Savage River

For 15 white-water slalom canoe-kayak competitors, the journey to the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, will begin in Western Maryland.Garrett County's Savage River was designated yesterday as the site of the U.S. white-water team trials, to be held May 16-17.More than 100 paddlers are expected to compete for the 15 Olympic slots in men's singles and doubles canoe, and men's and women's singles kayak."We think it's the best river in the country for having these white-water races," said Bill Endicott, U.S. Canoe and Kayak Team head coach.

The 2014 Canoe Slalom World Championships will be held Sept. 16-21 in Western Maryland. The International Canoe Federation has awarded the event to Adventure Sports Center International over competing entries from Vienna, Austria and Krakow, Poland. ASCI, located in Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, is home to the world's only mountaintop man-made whitewater course and has taken more than 44,000 people paddling since it opened in 2007. The championships will return to the United States for the first time since 1989, when they were held on the Savage River, also in Garrett County.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is proposing changes in non-tidal fishing regulations for 1991 that would provide additional put-and-take trout fishing areas and further protect the state's wild brook and brown trout populations.The proposals would create 10 additional trout stocking areas in a total of eight counties, including three among Howard, Prince George's and Montgomery counties and a catch-and-release area restricted to the use of artificial lures at Gunpowder Falls.

The state Board of Public Works approved yesterday spending nearly $5.4 million to buy more than 4,000 acres of marsh, shoreline and river-front land as the first step in a drive to protect natural lands.Of the six properties being acquired, five are on the Eastern Shore and have a blend of waterfowl and rare plants.Three, totaling 2,400 acres, border Fishing Bay in Dorchester County; a 335-acre property is on the Nanticoke River in Caroline County; and the fifth is a 990-acre farm in Kent County.

The Maryland General Assembly has protected one of the oldest and most pristine oak forests left in the Appalachian region, and has encouraged scientists to prospect for botanical medicines in the steep, secluded woods, under a deal struck by conservationists and Garrett County legislators. Two 2,000-acre stands of oaks, hemlocks, maple and beech in Savage River State Forest have been designated as "wildlands," forever off-limits to most kinds of human alteration, including logging and trail-building.

NAMES AND PLACES* The Fall Maryland RV Show, said to be the largest recreational vehicle expo on the East Coast, continues through Sunday at the Timonium Fairgrounds. More than 85 brand names will be on display. Discount tickets are available from Maryland RV dealers. The show opens at noon daily. For more information, call (410) 687-7200.* Starting Oct. 1, fees will be charged for camping at Savage River and Potomac-Garrett state forests in Garrett County. There will be a $2 charge for regular campsites and $5 for group sites.

A Pennsylvania company is asking the O'Malley administration for leases in two Western Maryland state forests so it can clear up to 400 mountaintop acres to build about 100 wind turbines. The U.S. Wind Force structures would be about 40 stories tall and visible from some of the region's most popular tourist areas, including Deep Creek Lake and the Savage River Reservoir.

Can't anyone at the top of the Department of Natural Resources take responsibility for closing off public land in Savage River State Forest? With all the skulking and mysteriously appearing pronouncements on the agency Web site, what at first seemed to be a minor matter has blossomed into a full-scale exhibit of state government at its worst. Hunters all over the state are in an uproar and want answers. State lawmakers such as Garrett County's Senator-elect George Edwards want an explanation.

With ominous global warming accelerating year after year, why can't Maryland construct a single clean-energy wind farm within its borders? Gov. Martin O'Malley's blue-ribbon commission says we must get off fossil fuel very soon. But our state - one of the most vulnerable in America to global warming and one of the most politically liberal - can't achieve even the baby step of a single commercial wind farm. What's the problem? West Virginia has dozens of wind turbines; Pennsylvania even more.

If the lower Savage River is the star of Maryland's trout program in Allegany and Garrett counties, then the North Branch of the Potomac River and the Casselman River play the lead supporting roles.The North Branch of the Potomac, from the town of Luke in Allegany County upstream to the dam at Jennings Randolph Lake, once was considered nearly dead because of pollutants produced by industries upriver.Since 1987, West Virginia and Maryland aggressively have stocked the river with thousands of trout annually, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has regulated the flow and quality of water released from the Jennings Randolph dam.The result has been a near-miraculous recovery of the river, which now is the largest trout stream in Maryland, with average widths of more than 100 feet.