Tidal Basin

PLENTY OF beaver here, but no complaints about them. That's the word from Carroll County nature centers and the Humane Society. The buck-toothed buzz saws are happily proliferating in the reservoirs and streams throughout the county.Beaver problems are cropping up all over the state and nation -- in Glen Burnie, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Columbia, Washington's Tidal Basin, for example. It's just a matter of time before these voracious 50-pound rodents become a pest in Carroll.Flooded roadways, woodlands and back yards, shoreline erosion, loss of fish habitat -- these are some of the damage inflicted by busy beavers.

Art and poetry support a worthy cause in the group exhibit "Haiku for Hope," which is co-sponsored by the Columbia Art Center and Howard County Promotion and Tourism's Blossoms of Hope and Cherrybration. Proceeds go toward Howard County General Hospital's Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center. Each artwork has an accompanying short poem that reinforces its inspirational themes. That inspiration generally is found in nature and, more specifically, a number of the artists and poets respond to the cherry blossoms that cheerfully light up the landscape in April.

Who is taking down the precious Japanese cherry trees in the Tidal Basin, during Cherry Blossom Festival? Not extremists. In the city named for the Father of Our Country, the National Park Service cannot tell a lie: A beaver is doing it.Like buzzard hawks circling the Jones Falls Expressway, deer chewing up parts of Roland Park or the coyote that invaded New York's Central Park, beaver have reacted to loss of habitat by reinvading what humans took away...

When it comes to spring color, Washington knows how to put on a show. The National Cherry Blossom Festival blossoms each year to commemorate the gift of some 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo to the nation's capital in 1912. While the festival had modest beginnings, the event has since evolved into a springtime celebration that attracts millions of visitors from around the world. "It's truly amazing how a gift from over 100 years ago has now reached so many people," says Diana Mayhew, the festival's president.

WASHINGTON -- Trisha Yearwood croons on the radio as Rick Johnson bumps over the curb in a truck marked Property of the U.S. Government. He eases it onto the grass and shoves it in park in a grove of cherry trees. It's just before 7 a.m.He and his crew have only a day to pretty up about 200 cherr trees on this grassy slope off Independence Avenue. Already, dirt and bark are smeared on their Rough Rider gloves and all over their forest green National Park Service dungarees.The early-morning traffic whizzes by and leaves them unimpressed.

Saturday-next Sunday -- Take in Washington's sights and learn about the fascinating world of carp fishing at the 12th annual "Carp-In" at Washington's Tidal Basin, dawn to dusk. Members of the Carp Anglers Group will display the gear they use to reel in massive fish the size of toddlers. The biggest carp ever pulled out of the Tidal Basin was a 57.8-pounder, back in 1983. Details: 301-922-1672. Online More outdoors -- For more outdoors coverage, calendar and photos, go to baltimoresun.

WASHINGTON -- More than 3,000 cherry trees are poised to blossom in Washington this week, just in time for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.According to the National Park Service, the pink and white flowers are expected to start opening between Thursday and Saturday.But a weather change could move up -- or push back -- the date the flowers are expected to open so it's hard to make an exact prediction. Earle Kittleman of the National Park Service said the fragile blossoms last less than a week, and he warned that cold weather, high winds or heavy rains can ruin the flowers.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival continues through April 27, but peak bloom is expected to run only through Friday. So are you going to brave the crowds for peak bloom or wait a few weeks and risk missing out on some rapture Take my advice and skip it entirely. Here's the thing. Getting there from Baltimore is a huge giant pain in the neck no matter how you slice it. And, when you actually get to the Tidal Basin, you remember, too late, that other people don't know how to walk.

WASHINGTON -- The United States is at war in Kosovo. President Clinton is playing host to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at the White House.And this city, which considers itself the center of the political universe, is awash in beaver fever."

GLENN GOLDENHORN, who heads up Bare Bones for America, a conservative think tank, has been busily at work finding ways to cut the budget that were overlooked by Newt Gingrich's Contract with America.He was elated when I saw him because his organization had just come up with something that even the cost-cutters in Washington had not thought of."We believe that we could save a bundle by cutting down the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin.""Of course, you could," I told Glenn. "Why didn't the Republicans think of it before?"

The National Cherry Blossom Festival continues through April 27, but peak bloom is expected to run only through Friday. So are you going to brave the crowds for peak bloom or wait a few weeks and risk missing out on some rapture Take my advice and skip it entirely. Here's the thing. Getting there from Baltimore is a huge giant pain in the neck no matter how you slice it. And, when you actually get to the Tidal Basin, you remember, too late, that other people don't know how to walk.

Even as they turn 100, Washington's cherry trees in full bloom remain as wondrously beautiful as ever — which explains why more than a million people are expected to come gaze at them over the next five weeks. D.C.'s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, perhaps the most welcome harbinger of spring anywhere in the U.S., begins Tuesday (the first day of spring) and runs through April 27 (Arbor Day). Expanded from its customary 19 days in celebration of the trees' 100th anniversary, the schedule includes fireworks, a parade, live music, visits from Japanese dignitaries and entertainers, and even a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.

The ground has been frozen under layers of snow. Daffodils are just now breaking the surface. The elm trees are two weeks late in starting to flower. And Washington's hallowed cherry blossoms? A little banged up from the snowstorms and wind and hampered by a lingering chill in the soil, but apparently not too far off schedule. The park service's horticulturalist and cherry tree expert, Rob DeFeo, issued his forecast Thursday for the peak bloom date. The trees are expected to bloom between March 31 and April 11, with the peak period expected to occur April 3-8. The average peak bloom date is April 4, the park service said, but unusually warm or cool weather has resulted in peak bloom dates as early as March 15 - in 1990 - and as late as April 18 - in 1958.

WASHINGTON -- Visitors and residents alike have flocked to the capital for the annual rite of spring -- the Cherry Blossom Festival, which floods the Tidal Basin with the pink and white blossoms of the Japanese cherry tree. But in a far corner of the city, there's even more luscious flora -- now and throughout the year -- in the exotic landscape of trees, flowers, birds and scenic vistas of the U.S. National Arboretum. "There are beautiful plants to see in each season," spokeswoman Nancy Luria said of the free garden.

Saturday-next Sunday -- Take in Washington's sights and learn about the fascinating world of carp fishing at the 12th annual "Carp-In" at Washington's Tidal Basin, dawn to dusk. Members of the Carp Anglers Group will display the gear they use to reel in massive fish the size of toddlers. The biggest carp ever pulled out of the Tidal Basin was a 57.8-pounder, back in 1983. Details: 301-922-1672. Online More outdoors -- For more outdoors coverage, calendar and photos, go to baltimoresun.

It's the knowing smile before a lover's embrace. It's the musicians' warm-up notes before an orchestra's performance. This time of year, on the streets of Bethesda's Kenwood neighborhood, most of the pink buds on the cherry trees are still closed. Tree branches from both sides of the streets arch so far, they meet in the middle, but there's no burst of color, no fragrance. Yet. But some people can't wait. Anticipating that the blossoms will be in full bloom by this weekend, they've come out days in advance, beating the throng of cars and the crowds on foot that will soon descend on this ever-less-secret alternative to the more famous cherry trees on Washington's Tidal Basin.

Even as they turn 100, Washington's cherry trees in full bloom remain as wondrously beautiful as ever — which explains why more than a million people are expected to come gaze at them over the next five weeks. D.C.'s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, perhaps the most welcome harbinger of spring anywhere in the U.S., begins Tuesday (the first day of spring) and runs through April 27 (Arbor Day). Expanded from its customary 19 days in celebration of the trees' 100th anniversary, the schedule includes fireworks, a parade, live music, visits from Japanese dignitaries and entertainers, and even a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.

THE COVER story that this was the work of one beaver working alone did not meet the eyeball test. So the government quickly retreated to the two-beaver hypothesis, then three. If you want to believe it. It was Japanese cherry trees that came down around the Tidal Basin, and we all know how jealous the Communist Chinese regime is of Japanese influence in Washington. Chinese intelligence payments to elect President Clinton are on record. So is the visit of Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.

WASHINGTON - A group of hard-core anglers meets every May in the nation's capital to fish for bottom feeders. There's a joke in there somewhere, right? But the mission of these anglers is hardly a joke. The members of the Carp Anglers Group (CAG) are targeting the big ones - rod-bending fish the size of a toddler that rule the Tidal Basin. Last weekend, about 25 of them gathered at the basin for their eighth annual get-together, which almost always becomes a carp tutorial for inquisitive tourists on their way to the Jefferson Memorial or the FDR Memorial.

WASHINGTON - As a bright sun sparkled on the blue Tidal Basin water in Washington yesterday, a circle of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fraternity brothers crossed hands and sang as the final act in dedicating land for a memorial to the civil rights leader, the first on the National Mall to honor a black person. Directly across the water stands the Jefferson Memorial, and in the distance the Lincoln Memorial could be glimpsed - which was not an accident, said Adrian L. Wallace, president of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity based in Baltimore and the foundation raising private money for the planned King memorial.