Wildlife Service

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.

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.

Proposed federal conservation legislation to add land to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore could also cripple efforts to save the Delmarva fox squirrel, a coalition of environmental groups said yesterday.The coalition -- including Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, Maryland Public Interest Research Group (MaryPIRG) and Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage -- yesterday urged Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, an Eastern Shore Republican, and the rest of Maryland's Congressional delegation to oppose certain language in the legislation that it fears would hamper conservation efforts.

That tortoise shell bracelet may be appealing, and those ivory bookends might seem like a great buy, but federal authorities are warning that such items are subject to confiscation at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. They come from endangered animals.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have set up a new exhibit at the airport that warns travelers against buying animal products as souvenirs. Wildlife Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said she wants to stop vacationers from wasting their money and fueling the illegal wildlife market.

THE SLOW-footed, sleepy, portly Delmarva fox squirrel is the subject of a controversial program of the Endangered Species Act that a Queen Anne's County developer hopes to use to build homes along the banks of Winchester Creek.A sighting of the rare squirrel at the planned Homeport development near Grasonville prompted the federal government to consider the project's impact on the protected species. An environmental lawsuit then prodded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose a "Habitat Conservation Plan" for the rodent on the 57-acre farm.

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.

Six federal government agencies at the port of Baltimore will receive Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award for reforms that have eased the movement of cargo here.The Hammer Award was created by the vice president's office to recognize agencies that cut red tape and eliminate government waste. Its name is a takeoff on the $600 hammer of Pentagon fame symbolizing wasteful government spending.Since the award was established in 1993, more than 600 agencies and organizations have been honored.

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.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said yesterday that it plans to vote this week on a proposal to build a natural gas terminal in Sparrows Point and an 88-mile pipeline to Pennsylvania, despite a request to delay action until concerns about an endangered bat and a threatened turtle can be addressed. "The case is still scheduled for consideration Thursday," said Tamara Young Allen, a commission spokeswoman. "The commission could address the issues brought by the wildlife service and could approve [the project]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has called on federal energy officials to delay a decision on the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point until questions about endangered and threatened species can be answered. The service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, has found that the project would be located in an environmentally sensitive area and could affect several species with habitats in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Those include the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and Delmarva fox squirrel.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Patuxent Research Refuge will hold a centennial celebration of the birth of environmental pioneer and author Rachel Carson. The celebration is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Rachel Carson Council. The celebration will begin with a ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday at the refuge's National Wildlife Visitor Center, near Laurel. After the ceremony, programs will include live animals, hands-on activities, nature hikes and habitat tram tours.

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.

One hundred years after her birth and nearly 45 years since publication of her environmental call to action, Silent Spring, Maryland is preparing to honor Rachel Louise Carson. "She's in the pantheon of environmental stars," said state Sen. Brian E. Frosh, who is sponsoring a bill to designate her May 27 birthday as Rachel Carson Day. "Of all the Marylanders who contributed to our well-being and the world's, she's up there." Silent Spring was more than a best-seller. The ground-breaking book made the connection between the indiscriminate use of pesticides, such as DDT, and the destruction of animals and plants.

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.

ROCK HALL -- Phil Cicconi and nearly 200 diligent volunteers at the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge keep the place going - running the visitor center and bookstore, building wildfowl observation decks, leading tour groups and cutting hiking trails through the bramble of the isolated Eastern Shore island. But they don't work alone. The deal, say the Friends of Eastern Neck, is that they contribute the labor, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides professionals to lead and direct their group of enthusiastic amateurs.

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.

WASHINGTON -- When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service caught some yellow perch from Maryland's South River in spring, it found a surprising feature on brown bullhead catfish that came in with the nets. Some bullheads had ugly, puffy red growths on their lips, prompting the Chesapeake Bay Field Office to alert the South River Federation, a volunteer group formed in 1999 to protect this tributary south of Annapolis. The federation gave $3,200 for testing, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Tuesday that South River bullheads have the highest percentage of skin tumors of any Chesapeake Bay tributary.