Outdoors Maryland

Programming Year 2006

Episodes: 1904 | 1903 | 1902 | 1901
1808 | 1807 | 1806 | 1805 | 1804 | 1803 | 1802 | 1801

Episode 1904
Premiere air date: November 28, 2006 at 7:30pm

Spawning Hopes: An Update
An update on the latest efforts to find an answer to the question surrounding the native-versus-Asian oyster controversy.

Episode 1903
Premiere air date: November 21, 2006 at 7:30pm

The Breeding Birds' Atlas
Dr. Chandler Robbins and other dedicated bird enthusiasts are in the process of conducting field counts of Maryland's birds to complete the latest Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The reference book and its data are critical to researchers' bird population projections in the state.

To Horse and Away The ancient tradition of fox chasing is alive and well in the rolling green hills and farm fields of Carroll County.

Quicksilver Quandary
Scientists and wildlife biologists explore the problem of mercury in Maryland's finfish - and what it means to public health.

Episode 1902
Premiere air date: November 14, 2006 at 7:30pm

The Best Days of Our Lives:
The Centennial of Maryland State Forests and Parks
A 30-minute documentary exploring the first 100 years of Maryland's forest and parks.

Episode 1901
Premiere air date: November 7, 2006 at 7:30pm

Rainbow Rare
A High School teacher and his students from the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C. make a rare discovery as they gather together in their after-school nature club.

The Rockfish Question
Fishermen and scientists are finding Rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay that have lesions on them, and researchers are searching for an explanation.

Island Crusader
Salisbury resident Steven White tries to stop the waters of the Chesapeake Bay from to eroding Holland Island.

Episode 1808
Premiere air date: February 28, 2006 at 7:30pm

In the Clear
A look into fine particulate matter air pollutants in the region and their health impact on people.

Sport of Kings
Peregrine Falcons are trained to hunt game for their handlers, much like they have since medieval times. These "wolves of the sky" hunt together, much like wolfpacks stalk their prey.

Driving the Shell
For many years the public has imagined only limited recreational uses for the Patapsco River. A great place to crab, but you wouldn't want to swim in some parts of it. Boaters have had no qualms using the branches of the Patapsco as a road to the Bay. But if you look carefully along the banks of the river, you'll see evidence of the revival of a sport that once flourished in Baltimore's watery back yard: boathouses that serve as the headquarters for a number of rowing clubs, including the Baltimore Rowing Club.

Episode 1807
Premiere air date: February 21, 2006 at 7:30pm

Along the River
The Bush River in northeastern Maryland is facing many of the same challenges that rivers in other parts of the state, and the nation, must deal with. Rising population, growing infrastructure and more sediment and pollutants runoff into the river, degrading its quality. A look at the river's natural system, and practices and policies that resourceful public officials are implementing to protect the Bush River.

The Road Show
There's the tiny Eastern Screech Owl that was found, injured, on a roadside. And the Black Vulture that was rescued as a chick from a burning barn in Havre De Grace. There're the Owls - Barn, Bard, Great Horned and Short-eared; the Turkey Vulture with a missing toe; the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle, and the osprey, hawks and falcons. They make up the bird portion of a company of "performers" that's half of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Scales 'n Tales program, a unique, traveling zoo that helps to educate people about the state's different species of birds. The other half that finds its way with the birds to schools, birthday parties, county fairs and other venues, are a collection of snakes that round out the complement of players.

Spanning Time
Born as an ingenious solution to a vexing engineering problem, covered bridges still survive throughout Maryland as touchstones to our past. Six covered bridges have survived across the state, transforming small vignettes of Maryland landscapes into something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Episode 1806
Premiere air date: February 14, 2006 at 7:30pm

Outdoors Maryland: Working Lands
Working Lands explores some of the many challenges facing Maryland farmers in a state where farmland is being lost each day to development, and looks at some of the new strategies to maintain active, environmentally-friendly agriculture in Maryland.

Episode 1805
Premiere air date: February 7, 2006 at 7:30pm

The Keystone Harvest
A closer look at the controversy swirling around the fishing of Menhaden, an important finfish species, in the Chesapeake Bay.

Shot and Clay
In the end, it's split-second timing that means the difference between hitting or missing. For trap shooters, smoking the bird makes all of the practice and preparation worth it.

The Humble Catch
Many people cut their fishing teeth on the scaly critter called the Yellow Perch. Once plentiful, DNR biologists now worriedly suspect the number of Yellow Perch in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries is falling. That's prompted the agency to ply Maryland waters in search of an answer.

Episode 1804
Premiere air date: November 22, 2005 at 7:30pm

To Horse and Away
The ancient tradition of fox chasing is alive and well in the rolling green hills and farm fields of Carroll County.

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

Lifting the Hand of Man
The draining of the Florida Everglades…the taming of the mighty Mississippi River…construction of the great dune line of the Outer Banks: the power of man's ability to manipulate nature and rebuild it to suit his needs is proven. Now, after decades of re-engineering the environment, researchers and government alike are beginning to see the wisdom of restoring ecosystems - such as when Virginia's Embry Dam was destroyed in 2004 to partially return the Rappahannock river to its natural state.

Episode 1803
Premiere air date: November 15, 2005 at 7:30pm

The Hidden World
A diverse collection of volunteers walks and wades through Maryland's thousands of streams each year, collecting data that ultimately tells the story of the state's water quality.

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.

Saving Bay Country
Many say the modern environmental movement was born with the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." Four decades have passed. Is the environmental movement still on course?

Episode 1802
Premiere air date: November 8, 2005 at 7:30pm

Bayscaping
A grassroots movement is making its way across Maryland. It's an environmental movement called Bayscaping that encourages the use of native plants and gardening techniques that helps to restore the Chesapeake Bay. The best news: anyone can help improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay with Bayscaping.

An Exotic Challenge
The Sika a 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.

Chesapeake Inspiration
The beauty of the Chesapeake Bay has inspired artists for centuries. Here, three artists - two of them writers and the other a photographer, are profiled.

Episode 1801
Premiere air date: November 1, 2005 at 7:30pm

Ponies on the Edge
The Assateague Island pony herd has been roaming the island for centuries - no one knows for sure just how long. One thing that is known by federal wildlife manager on the island is that the herd is too large and in some ways is damaging the tender Assateague ecology. Now, officials are taking action to reduce the size of the herd.

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.

Million Dollar Lure
Somewhere out there, in the world's largest estuary known as the Chesapeake Bay, swims a fish that's worth a million dollars. The reason: the number of people who fish the bay is down. So, officials of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources knew that a good way to bring them back is with a water-borne sweepstakes.