Dnr

I'd like to defend the Department of Natural Resources in their actions concerning the recent rescue by two men of a deer trapped in the ice in the Patapsco. There seems to be a lot of public outrage against them, and they deserve a defense. The "N" in DNR stands for "natural," from its root "nature. " It is perfectly natural for deer to get trapped in the ice and die. What is unnatural is for animal lovers to try to save them. It is not in any sense of the word "inhumane" to let the deer die in their natural environment.

Gov. Martin O'Malley picked an Annapolis veteran Thursday to oversee the waning years of his administration, appointing as chief of staff a man who has worked under four governors and earned respect in the environmental community for his candor. Department of Natural Resources Secretary John R. Griffin will take over for the final 18 months of O'Malley's administration, as the governor decides whether to set his sights on the White House and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown launches a campaign to succeed O'Malley.

Property owners in Harford County with streams or creeks on their land are eligible to receive a free package of seedling trees through a new program designed to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Known as the Backyard Buffers Program, it seeks to increase the number of soil-penetrating trees along bay tributaries on small properties. For years, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service has organized the planting of trees on large properties as a way to establish forested areas with root systems capable of holding soil in place and preventing erosion, but many properties where erosion is a problem are relatively small and don't lend themselves to large-scale tree plantings.

Gov. Martin O'Malley on Thursday named the head of Department of Natural Resources as his new chief of staff. John R. Griffin, 66, will take over for Matthew Gallagher, who will leave the administration at the end of May to lead the Goldseker Foundation . O'Malley described Griffin as "  the heart and soul of Maryland's environmental agenda" in a release announcing the appointment.  Griffin began in the Department of Natural resources...

Eric Schwaab, the deputy secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, has been tapped by the Obama administration to run the National Marine Fisheries Service. Schwaab, a 23-year veteran at DNR, begins his new duties Tuesday as assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In announcing his appointment on Wednesday, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco noted Schwaab's "experience and proven leadership" and said he would bring "fresh perspective" to NOAA's effort to rebuild the nation's fisheries and the livelihoods that depend on them.

The Department of Natural Resources has delayed a decision on reopening the commercial gill net season in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Top agency officials met Friday to review the investigation into the eight poaching incidents that began in late January and forced the closure of the season on Feb. 4. They will take the issue up again next week, said DNR spokesman Josh Davidsburg. But time is running out on the commercial season, which is set to close at the end of the month and not reopen until December.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources only cares about killing animals, not saving them ( "Rescuers fined after freeing deer caught in Patapsco ice," Dec. 19). Most of them are avid hunters or staunch supporters of hunting. Hiking groups, nature groups and biking groups are getting sick and tired of the dangerous hunting season getting longer and longer each year. My hiking club has to change hiking plans more and more frequently because of hunting. Tree stands and hunters are everywhere.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is suggesting lesser increases in boat registration than was proposed last month in the General Assembly. Under the department's amendment, registration every two years would cost: $25 for boats under 16 feet; $50 for boats under 21 feet; $75 for boats under 32 feet; $100 for boats under 45 feet; $200 for boats up to 65 feet; and $300 for boats more than 65 feet long. The new fee levels would start in 2013. Boat registration, regardless of vessel size, currently costs $24 every two years.

An outcry of protests by some Maryland hunters upset about the substantial fee increase for yearly licenses has led to the Department of Natural Resources restructuring the proposal being considered by lawmakers. According to Paul Peditto, the DNR's director of Wildlife and Heritage Services, the increase has been scaled back in a way to make it more "family friendly" and to encourage junior hunters to get their licenses. Under the initial increase that is part of House Bill 1419, state residents would have had the cost of their annual licenses increase from $24.50, plus separate stamps for bowhunting and muzzloading privileges, to as much as $95 for a consolidated license.

Eric Schwaab, the deputy secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, has been tapped by the Obama administration to run the National Marine Fisheries Service. Schwaab, a 23-year veteran at DNR, begins his new duties Tuesday as assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In announcing his appointment on Wednesday, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco noted Schwaab's "experience and proven leadership" and said he would bring "fresh perspective" to the agency's effort to rebuild the nation's fisheries and the livelihoods that depend on them.

Since 1998, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has taught more than 32,000 students in 1,200 classroom programs about the Chesapeake Bay, coastal and bay marine life, as well as the state's streams through its Teaching Environmental Awareness in Maryland (TEAM) program. DNR officials are looking for volunteers who want to learn about the program and then teach it to children in third through eighth grades in the state. Volunteers must be 18 years old and be able to provide their own transportation.

Annual stream survey Wednesday : Mark Staley of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Gunpowder riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur will discuss the results of the DNR's annual stream survey and report on the state of the Gunpowder River. The 7:30p.m. meeting is presented by Maryland Trout Unlimited at Towson Presbyterian Church, 400 W. Chesapeake Ave. in Towson. Free and open to the public. Information: MDTU.COM. Snow tracks Saturday: Learn what animals might be telling us with their footprints.

A 546-acre deer hunting area that opened in Anne Arundel County shortly after Thanksgiving and will close at the end of January has seen only seven deer taken so far, according to the deer project leader for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But the small number of deer killed by hunters at the Crownsville Cooperative Wildlife Management Area doesn't surprise Brian Eyler. "It normally takes a year or two for new areas to catch on," Eyler said. The hunting area in Crownsville opened Nov. 26, two days after the start of the deer firearm season, and will close when the bowhunting season ends Jan. 31. Deer hunting only is permitted there, and the program will follow the guidelines for bag limits in the 2012-2013 Guide to Hunting and Trapping in Maryland.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will take part in National Hunting and Fishing Day with a program at the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore on Sept. 22. It marks the sixth year the DNR will be a part of the national day that was mandated by Congress in 1972, and the first year it will be held at the Marriottsville club. According to Patricia Handy, the DNR's information and education program manager, a crowd of between 600 and 1,000 has come to the event, which was held for five years on the Eastern Shore.

Department of Natural Resoruces Police started a third day's search early Thursday for a 52-year-old boater missing and presumed dead in Middle River creek. As divers stopped searching Wednesday, another body was located in the Chester River across the Chesapeake Bay, according to DNR police. The first person was separated from his boat in the Frog Mortar Creek Tuesday afternoon, said Sgt. Brian Albert, a DNR Police spokesman. Neither the man nor the body had been identified as of Thursday morning.

More crabs to catch and fewer rules by which to catch 'em. That'd be the Holy Grail for Chesapeake watermen. It's why top crabbers in Maryland, from Havre de Grace to Smith Island, have been traveling monthly, for the past 18 months, to long and sometimes contentious meetings with state regulators. Their Blue Crab Design Team is a unique and immensely hopeful development in the long history of harvesting the bay's seafood. I give watermen and Maryland's Department of Natural Resources lots of credit for trying it. The goal is to break with the commercial fisheries management that's been traditional here and other places - regulators trying to make it harder to fish for watermen who in turn try to fish harder.

Since the Department of Natural Resources needs additional funds to dredge our Maryland waterways, they should first strictly enforce registration in Maryland of all those Pennsylvania and Delaware boats residing for the season in the many Eastern Shore marinas from Chesapeake City southward to Rock Hall and beyond. All one has to do is walk those docks to see the preponderance of out of state boats (with no Maryland registration decals) using our state's waterways but not paying their fair share of maintaining them.

At a hearing last week in Annapolis on legislation that would prohibit the Department of Natural Resources from creating oyster sanctuaries, state Sen. Richard F. Colburn , the Eastern Shore Republican who sponsored it, asked repeatedly, "How did DNR draw the lines?" In the never-ending quest to answer such questions, Outdoors Girl has torn back the curtain of transparency to find out just how state officials chose which parts of the Chesapeake Bay would be set aside for the multimillion-dollar program to put oysters where they ain't.

Fish making the spring spawning run from the Chesapeake Bay upstream into the Patapsco River swim about 11 miles of cool, shallow, flowing water before hitting a concrete wall nearly three stories high: the Bloede Dam. The wildlife obstacle and human safety hazard has stood for more than a century in Patapsco Valley State Park, but its days could be numbered. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is continuing a years-long effort to clear the Patapsco of dams that have outlived their original industrial uses and now turns its attention to Bloede.