Fish And Wildlife

Public land next to the Severna Park home of a top Department of Natural Resources official is being landscaped under a state grant written by his wife and approved by one of his employees. Michael Slattery, the assistant secretary who oversees the Forest Service, and his wife, Britt, a one-time U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, are actively involved in the two-year project. A $5,800 grant and $12,000 worth of volunteer labor and nonmonetary contributions are paying for the work, according to the application filed with DNR. The project involves shoring up a slope, removing non-native vegetation and replacing it with more than 500 native plants on a 30-foot-wide strip of land between the Slatterys' backyard and the popular B&A Trail, a former rail bed that runs from Glen Burnie to Annapolis.

Bills in the U.S. House and Senate could provide more than $31 million per year in federal funds for coastal protection and restoration projects, outdoor recreation, environmental education and fish and wildlife conservation.The bills (HR 701 and S 25) propose to reallocate federal funds raised from offshore oil and gas development. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Maryland Republican, and Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski are among the sponsors.For the most part, programs for fish and game species -- rockfish, deer, turkey, for example -- are paid for with funds raised through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and excise taxes collected on the sale of hunting and fishing equipment.

Opponents of a plan to dump 18 million cubic yards of silt and mud in open waters near the Bay Bridge were buoyed yesterday to learn that a key federal agency -- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- has gone on record against the dredging proposal.In a strongly worded letter Monday to the Army Corps of Engineers, fish and wildlife officials criticized a draft environmental impact statement for "errors, omissions, inconsistencies and apparent bias."The letter, addressed to the Corps of Engineers' regional office in Baltimore, also threatened to take the issue before the Council on Environmental Quality, which arbitrates policy disputes among federal regulatory agencies.

WASHINGTON -- The bald eagle is about to soar off the endangered species list.The majestic national bird was emblematic of how America poisoned its environment when it nearly disappeared from the lower 48 states 35 years ago. Now its recovery symbolizes how the nation can solve its ecological problems, experts said.With hoopla befitting a national symbol's recovery, the Clinton administration will announce its proposal to take the bald eagle off the critical list on or near the Fourth of July, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said.

In a first for Maryland, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has struck a deal with a Queen Anne's County developer to set aside land to protect the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel.Developer Maureen Waterman has agreed to set aside a patch of forest at his 16-house Home Port development west of Queenstown, post 15 mph speed limits throughout the 63-acre site and conserve 31 acres of forest about a mile away as habitat for the squirrel, which once was common but now is found in only a handful of places on the Eastern Shore.

Just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, hidden about a mile back in the thick woods south of the Patuxent River, is a multimillion-dollar building that is one of the metropolitan area's best kept secrets.The National Wildlife Visitor Center, on the southern border of Fort Meade, is suburban Maryland's answer to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It focuses on the endangered animals that make the 12,750-acre Patuxent Research Refuge their home and on what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the researchers at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center are doing to save them.

Just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, hidden about a mile back in the thick woods south of the Patuxent River, is a multimillion-dollar building that is one of the metropolitan area's best kept secrets.The National Wildlife Visitor Center, on the southern border of Fort Meade, is suburban Maryland's answer to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It focuses on the endangered animals that make the 12,750-acre Patuxent Research Refuge their home and on what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the researchers at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, in one corner of the refuge, are doing to save them.

A rare squirrel that has found a haven in a few Maryland counties' dwindling forests has triggered a legal battle that could shape the face of development in parts of the Eastern Shore.Defenders of Wildlife, a Washington-based conservation group, filed a federal court case yesterday accusing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to protect the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel from creeping development.The lawsuit focuses on a development proposed for the banks of Winchester Creek in Queen Anne's County.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers effort to dispose of silt dredged from Chesapeake Bay shipping channels has resulted in a mile-long "whoops."Silt taken from an approach channel to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal has ended up in the wrong place -- not in the underwater canyon selected to receive it, but to the south of that, beyond an underwater barricade meant to keep it away from some favorite fishing spots off Pooles Island.The 367,000 cubic yards of dredging debris -- enough to fill Oriole Park at Camden Yards almost to the top of the right field wall -- now coats a one-mile-long, quarter-mile-wide stretch of bay bottom with a layer of silt about 9 to 15 inches thick, said spokesman Rich Chlan of the corps' Philadelphia district.

State and federal officials plan to start restoring Poplar Island in the Chesapeake Bay next month to serve as a wildlife refuge and dredge deposit site, with final approval expected today from the state Board of Public Works.The board's approval would finalize a private corporation's sale of four remaining fragments of the eroding island to the state. The Maryland Port Administration, with federal assistance, plans to replenish the former resort using mud and silt scooped from the port of Baltimore shipping channels.

We are starting a new feature, "Ask Outdoors Girl," where my alter ego will find answers to your questions: historical, cultural, legal, epistemological. You may call it lazy. I call it a way to responsibly clean out my e-mail account. We'll kick it off here this week and then move online next week. If you have questions, e-mail them to me and Outdoors Girl will begin the search. George Sennett of Baltimore writes: "Where is Diamond Jim? The fish worth $20,000 must be in the [Chesapeake]

The federal agency that regulates energy approved a proposal yesterday to build a natural gas terminal on the site of the former Sparrows Point shipyard in eastern Baltimore County, rejecting nearly three years' worth of opposition from area elected officials and the project's would-be neighbors. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission acted on the proposal - which also includes construction of an 88-mile pipeline to Pennsylvania - despite calls from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Maryland's congressional delegation to postpone the vote.

In its final weeks, the Bush administration is pushing changes that could decimate threatened Chesapeake Bay wildlife, along with 1,353 at-risk species across the nation. The Interior Department posted a proposal over the summer for sweeping changes to the 35-year-old Endangered Species Act. They would eliminate mandatory scientific review by experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service of all federally approved development projects that might affect endangered plants or animals.

Maybe sports figures were always this stupid and we just didn't notice, or maybe so many of them are getting airtime now that their foolishness is on display. The most recent prizewinner for idiocy is pro golfer Tripp Isenhour, who was filming a TV show with the ominously prescient name Shot Like a Pro in December at a golf course in Orlando, Fla. It seems a red-shouldered hawk, a protected migratory species, was squawking loud enough to interrupt Isenhour's filming, so the 39-year-old pro zinged golf shots at the hawk - and eventually succeeded in hitting and killing the bird.

SALT LAKE CITY-- --Well, how smart am I? Leave Baltimore on Wednesday with the temperature pinning the nastymeter at the century mark and the humidity high enough to make licking the flap of an envelope unnecessary. Land here, where the temperature is a refreshing 96. Luckily, the gig that brings me to the land of Romney is the Outdoor Retailer trade show, where those who require the latest and greatest - not to mention the most-expensive - toys meet the manufacturers of said devices in an unholy marketing marriage.

Public land next to the Severna Park home of a top Department of Natural Resources official is being landscaped under a state grant written by his wife and approved by one of his employees. Michael Slattery, the assistant secretary who oversees the Forest Service, and his wife, Britt, a one-time U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, are actively involved in the two-year project. A $5,800 grant and $12,000 worth of volunteer labor and nonmonetary contributions are paying for the work, according to the application filed with DNR. The project involves shoring up a slope, removing non-native vegetation and replacing it with more than 500 native plants on a 30-foot-wide strip of land between the Slatterys' backyard and the popular B&A Trail, a former rail bed that runs from Glen Burnie to Annapolis.

Richard Maurice of Street spied a flock of geese late last month, very high and headed south, but oddly late for their fall migration. He asked: "Do you think it's possible they waited until it finally turned cold before they continued on their journey?" Good call. Holiday Obrecht, a refuge biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said mild weather, open water and ready food sources allowed some flocks to pause well north of their usual wintering grounds. When it turned cold, they resumed their flight south.

Exhibit opening -- DeMatteis Gallery, 209 West St. in Annapolis, will mark the opening of its new exhibit Status X with a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow. The one-woman show by Gail Hillow Watkins runs through Jan. 15 and is named for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designation for extinct species. Proceeds from the sale of Watkin's artwork will benefit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. 410-757-5385.

Federal wildlife officials are investigating whether three Crisfield crab processors, watermen and others in the Maryland and Virginia seafood industry have been involved in the widespread sale of undersized soft-shell crabs - possibly marketing the young blue crabs on Internet sites. Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, backed by Maryland Natural Resources Police and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, raided the three crab houses Sept. 7, authorities confirmed yesterday.

Michael E. Slattery Occupation Assistant secretary for forests, parks, fish and wildlife at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. In the News Slattery was behind the decision to withdraw a proposal that would have allowed commercial fishermen to take yellow perch from two Eastern Shore rivers. After hearing public outcry over the proposal, Slattery said he would rather open up a dialogue on managing the once-scarce species. Career highlights Slattery, 41, graduated from the University of Virginia in 1986 with a degree in biology and environmental sciences.