Jabez

Two conservation groups are asking the state and county to spend $1 million or more to buy as much woods along Jabez Branch as possible to prevent its development and to further efforts to re-establish trout in the tributary to the Severn River.The Severn River Association and the Severn River Commission have sent letters to state and county officials, asking them to buy the land in order to keep South Shore Development Co. from building 78 houses on the 141.68-acre Holladay Park tract near Millersville.

Right now, there are worse things than being a Maryland brook trout, I suppose. A Republican strategist. A Ford salesman. A Detroit Lions fan. At some point, presumably, all of the humans will bounce back. But the clock is running down on the fate of Salvelinus fontinalis. Study after study show brook trout are in trouble through no fault of their own. Brookies love cold water, clear water and lots of little critters floating by to eat. But overdevelopment, loss of buffers and habitat, and climate change are proving to be the trifecta of doom.

For the first time in more than six years, wild baby trout are darting about the left fork of the Jabez Branch, proof that years of trying to revive the stream's trout population have not been in vain.A team of Maryland Department of Natural Resources fish experts, armed with cameras and nets, confirmed the finding yesterday. The timing couldn't be better for environmental activists lobbying to preserve the Jabez ecosystem."Tomorrow is my birthday -- this is the best present," environmental activist Lina Vlavianos said yesterday.

On January 1, 2004, HELEN (nee Lanocha) beloved wife of the late Jabez E. Hook; devoted mother of Jabez M. Hook of Somervill, NJ and Frances E. Avallone of Forest Hill, MD; dear mother-in -law of Carol Hook and Richard Avallone; loving grandmother of Laura and Luis Mercado, Natalie and Joshua White and Amy Avallone; loving great-grandmother of Daniel Jabez Mercado; dear sister of William Lanocha, Anna Colley and Irene Hunter. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the Schimunek Funeral Home of Bel Air, Inc., 610 W. MacPhail Rd, (at Rt 24)

State and county officials say they will try to buy an easement along the Jabez Branch to help protect brook trout living in the environmentally sensitive stream.The decision followed an hourlong meeting Friday between the officials and the owner of Holladay Park, a 141-acre tract that abuts the Jabez. South Shore Development Co., a family business that owns the tract, wants to build a housing development on the land.In question is which part of Holladay Park will be sold. Officials want to define the area they consider most crucial to protecting the fish.

County Executive Robert R. Neall has joined the effort to preserve Jabez Branch, a small, endangered trout stream near Gambrills.In May, Neall publicly ordered county attorneys to throw the book at a Hog Farm Road property owner for illegally dumping raw sewage on the stream's banks. Earlier this week, the county sued the owner, demandinghe remove a pile of junk cars and storage tanks as well.More quietly, Neall has promised to take steps to prevent uncontrolled development from consuming Jabez, the last naturally occurring brook trout stream in the area from Southern Maryland to Harford County.

State officials are wondering whether to gamble $1 million to ** try to save the remaining trout in Jabez Branch, when further restoration efforts may be needed.The larger question is not only whether the Department of Natural Resources should buy all or some of the forested 141.68-acre Holladay Park, whose owners hope to build 78 homes, but also what should happen to the rest of the undeveloped land around the Jabez.The shallow stream near Millersville was the state's southernmost wild native trout creek before runoff from highway construction and new houses killed the fish in the late 1980s.

Yesterday's trek along the Jabez Branch left state officials cold but ecstatic at finding more trout in one small section of the stream than they found in a three-mile section last year.Environmentalists pointed to the change as further reason for the state to move quickly to protect the sensitive habitat."What people want to hear is whether the Jabez Branch has any hope, is it worth saving. What I saw today -- this is hope," said fish biologist Charlie R. Gougeon, a regional fisheries manager with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Besieged by activists who want them to protect trout in the environmentally sensitive Jabez Branch, state and county officials will start talking to a local developer today about buying all or part of the land he owns next to the stream."

State officials and environmentalists cheered yesterday when they found 10 brook trout in the Jabez Branch, survivors of about 300 wild fish relocated in recent years to the shallow Severn River tributary."

In the clear, shallow water, the wiggling fish are easy to pick out. These are not just any small fry, though. These are the first brook trout in at least a decade to hatch in the right fork of the Jabez Branch.State biologists and conservationists traipsing along the snow-covered stream banks Friday could not contain their excitement. They found an estimated 60 fish -- a week or 2 old -- in this nearly 1,900-foot-long section of the meandering creek near Gambrills in Anne Arundel County.

The state agreed yesterday to preserve more than 15 acres of dense woods around the Jabez Branch to protect the only wild brook trout population in Maryland's coastal plain.The Board of Public Works approved $312,080 for a conservation easement on land around the meandering creek in the west-central part of Anne Arundel County, Department of Natural Resources officials said.This is the second conservation easement this year to preserve the recently restarted fish population in what experts in 1996 hailed as a model restoration project.

Nitrogen removal plant to be built at facilityThe state Board of Public Works has issued a $400,000 grant for construction of a nitrogen removal plant at the Patuxent Reclamation Facility.In addition to the state grant, the county is contributing $557,350. Future state funding is estimated at $100,000 for a total project cost of $1,057,350. Construction should be completed by January.This project will help reduce nutrient discharges into the Patuxent River and contribute to achieving Maryland's goal of a 40 percent reduction in nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay by the year 2000.

A construction project is under way along the wooded Jabez Branch near Gambrills. A backhoe snorts in the mud. Chain saws snarl. And the tank-like tracks of a bulldozer march along the banks.But the developers here aren't building houses for people. They're making a bedroom community for brook trout.At the site of the only remaining trout-breeding stream in Maryland south of Baltimore, Anne Arundel County and state workers are sinking tree roots into the water to act as fish shelters, repairing eroded stream banks and stopping the flow of hot and oily runoff from nearby highways.

A construction project is under way along the wooded Jabez Branch near Gambrills. A backhoe snorts in the mud. Chain saws snarl. And the tanklike tracks of a bulldozer march along the banks.But the developers here aren't building houses for people. They're making a bedroom community for brook trout.At the site of the only remaining trout-breeding stream in Maryland south of Baltimore, Anne Arundel County and state workers are sinking tree roots into the water to act as fish shelters, repairing eroded stream banks and stopping the flow of hot and oily runoff from nearby highways.

Dozens of newly hatched trout are darting about the Jabez Branch, swimming proof that a stream can be brought back to life.Astounded state biologists counted 61 swim-up fry, or recently hatched trout, last week, the result of a large effort to repair environmental damage in a stream where the wild trout population disappeared six years ago.The figure is more than three times the number of fry biologists saw a year ago and confirmation that environmental rescue...

Jubilant biologists found a record number of brook trout yesterday in the Jabez Branch in Anne Arundel County, a sign of success in their efforts to bring back a fish population wiped out by road construction.Forty-nine of the fish had been born in the shallow meandering stream this year. Only 41 trout were found in 1986, before road work threatened the stream.The Jabez was the last natural brook trout stream in the Maryland coastal plain and the state's southernmost wild native trout creek until runoff from highway construction and new houses killed off the fish by 1990.

In the clear, shallow water, the wiggling fish are easy to pick out. These are not just any small fry, though. These are the first brook trout in at least a decade to hatch in the right fork of the Jabez Branch.State biologists and conservationists traipsing along the snow-covered stream banks Friday could not contain their excitement. They found an estimated 60 fish -- a week or 2 old -- in this nearly 1,900-foot-long section of the meandering creek near Gambrills in Anne Arundel County.

The Naval Academy is on the verge of shutting down its 856-acre dairy farm in Gambrills, a move that likely will lead to a battle among the Navy and community and environmental groups over plans to replace it.Developers have long eyed the tract, just minutes from Interstate 97, with easy access to Baltimore and Washington. Navy and Anne Arundel County officials floated a plan in May 1994 for golf courses, athletic fields, nature trails, picnic pavilions, an indoor swimming pool and county offices.

YOU WOULD THINK they'd just saved Flipper and his children judging from the way biologists went all giddy this week after finding 57 brook trout in the Jabez Branch, that piddling little creek that runs near Route 97 in Anne Arundel County. So what, you ask. Why should anyone care about 57 fish too little to make a decent snack even if you ate them all at once? And why is the state spending our money to protect the unimpressive waterway that is their home?Like most disputes over flora and fauna, this one looks like a hullabaloo over nothing to some people.