Outdoors Maryland

Programming Year 2005

Episodes: 1711 | 1710 | 1709 | 1708 | 1707 | 1706 | 1705 | 1704 | 1703 | 1702 | 1701

Episode 1711

Part of Sixties Week on MPT
Premiere air date: September 27th at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday, October 1, 2005 5:30am and 5:30pm

Saving Bay Country
In the early 1960s, the environment was so tainted with pollutants that some ecosystems and habitats were in danger of imminent collapse. Species like the Bald Eagle were headed for extinction. Those worries ushered in the birth of a national environmental movement that has spawned efforts to clean the air, land and water through legislation and grassroots effort. In this segment, a look back at the movement's birth, and its evolution to the present.

Planet Chesapeake
There are more Natural Scientists working with the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, than anywhere else in the world. Using data from the Earth Observing System of satellites, scientists are compiling multi-spectral data on topics that directly influence the climate and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay watershed: sea surface temperature, deep ocean temperature, rainfall, hurricane anatomy, sea level rise -- and an array of other fascinating subjects. Using stunning, state-of-the-art NASA animations of earth processes interwoven with interviews from key scientists (including NASA and DNR) about the impact of select findings on our region; this segment looks at the Chesapeake on a planetary scale.

Trust in the Land
In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, farmlands are increasingly recognized as bulwarks 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, is helping to identify land that could be set aside.

Episode 1710
Premiere air date: May 24th at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday, May 28, 2005 05:30am and 5:30pm

Maryland Public Television's "Chesapeake Crossroads" an original Outdoors Maryland special edition, tells the story of the Chesapeake's past, present and possible future through the eyes of people whose cultures and livelihoods are threatened with extinction. They are people like crabbers, oystermen and pound net fishermen people whose way of life in the Chesapeake region is nearly gone as the Bay's health continues to fail. Through the telling of their stories, "Chesapeake Crossroads" explores some of the complex political, ecological and social issues that have pushed the Chesapeake Bay to a metaphorical crossroads where the Chesapeake Bay's destiny will ultimately be determined.

Episode 1709
Premiere air date: Tuesday March 29th at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday April 2nd at both 5:30am and 5:30pm

Colonel Lee's Birdhouse
Driving north across the Francis Scott Key Bridge, looking south, it's the hexagonal chunk of brown granite poking its head above the dancing chop of the Patapsco River- - a landmark that many-a-time has inspired the question, "What is that?"

It's Fort Carroll, the built-like-a-tank outpost begun in 1847 to stop dead-in-its-tracks any attempt to invade the thriving 19th century port city of Baltimore. U.S. Army Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee (yes, that Robert E. Lee) had high hopes for the fort when he oversaw much of its construction. But Fort Carroll never saw action and was never even completed, thanks to several twists of fate. Now, the Fort seems to have found a noble, albeit unusual occupation: it's become home to a world-class colonial nesting bird rookery, the most diverse colony of species within 100 miles. There is a problem, though: the trees that make up the rookery's nesting cradles may be threatening Fort Carroll's structural integrity. But, the offending trees can't be cut because state law protects the rookery.

The quandary: save the Fort, or keep the birds? DNR Ecologists Dave Brinker and Jim McKann visit the fort to learn more.

Episode 1708
Premiere air date: Tuesday March 22nd at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday March 26th at both 5:30am and 5:30pm

Planet Chesapeake
There are more Natural Scientists working with the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland than anywhere else in the world. Using data from the Earth Observing System of satellites, scientists are compiling multi-spectral data on topics that directly influence the climate and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay watershed: sea surface temperature, deep ocean temperature, rainfall, hurricane anatomy, sea level rise, and an array of other fascinating subjects. Using stunning, state-of-the-art NASA animations of earth processes interwoven with interviews from key scientists (including NASA and DNR) about the impact of select findings on our region; this segment looks at the Chesapeake on a planetary scale.

Rat's Room with a View
Hidden in the extremely rough and rocky terrain of the Catoctin Mountains of west central Maryland lives the woodrat. The woodrat is an indicator species that tells scientists a lot about the health of another species that lives in the mountains—the timber rattler. Dan Feller from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources climbs high, rocky outcrops to trap, tag, examine and release the woodrats, whose lives tell much more than their own story.

Episode 1707
Premiere air date: Tuesday March 15th at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday March 19th at 5:30am

Spawning Hopes
At the turn of the 20th century, oyster harvests from the Chesapeake Bay numbering in the millions of bushels were commonplace. Last year. Harvests approached just 23,000 bushels. So, when it comes to the on-going public controversy concerning the Asian oyster versus the native oyster, nothing less than the destiny of the Chesapeake Bay hangs in the balance. The oyster is more than a commodity. It is responsible for filtering the Chesapeake's water. Without this enormous filtering capacity, the Chesapeake has become polluted and is now on the verge of collapse as a fishery. This segment explores the latest efforts of scientists and policymakers as they attempt to determine whether or not to release the Asian Oyster, keep the native Chesapeake Bay oyster in place or wait until more studies are completed.

Piercing the Forest
On the steep and rocky slopes of the Western Maryland mountains, one man walks the deep, dark forests with an eye out for a mysterious and elusive bird called the Goshawk. DNR wildlife biologist Dave Brinker's mission: to track down what he believes to be the only nesting pair of Goshawks in the state, fit the birds with expensive tracking transmitters, and return them to the safety of their treetop nests.

Episode 1706
Premiere airdate: March 1, 2005 at 7:30pm
Repeats Saturday, March 5th, at 5:30am

Night Falls Swiftly
Every autumn, as surely as the swallows return to Capistrano, thousands of chimney swifts come to roost near sunset in a huge old chimney in the Hampden section of Baltimore City. Birders with the Baltimore Bird Club have tracked the flock for years—this urban site is one of the top ten for chimney swifts in the Eastern U.S. The story of how these birds have abandoned forest for human-built chimneys in a matter of a century or two remains a puzzle of the natural world.

Related Links

Baltimore Bird Club
Guide trips to see spring and fall migrations and Swift Night Out.
www.BaltimoreBIrdClub.org

Driftwood Wildlife Association
LiveCam: Chimney swifts nesting in spring, and roosting during fall migration
www.concentric.net/~Dwa

Maryland Ornithological Society
www.MDBirds.org

A Leg Up
For some people with disabilities, life's difficulties are magnified by their inability to enjoy nature's beauty. In Howard County, however, a stable of very special horses stand at the ready to offer these individual improved health and happiness.

Billfisher's Heaven
The White Marlin is considered by anglers as one of the top game fish in the world. Fishing for the billfish brings millions of dollars in tourism revenue to Maryland alone...but that could change. Researchers have warned that the White Marlin may soon be listed as a Threatened Species. Scientists have learned that the numbers of the fish have dropped. Now, the DNR sets out on a day-long expedition to the Gulf Stream waters of the Baltimore Canyon 70 miles each of Ocean City at the height of the Marlin season. Their mission: to see for themselves just how prevalent White Marlins are.

Episode 1705
Premiere airdate: February 15, 2005 at 7:30pm
Repeats Thursday February 17th at 5:30am
Saturday February 19th at 5:30pm

A Sparrow's Return
The largest land set-aside deal in Maryland's history has created a living laboratory in Kent County on Maryland's eastern shore. 5200-acre Chino Farms is now home to a number of natural resource experiments that include restoring an ancient prairie and the Sparrows that once lived there. Dr. Doug Gill has a Massachusetts M.D. to thank for his success at Chino Farms, Henry Sears, who continued to buy up the Chester River waterfront property with the sole goal of preserving it forever for the people of Maryland.

Last Stand at Shady Side
They say it was Tropical Storm Agnes in '72 that started the long, slow decline of the Chesapeake and the way of life of so many watermen who fished the bay. Then MSX and Dermo infected the oyster bars and the water got worse. The grasses started to disappear from the bottom and then the crabs and fish left, too. Now, watermen from the Chesapeake's western shore have gathered together in a small town called Shady Side to see if the Chesapeake and their way of life can be saved.

Search for the Saw-whet
DNR ecologist Dave Brinker travels the state in an effort to locate, capture, tag and release as many of these tiny owls as he can. Brinker's annual census of the bird will help resource management officials track the population and migration numbers of this important species.

Episode 1704
Premiere airdate: February 1, 2005 at 7:30pm
Repeats Thursday February 3rd at 5:30am
Saturday February 5th at 5:30pm

An Exotic Challenge
This tiny species of Deer, which lives exclusively on Maryland's Eastern Shore, is the focus of wildlife enthusiasts for its unusual habits in the wild.

Mother Nature's Cops
They're out there. On the land, sea and air, Maryland Department of Natural Resources police are on the job, 24 hours a day, defending the state's resources against problems---from neglect, to lack of respect to outright criminal behavior.

Hope on the Slope
Snow lovers take to the slopes in search of winter thrills in the mountains of Western Maryland.

Episode 1703
Premiere airdate November 30, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.

Island Reborn
During the past 150 years wind and water have claimed more than 10,000 acres of habitat in the Chesapeake Bay. The soil has been swallowed up by storms and a rising sea level. This erosion has caused huge problems for the Port of Baltimore as it tries to keep its busy shipping channels open. Each year the Maryland Port Administration dredges several million cubic yards of mud from its winding waterways in the Chesapeake Bay. Until recently, there was debate and controversy about what to do with this dredged material. Now the Port believes it has found the answer. It's bringing back to life an island that was once an important fixture in the Chesapeake Bay. The past is literally being dug up from the Bay's clogged waterways to restore an island that shrank from 1200 acres in 1847 to five scattered tiny islands in the early 90's.

It's called Poplar Island. Erosion has taken its toll there. By the mid 1990's the island had all but disappeared. Gone were any remnants of early colonial history. Gone were the hunters, the politicians and the bootleggers that used this island as a haven. Houses, trees and finally the land dissolved into the bay.

But what nature took away, man is now rebuilding in an effort to help protect the environment. "Island Reborn" will look at and document the rebuilding of Poplar Island. It tells the history of the old island from the colonial settlers to the days when Roosevelt and Truman went hunting there with political colleagues. The program explores the engineering, science and technology being used to build the new island into a wildlife sanctuary, and it answers the question of why this unique project is a good development for the environment.

The reclamation of Poplar Island is one of the largest projects of its kind. It's an ambitious undertaking as the Maryland Port Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers attempt to reverse and reshape nature's course. "Island Reborn" shows how the island is alreadybecoming a wildlife oasis, and it looks at the larger lessons to be learned in how the busy ports around the world can clear their channels for shipping as well as help the environment by creating new habitat.

Episode 1702
Premiere airdate November 23, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.

Clear to the Bottom
The water of Chesapeake Bay must be clean and clear enough for sunlight to reach the bottom if sub-aquatic grasses are to grow. These grasses, or SAVs as they are known, are critical living components of the bay's ecology. They serve many functions, but perhaps the most important is their role as a living, protective nursery for young aquatic animals like fish and crabs that are vulnerable to predation. For now, the water isn't clean enough in most parts of the Chesapeake - scientists say it won't be - until filter feeders like oysters return in high enough numbers to filter sediment and excess nutrients. Yet, in an attempt to stay ahead of schedule in the hope that one day soon the Chesapeake's waters will again be clean enough for widespread growth of grasses, scientists are experimenting with a variety of methods to replant grass beds that could help to speed recovery of the Chesapeake Bay.

Brush and Feather
He's a soft-spoken, thoughtful man who's spent his years carefully watching the birds of Chesapeake Bay. As a young man, John Taylor's passion for birds drove him to the artist's canvas of self-expression, and led to his life as a popular and successful Chesapeake Bay artist and conservationist.

Spring's Wings
The delicate flutter of the butterfly marks the beginning of Spring -- and triggers a new season of passionate "hunting" among butterfly lovers. Richard Smith, Maryland's reigning expert on Lepidoptera -- the butterfly's scientific name -- travels the state with expertsfrom the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in search of species common and rare, with the hope of getting a fix on how Maryland's butterfly population is faring.

Episode 1701
Premiere airdate November 16, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.

Autumn Promise
There aren't many Whooping Cranes left alive in the world. That's why the work of scientists at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland is so important. They're teaching baby cranes to migrate each autumn from Wisconsin to Florida - by following a small, ultralight airplane - in the long-term hope that the birds will breed and expand their numbers.

Out of the Woods
Black Bears and people have been running into each for a long time in Western Maryland. White pioneers who first settled the mountains feared the occasional bear because of the species' insatiable appetite for anything edible - including settlers' hard-earned crops. Back then, there were few people living in the mountains. Now, with more numbers of people vacationing and moving to mountain tourist destinations like Deep Creek Lake, encounters between people and bears are growing in number.

A Soaring Success
The fact that a Brown Pelican looks like a Pterydactl hasn't hurt its reputation or popularity with birdwatchers. People are fascinated by them, and
Marylanders are especially lucky. Maryland Department of Natural Resources Ecologist Dave Brinker - who tracks the species' population along Maryland's Chesapeake Bay -- says that the number of pelicans has grown quite a bit over the last few years. The birds didn't even nest in Maryland until 1987, but now they are thriving and its comeback and expansion is considered a conservation success.