Delmarva Peninsula

Trapped in a steel cage barely big enough to hold her, the large squirrel was not happy, pawing at the bars and trying them with her teeth. Matt Whitbeck and Cherry Keller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were glad to see her, though. The furry gray prisoner, released after being weighed and checked, offered yet another sign that the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, once vanishingly rare, has come back. This supersized, reputedly shy member of the squirrel family now is considered fully recovered, according to federal wildlife officials.

Trapped in a steel cage barely big enough to hold her, the large squirrel was not happy, pawing at the bars and trying them with her teeth. Matt Whitbeck and Cherry Keller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were glad to see her, though. The furry gray prisoner, released after being weighed and checked, offered yet another sign that the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, once vanishingly rare, has come back. This supersized, reputedly shy member of the squirrel family now is considered fully recovered, according to federal wildlife officials.

William Potter Dukes, a former educator who established a magazine in the late 1970s devoted to the culture and way of life of the Delmarva Peninsula, died Friday of pulmonary fibrosis at Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The longtime Denton resident was 71. Mr. Dukes was born in Baltimore and raised on Wickford Road in Roland Park. He attended Friends School and then transferred to Severn School in order to prepare himself for entrance to the Naval Academy. At the academy, he studied electrical engineering and planned to become a Navy pilot.

Hurricane Sandy is a category 2 storm with 105 mph winds, and though it will be weaker than that five days from now, it could wreak havoc anywhere from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod, an increasing number of models are showing. The storm is still nearing the Bahamas, but as the days pass and forecasters continue to run various models, a track to the north is still among the potential scenarios. It's also possible the storm will stay out to sea, but as time goes on, it's more models that are predicting a serious East Coast impact, not fewer.

Charles Norris "Scorchy" Tawes, a former roving reporter and photographer for WBOC-TV who traveled the back roads, villages and towns of the Delmarva Peninsula recording the life stories of the folks he met along the way, died Monday of cardiovascular disease at the Alice Byrd Tawes Nursing Home in Crisfield. He was 86. Mr. Tawes was an accomplished fisherman, and the Scorchy Tawes Pro-Am Fishing Tournament was named after him. He began his television career in 1975 at WBOC in Salisbury, giving an outdoors and fishing report.

SALISBURY -- Open the door of a stained-glass chapel at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and hear the sound of change on the Eastern Shore -- in Spanish.The priest is Salvadoran. The parishioner strumming the guitar is from Mexico. And the singing worshipers' home countries make up a virtual map of Latin America: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico and more.In only a few years, Spanish-speaking immigrants have become a presence across the Delmarva Peninsula.

OCEAN PINES - Billed as a retirement haven at its founding 32 years ago, Ocean Pines is beginning its final surge of development as a magnet for aging baby boomers. The same demographic bubble is fueling similar growth up and down the Delmarva Peninsula. A few miles north of Ocean Pines, a Virginia-based company is moving ahead with plans for a 2,900-unit golf course community straddling the Maryland-Delaware border. At the southern tip of Delmarva, in Cape Charles, Va., construction has begun on a 1,700-acre golf resort community that many believe is a first step in transforming the backwater into a suburb of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, located 45 minutes away via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Hank Walter in Phoenix asks why the temperature in Salisbury is often 10 degrees lower than the surrounding areas: "In the mornings, the temperature there is usually as cold as it is in York, Pa." I've heard that before. Best guess: Salisbury, at the center of the Delmarva Peninsula, cools more at night because it's farther than nearby towns from the moderating influences of the bay and ocean.

BERLIN -- Eddie Davis, a harness racing legend on the Delmarva Peninsula, notched the 5,500th victory of his sulky career last night at Delmarva Downs, driving D T Star to victory in a $5,500 Maryland Race Fund event.Davis, 49, of Smyrna got away second with the 2-year-old Bonebreaker gelding, then moved to the lead down the backstretch and drew clear to win handily in 2 minutes, 4 4/5 seconds. Don Trivits of Salisbury owns and trains D T Star.

Drugstore giant Rite Aid Corp. will expand on Maryland's Eastern Shore and double its presence in Delaware by acquiring Edgehill Drugs Inc., the largest drugstore chain on the Delmarva Peninsula, Rite Aid said yesterday.The nation's third-largest drugstore operator, with more than $12 billion in annual sales, said it will add privately owned Edgehill's 25 stores to its empire.Rite Aid did not disclose the purchase price. The company is scheduled to close the deal March 2 and expects the acquisition to add to earnings starting with the first quarter of fiscal year 2000.

Millions of tons of one of theChesapeake Bay'slargest sources of pollution continue to be dumped onto farm lands without proper regulation. Farm animals produce 44 million tons of manure annually in the bay watershed, and most of it is collected and disposed of on farmland - or left where it falls. This ranks the bay region in the top 10 percent in the nation for manure-related nitrogen runoff, and the problem of proper management of this waste is exacerbated by the fact that three highly concentrated animal feeding operation areas contribute more than 90 percent of the manure.

Hank Walter in Phoenix asks why the temperature in Salisbury is often 10 degrees lower than the surrounding areas: "In the mornings, the temperature there is usually as cold as it is in York, Pa." I've heard that before. Best guess: Salisbury, at the center of the Delmarva Peninsula, cools more at night because it's farther than nearby towns from the moderating influences of the bay and ocean.

Anyone who's ever driven behind a truck hauling chickens knows to expect a powerful odor and even a few feathers in its wake. But poultry carriers also apparently trail an airborne plume of potentially harmful bacteria, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers. The results suggest that motorists and those who live along roads traveled by chicken trucks may be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the researchers say. They urged further study and possibly changing transport methods in areas of intense poultry production such as the Delmarva Peninsula.

William Potter Dukes, a former educator who established a magazine in the late 1970s devoted to the culture and way of life of the Delmarva Peninsula, died Friday of pulmonary fibrosis at Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The longtime Denton resident was 71. Mr. Dukes was born in Baltimore and raised on Wickford Road in Roland Park. He attended Friends School and then transferred to Severn School in order to prepare himself for entrance to the Naval Academy. At the academy, he studied electrical engineering and planned to become a Navy pilot.

The Chesapeake Bay, where we learned to swim, fish and crab, is dying. And despite millions of taxpayer dollars spent on research and reporting, there has been little action to hold polluters accountable for poisoning our beloved bay. Drive around the country roads of the Delmarva Peninsula and you will find the leading source of the desecration of the bay and its estuarine tributaries: toxic animal waste piled outside chicken houses, sprayed over fields...

Charles Norris "Scorchy" Tawes, a former roving reporter and photographer for WBOC-TV who traveled the back roads, villages and towns of the Delmarva Peninsula recording the life stories of the folks he met along the way, died Monday of cardiovascular disease at the Alice Byrd Tawes Nursing Home in Crisfield. He was 86. Mr. Tawes was an accomplished fisherman, and the Scorchy Tawes Pro-Am Fishing Tournament was named after him. He began his television career in 1975 at WBOC in Salisbury, giving an outdoors and fishing report.

Perdue Farms Inc., the giant Salisbury-based chicken processor, has teamed with a small Missouri-based company to build the first Eastern Shore factory that will convert chicken manure into pelletized fertilizer.The $6 million project, which could receive funding from the state, is designed to help rid the Delmarva Peninsula of excess poultry litter in an environmentally friendly manner.In announcing the initiative, James A. Perdue, chairman of the nation's third-largest poultry processor, said that "both poultry and crop producers are faced with increasing environmental mandates on farming; our goal is to help keep farming viable on the Delmarva Peninsula."

Millions of tons of one of theChesapeake Bay'slargest sources of pollution continue to be dumped onto farm lands without proper regulation. Farm animals produce 44 million tons of manure annually in the bay watershed, and most of it is collected and disposed of on farmland - or left where it falls. This ranks the bay region in the top 10 percent in the nation for manure-related nitrogen runoff, and the problem of proper management of this waste is exacerbated by the fact that three highly concentrated animal feeding operation areas contribute more than 90 percent of the manure.

Crossing the Bay Bridge to Kent Island is frequently a tiresome exercise in fighting traffic congestion, but the first exit from the bridge puts you on the road to a peaceful weekend walk. Exit 37 leads to Log Canoe Circle and the modest entrance to Terrapin Nature Park, a 279-acre preserve with 4,000 feet of beach, woods and a great view of the Bay Bridge. It is one of 33 places that Jay Abercrombie recommends in his Weekend Walks on the Delmarva Peninsula (The Countryman Press, $15.95)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that Perdue Farms has agreed to review the operations of its contract chicken farmers to help them minimize the runoff of manure into Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The program, called the Clean Bays Agreement, does not introduce new pollution regulations or cleanup requirements, and it does not take away responsibility from environmental agencies, said Jon Capacasa, director of the water protection division for EPA's Mid-Atlantic region.