State Forest

From: Chris HellerArnoldI've been growing very wary of an organization such as the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which was originally set up to take charge of issues such as our Maryland forests. The DNR has been selling state forest land timber, when it's charged with protecting and preserving state forest lands.When in 1982 President Reagan cut federal funds to DNR by $1.7 million, DNR appeared to be supplementing its own budget by increasing sales of timber on public lands.In the 10-year period from 1983-1992, more than 15 percent of the state's forests will have been cut. However, less than 4 percent of Maryland's total timber production is taken from public lands, so why does thetimber industry claim this logging is so significant to local economies?

Gilman quarterback Darius Jennings looked completely relaxed as he stepped up to the podium Wednesday morning to announce where he will play college football. The hottest football prospect in the Baltimore area’s 2011 class grinned and said, “I’ve decided to stay another year, play for Gilman, be a fifth-year senior.” Once the laughter died down, Jennings tapped out his own fanfare on the dais and then pulled out a dark blue baseball cap with a big white V sitting atop crossed orange swords.

After a year of increasing acrimony, state forestry officials an environmental activists are nearing agreement on the contentious issue of cutting down trees in state forests.Under the expected agreement, citizen activists would be given more information and more say on where trees are cut down. The state and forest industry would resume logging with less controversy and more predictability.After a brief halt last year, the state Department of Natural Resources has announced that it plans 22 separate sales of timber cut from state forests between now and July 1. That compares to nine in all of last year.

Amid the oaks and hickories of the Green Ridge State Forest, a 46,000-acre tract of wooded slopes and stream valleys in Western Maryland, all may not be as idyllic and remote from the ills of modern civilization as geography might suggest. In a statement, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said it charged 10 people with drug violations on a recent Saturday. In addition the agency said, during the first nine months of this year, it made more than 120 arrests on charges of illegal drug use. In response, Natural Resources Police said, it will begin an enhanced enforcement effort to curtail illegal drug activity in the forest, about a two-hour drive from the Baltimore area.

GRANTSVILLE -- State officials are weighing two business ventures that would create badly needed jobs in Garrett County but also would require unusual private use of publicly owned forest.In one venture, James Oberhaus, a Frostburg businessman and his partner, Patriot Mining Co. of Morgantown, W.Va., are seeking state approval for coal-mining deep underneath 498 acres in Potomac-Garrett State Forest in southern Garrett County.Mr. Oberhaus proposes leasing the tract from the state. In exchange, he would give Maryland a highly sought 216-acre tract next to Savage River State Forest in the northeastern part of the county, as well as mineral rights to another 2,800 acres in the forest and royalties from coal mined at the leased site.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - One of the legacies of Pennsylvania's long-ago fascination with the atom will finally be cleaned up.In 1955, as part of a large-scale effort to lure nuclear development to Pennsylvania, state officials agreed to provide land for a nuclear research and manufacturing center.To be called Quehanna, the development was to employ 7,000.Instead, the site - 45 miles northwest of State College in the Black Moshannon State Forest - became an abandoned low-level radioactive-waste dump.

PUZZLEY RUN -- Deep in a state forest near this Garrett County stream, a fluorescent pink ribbon marks the spot where local officials hope to find the water to supply a growing community and spur economic development in one of the poorest regions of Maryland. But the ribbon is attached to a metal stake driven into the ground under a hemlock tree in a Sensitive Management Area in Savage River State Forest, where a state management plan prohibits "resource extraction." Changes in that plan require public comment, yet the state Department of Natural Resources has granted the nearby town of Grantsville permission to drill a test well on the site without asking for public opinion.

In a forest near Easton, a one-of-a-kind creature lurks in the seasonal ponds created each spring by rainfall and melting snow. Most people would have a hard time spotting the Seth Forest water scavenger beetle. Researchers familiar with the shiny, black, gnat-sized insect spent six years just nailing down the range of its habitat. "It's not an easy thing to find or keep track of," said James M. McCann, the Maryland state zoologist who helped identify the beetle. After years of study, McCann and other wildlife experts officially designated the beetle as a new species last fall and classified it as endangered.

It was on a doctor's orders almost 25 years ago that Phil Iapalucci started walking through South Jersey's Pinelands to relieve stress. Ever since then, the Moorestown, N.J., lawyer, 61, has spent most of his spare time roaming the region known for its serene forests of pine and oak, exceptional flora and tea-colored streams. These days, Iapalucci said, it seems that everywhere he turns in the forests, he is faced with the unmistakable work of all-terrain vehicles. "I try to avoid taking people out here now because I get so angry," said Iapalucci, the Outdoor Club of South Jersey's hiking leader, on an excursion to Wharton State Forest, which covers parts of Burlington, Camden and Atlantic Counties.

The 35-year-old turkey hunter who was fatally shot by his hunting partner Saturday in Green Ridge State Forest has been identified as Stamos Courpas of Fairfax, Va., according to the Department of Natural Resources. Two other hunters were wounded in unrelated shooting mishaps over the weekend, a third was injured in a fall from a tree, and another apparently got lost in a state forest. Courpas, a software engineer who emigrated from Greece to earn degrees from Loyola College in Maryland, had been a hunter for several years and was out last weekend with Charles Lepovetski of Ranson, W.Va.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to announce today that his administration will prohibit the construction of wind turbines in Maryland's state forests and parks, according to administration sources. The decision ends a hotly protested proposal by a Pennsylvania company to clear about 400 mountaintop acres in two Western Maryland state forests to build 100 wind turbines. O'Malley is scheduled to announce his decision this morning atop a scenic mountain overlook in Savage River State Forest that would have been altered by 40-story windmills.

Business and political leaders in Western Maryland's Garrett County are lining up against a proposal to allow the clearing of up to 400 mountaintop acres of state forest for the construction of 40-story wind turbines. With a pair of public hearings scheduled this week, Garrett's Chamber of Commerce, Board of Realtors, Democratic Central Committee and Republican state delegate and senator have come out against the proposal to use two state forests in the county for wind farms. So has the mayor of the town of Oakland.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will hold public hearings next month on whether the state should allow developers to build wind turbines in state forests, a proposal being advanced by a Pennsylvania company. U.S. Wind Force is asking the state for leases in Potomac State Forest and Savage River State Forest in Western Maryland so it can clear about 400 mountaintop acres and raise about 100 wind turbines. The machines would be about 40 stories tall and would be visible from some of the region's most popular recreation areas, including Deep Creek Lake and the Savage River Reservoir.

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.

The skeletal remains found in a state forest in Cecil County on Saturday have been identified as those of an elderly man who had been missing for more than two years, state police said yesterday. Using dental records, the state medical examiner determined the remains to be those of Robert Abramowicz of the 900 block of Irishtown Road in North East, state police said. On Saturday, a hunter walking through a ravine in the Elk Neck State Forest near Irishtown Road found the remains; the site is about a mile from Abramowicz's home.

Back in 1981, when longtime forester Len Wrabel and his wife, Marikay, moved into their Westminster home, it sat on an empty cornfield. Not uncommon for Carroll County in those days. After all, it has more than a century's history of farming. But today, the Wrabels, who run an environmental consulting service, have 55 species of native trees growing on their 2.5 acres, and they've planted 900 additional trees on a neighbor's property. They are one of many families, developers and forestry officials who are trying to bulk up Carroll County's 70,000 acres of forests for the good of their own water and that of the Chesapeake Bay, polluted by chemical runoff that would otherwise be stopped by trees.

NORTH EAST - State Forest and Park Service officials announced yesterday that the public swimming area at Elk Neck State Park in Cecil County has reopened. The area was closed last Friday after high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria were detected in the North East River side of the park. The state reopened the swimming area after county health department workers retested the water and found that the levels of bacteria had subsided.

ANNAPOLIS -- Despite protests by conservation groups, the Board of Public Works approved yesterday the harvesting of about 350 acres of trees from state-owned forests in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore.The timber sale involved a total of eight sites in Western Maryland's Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County, Potomac-Garrett State Forest and Savage River State Forest in Garrett County, and one in the Wicomico Demonstration Forest in Wicomico County on the lower Eastern Shore.

The state planning department announced today that it will join with opponents seeking to block a 4,300-home planned community near a state forest in eastern Allegany County. Maryland Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall said his department will file a brief in the case, now on appeal before the state's high court. The lawsuit seeks a review of whether local officials acted properly in approving the project, called Terrapin Run, in a rural and environmentally sensitive area that is adjacent to Green Ridge State Forest.

Seeking to bridge a recent history of suspicion, environmentalists and smart-growth activists are reaching out to hunters and anglers in Western Maryland, trying to enlist them in public debates about the development of the mountainous, mostly rural region. It's an unusual overture. Hunters, in particular, fear that "tree huggers," as they sometimes call environmental activists, want to ban firearms or hunting for sport. But with a 4,300-home development proposed near a state forest in Allegany County and a new highway project skirting another state-owned hunting area, activists see the region's many anglers and hunters as potential allies if alerted to how development could hamper their favorite outdoor activities.