exists for probably a good 80 yards through here it's a huge amount of sediment silt going into the river and and really that's the problems on both ends that's problems for the folks in the Chesapeake Bay and all that and it's big problems for us because we're losing valuable farmland gent's brother Mike Rudolph

farms the land full time if you want to preserve the lands I just plain say Dad I have a start on it today. Life is uncertain how to start all of the day because once the land's gone you never get it back. Like clear cut sort of right in the middle of that 30 200 acres that they're developing on that mountain said that. What matters is if the land gets protected. Their share we have three other farms that we receive farmland Protection Program funds for. They're just down the river each one of them has a family member back each one of them wants to protect it but it's because of this example that that happened. 200 miles away close to the bay shores the eastern shore land conservancy del mar his largest has ensured the title farm lands deep in history will be preserved as such forever. Peter Clegg at the Chesapeake Bay program explains. We've zoomed in now to a portion of the eastern shore between the Chester river and the Corsica river to the south. This peninsula in the middle is where the woods farm property

as you can see here in this color scheme is that the greener areas particularly these wetlands along the shoreline and these forested areas along the Rye Perrin's and all those areas that are of the highest water quality protection value. Both farms have farm conservation easements on them so they're protected from development. They go back in our family many generations to a land grant from Lord Baltimore. Sixteen sixty seven so I'm a tenth generation and my children are 11. For James Daugherty Wood and his father Howard with a third of the value of their farms is priceless. That long history is important to me and I want to share with my family and my kids sure we could sell these three hundred forty three acres and. If we had to but you couldn't buy that same three hundred forty three back for me I mean is the fruits of. Signing away development rights on prime riverfront property favorably change the property

tax structure. Decades ago. How would would have championed the cause of land conservation and conservation easements before it had become fashionable to do so. He was a Harvard lawyer who had come back to the land and was a country lawyer. That is I had an office in federal. Practiced law. For about 42 years. I thought it was a wonderful concept to limit the number of houses that could be built on a property own a lovely waterfront property especially. How it became a founding board member of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. His standing in the community helped him convince others of the urgent need to preserve the land. Inspired by his conservation ethic the family has also developed forests wetlands and meadow buffers between crop lands and the river improving the quality of the water that runs off the farm into the river into the Chesapeake Bay. Many

landowners. Have a deep deep commitment to their land and it's the job of the land conservancy to. Help them find ways to manifest that commitment. Rabbit Ken is executive director of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy conservation easements are often a terrific way to help landowners. Achieve their long term goals which is the keep their land open and available for farming and wildlife and to help protect the test Big Bang. Dan feller has spent the last 15 years working in some of the most beautiful and undisturbed areas of western memory. Much of Dan's research is a DNR

biologist has been dedicated to the study of a little known not too new resident of this mountainous region. The Allegheny River. What routes are different from other rats the Norway in the black rat that you associate with cities. They have white feet white bellies and white robes. I was once told that I would rather live in places with a view. Let's have a room with a view. There are generally areas in the forest that are devoid of trees. Cliffs. Boulder Strohm hillside limestone caves but it always has some kind of geologic component and there are always beautiful places. In 1990 we decided to take a closer look at the Allegheny with red population in Maryland. Since it had declined in state to the north of us we did that by finding rock outcrops throughout the state where they may occur and then visiting those sites to monitor the would rat population then sets

trap lines of tracking sites like this one in Garrett County would rent nests or bury deep within the narrow crevices of these rocky outcrops. The one thing that wood rats can't resist is peanut butter and it's so. You bail little bit of the trap. And if any wood rats are around we will most likely catch him because they are trapping animals. As the sun rises on a new day Dan and fellow DNR biologist Ed Thompson returned to investigate. Well so far 11 traps and it would rats yet we usually. Have quite a few by now not a good start. What trap assists but I'm working up to 19. Yeah. I don't. All right I see what you got. Yeah finally. He's a typical large don't mail. He's got some are cowards. Real white just like our white belly

white by colored tail I really distinguishes him from. The right to find in a city. With precision and care. Ed and Dan tattoo the wood rats ears a tracking method that allows them to identify and follow the wood rats movements from year to year. We set 23 traps yesterday came back this morning we caught one wood rat. That's not a good capture rate for a site like this. Three months later Dan travels to Dan's rock the highest point in Allegheny County and home to a colony of wood rats. Here he sets another trap line. Hopefully this site will yield better results. A lot of wood rats this place over the years. Under the cover of darkness. DAN returns to check the line diverse and rugged terrain with only a small flashlight to guide him. Dan makes his way along narrow cliff edges. This night proves more successful. He discovers wood

rats in three of the traps. One rats for a wild animal are actually quite docile and friendly. It's rather amazing. Sometimes I just release them and they'll come back and check out a couple minutes later the next morning. Dan makes his way to another would grab habitat Fort Hill one of Maryland's best remaining examples of limestone forest in the world. Here's amid. Fresh. Definitely. A work in progress. Another name for wood rats or common to people is a worm pack rat and there are well known and for this simply because they collect. All kinds of varied items and stash them in a big pile in the middle. One thing I don't like seeing in this maiden there is there are some traces here for feces. That's not a good thing. This guy can become infected with the raccoon round worm. Along with the loss of the American chestnut and increasing fragmentation of the forest my

overdevelopment and the decline of the Allegheny wood has also been attributed to rock and roll more of a lethal parasite found in the feces of Brecon. When Dan has sent us samples from Maryland a quarter to a third of those are infected with brown worm in Pennsylvania. We only see maybe five to 10 percent. Dr. Janet Wright is a research biologist and professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle Pennsylvania. Janet and her students have spent the past 12 years researching why the Allegheny wood bred population is declining every now and then. When we're out on the roads we pick up road kill raccoons. This is actually from one animal and that's what the alligator would read it's picking up is the eggs of this worm. You can see circling behavior strange kinds of disorientation and what threats that have been infested with the roundworm. We know for sure that raccoon round worm kills Allegheny

wood bats The question is whether it's sufficiently prevalent to really be causing the decline of wood rats in some areas. In an effort to understand why wood rats are in decline. Janet and her students tracked the movements and activities of healthy would rat populations through radio tracking. If we go out on a typical radio tracking we know which wood rats we're looking for because we've previously put radio collars on them and they each have a unique frequency so we can pick them up we can and they're calling us. But you're converging on Plymouth Rock and I'm not surprised because Rock is one of our best Would rather than sight. I'd love to see it downstairs because it must be quite a place. I work for the variety of wildlife and there's nothing really like alligator would bad. They are our very own wildlife.

I think border rats are one of the more important species. Or kind of a. Poster boy for wilderness areas. They really do define wilderness. For a species like that. Culling is a way of monitoring those areas to make sure that they're OK. When you lose something like that it's like losing the will Nature isn't valid. Drop into our website at W W W dog MP t dog o r

g. You send us your comments and suggestions. From mountains to Marsh. Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural beauty on our website. Dno are inspired by nature guided by science outdoors Maryland is made by NPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members. Thank you.