Here's hoping DNR officials (I won't say at the highest level because that would be a cheap joke) will embrace a "live and let live" philosophy for those who are discreet, so that a camping couple sipping wine with their spaghetti won't find their wrists in plastic cuffs as officers upend their ice-filled Coleman.
Maybe cooler heads will prevail.
In other news
Good news:: NRP finally has a class of 18 officer-candidates at the training academy, only the second class since 2002.
Bad news:: About 12 officers retire each year and nearly 70 officers are eligible to retire right now.
Good news:: The General Assembly is considering bills to toughen penalties on fish poaching.
Bad news:: "Until you have people to enforce laws, they're just words on paper," says Andy Hughes of Coastal Conservation Association Maryland.
Good news: : DNR has a Memo of Understanding with State Police over the use of Medevac helicopters that includes "pre-planned" law enforcement.
Bad news:: "The MOU is a feel-good document, but when you look at it, it has holes in it," says Wildlife Advisory Commission chairman Wilson Freeland. "We're not going to see State Police helicopters out there patrolling the waterways. They're going to be waiting at the hangar for a medical call."
Good news:: The state hopes to get $500,000 in federal money to buy more "talking buoys" for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.
Bad news:: "That's not going to do you a lick of good if your boat is capsizing and there's no one to come and get you," says WAC member Chris Dollar. "You will know the temperature and salinity, though."
