I went out for a drive this morning at rush hour. Along the way, I passed some pretty country churches, a couple of live bait shops, some wide open spaces and nice walking paths.

Montgomery County never looked so rural.

That's right, It wasn't a trick, and I wasn't lost. I was in suburbanland. I had to cover an event in Aspen Hill, which the State Highway Administration had scheduled for 10:30, leaving me no choice but to contend with Washington traffic at rush hour. Or so I thought.

A quick consult of the map showed I could take 70 to 29 south, then amble through on Md. 198 to the site. Excellent!

The route was fast. I drove through towns I had never heard of, such as Spencerville and Norbeck. I spent my early years in Montgomery County, though I consider myself from Pittsburgh, and I never knew they had such small, unspoiled towns. But you can clearly see development is coming -- from the parking lot at Leisure World to the townhouses and for sale signs, even this area is changing.

So, two lessons here for me: if I ever have the misfortune of going to Montgomery County at rush hour again, I will once again take 29. And Montgomery County does have a pocket or two that is still rural -- for now, anyway.

It's not really a bay story, but I think my story about the State Highway Administration finding an ancient Indian rock quarry in the path of the Intercounty Connector will be in tomorrow's Maryland section.

Happy Halloween!

Posted by Rona Kobell at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

It's the next best thing to live blogging: Candus Thomson is at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting and brings us this big news:

Maryland fisheries officials are hoping today to end more than a decade of regional control over the spring striped bass season, the state's most popular.

Fisheries Director Howard King will ask the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to remove the annual striped bass quota and allow the state to fish under regulations similar to ones used by other Eastern Seaboard states.

Under King's plan, anglers would be allowed to keep one fish daily, minimum length of 28 inches, during the April 19 to May 13 spring season. Previous spring seasons have operated under a cap and a minimum length in excess of 30 inches.

The cap hasn't worked well-Maryland anglers are always reaching or exceeding it. Read the whole article here.

They are supposed to vote on the plan this afternoon. So stay tuned to baltimoresun.com for the results.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

One of the more depressing sights in America these days is the incredible amount of abandonment amid plenty.  Baltimore has thousands of abandoned rowhouses, while developers build new subdivisions on farmland.  New malls pop up down the road from empty malls. Big box stores open up, leaving whole downtown districts in older towns empty.

If we can't mandate the recycling of older buildings, can't we at least force landlords to remove the old shells they are no longer using? 

Treehugger asked this question -- and got an interesting answer.  As it turns out, the London borough of Islington has a "Use It or Lose It" law.  If you abandon a house or business, the government takes it -- and puts it back to productive use.  Perhaps Baltimore and other cities in Maryland could use such a law.  The city sometimes condemns and seizes empty properties, but the process is so lengthy and expensive, it can't keep up. 

Any thoughts?

Posted by Tom Pelton at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
                    

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is meeting this week in Annapolis. I went to their menhaden meeting today and, as promised, thought I'd give you a recap:

Omega Protein Co., the large reduction fishery based in Reedville, will not hit the cap the commission imposed this year, according to state predictions. The commission capped the harvest at 109,000 metric tons last year, but Omega only got half of that with their 10 boats. The cap is just for the Chesapeake Bay.

"The industry appears to be concentrating its efforts on older fish on the coast that obviously have more oil content," said Jack Travelstead, who is deputy commissioner of the Virginia Marine Fisheries Commission. "The reduction boats are going to oceanside."

So, according to the commissioners, Omega is going north to catch menhaden-perhaps even as far north as Maine. Though every East Coast state except Virginia and North Carolina has banned industrial menhaden fishing, Omega can still fish in federal waters.

There was no talk of Gilchrest's menhaden bill, which would ban fishing in federal and state waters. I asked Travelstead about it after the meeting and he said it wasn't necessary...more about that in my story tomorrow in The Sun.

Anyway, back to the meeting:

NOAA has 17 projects to study menhaden, which are costing them (and us) just north of $5 million.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is doing part of that work, flying over the bay to find schools of menhaden. They have not found many, and none in the upper bay.

One of the commissioners suggested that the bay was too polluted to house the schools. That the pollution, not the overfishing, was the source of the problem.

The commission will continue to study the issue. But in the meantime, several people who have been pushing for menhaden restrictions have said they are glad Gilchrest is taking up the issue with his bill.

H. Bruce Franklin, author of "The Most Important Fish in the Sea," said such a move is long overdue and should have been done more than 100 years ago, when Congress talked about it but decided not to act because it could have violated a treaty with England.

I'll end with a quote from Franklin:

"Ten years from now, the menhaden reduction industry will not exist.  The only question is how that will come about.  Either the industry will fish itself out of existence while grinding up the living keystone of our entire marine ecology, or we will stop it first."

Posted by Rona Kobell at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

As southern Californians sift through the charred debris of 2,000 homes destroyed by the wildfires and mourn the loss of seven lives, some have complained about the inadequacy of fire protection and suppression efforts there.  But few seem to acknowledge their own complicity in this recurring disaster by choosing to live in harm's way, in far-flung suburban and exurban homes built next to or sometimes even within forests. 

A story in The New York Times on Sunday pointed out that the number of homes within a mile of a fire in San Diego County has doubled within the last two decades - from 61,000 homes in 1990 to 125,000 this year, according to an analysis by the University of Wisconsin. 

With wildfires an annual hazard in the West, local and state authorities have taken steps to reduce dangers to residents by requiring new homes be built with fire-resistant materials and techniques. An Arizona State University professor, writing in the Outlook section of The Washington Post, argues that firefighting techniques need to adapt to the ever-growing incursion of people into what experts call the "wildland-urban interface."

Living in harm's way isn't just a western predilection, though.  The wildland-urban interface, where homes mingle with undeveloped wild areas, takes up just 9 percent of the land in the lower 48 United States, but 39 percent of all homes can be found there, according to an analysis by Wisconsin researcher Volker Radeloff and colleagues.  California has the highest number of homes in these areas, but eastern states like Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also rank up there. Read more about it here.

While tougher buliding codes, more clearing of trees and brush around homes and even "controlled burns" may reduce the risks of wildfires to residents, few, apparently, are willing to talk about reining in development in fire-prone areas.  A San Diego County planning official quoted in the Times said authorities were not interested in slowing growth, but in ensuring the safety of people in a wildland fire. 

So expect more dramatic pictures of wildfires forcing people to flee their neighbhorhoods as flames lick at those backyard decks with great views of the nearby forest.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Maryland's Secretary of Natural Resources, John Griffin, has warned outdoors enthusiasts that the cost of the legislature's failure to quickly pass Gov. Martin O'Malley's tax increases would be dire. O'Malley is trying close a $1.7 billion budget gap during a special session that starts today.

During a meeting with fishermen and hunters at Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Annapolis on Thursday, Griffin said cuts would fall hard on his state agency, according to a power point presentation his staff distributed after the meeting. 

He painted a grim picture, suggesting the DNR would have to close eight state parks, lay off more than 100 employees, and eliminate Program Open Space, a more than three decade old program that directs real estate transfer taxes to the purchase of new parks, state forests and urban playgrounds.

How seriously should folks take this gloomy forecast?  On one hand, threatening to swing a machete at popular programs is a common public relations tactic ued to drum up political support for tax increases.  When O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore, he threatened to lay off police officers -- a far-fetched concept in a crime-challenged city -- unless the City Council passed his tax increases. In the end, O'Malley got what he wanted. The cops kept their paychecks.

On the other hand, pinching money meant for open space has been common in Maryland's history.  Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich did it when he was in a budget pinch, and so did his predecessors, Glendening and Schaefer.  O'Malley promised to "fully fund" Program Open Space when he was campaigning for governor.  But there is ample historical precedent for dipping into the green cookie jar when the fridge is bare.

And while O'Malley, as mayor, never followed through with his threats to hand out pink slips at police headquarters, the city Department of Recreation and Parks often got trimmed.  And perhaps that's a better parallel to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which also manages parks.

During Griffin's talk last week, he said the state DNR would also have to close eight state parks, including Pocomoke State Park, Fort Frederick and Smallwood, according to his presentation. And the DNR would have to slash its workforce by 10 percent.  The loss of 135 employees would force the closure of all three of the state's warm water fish hatcheries, and reduce law enforcement in state parks and among boaters, according to the state agency.

Griffin's charts showed that the the state wildlife and parks agency has already lost 14 percent of its employees since 2002, with staffing dropping from 1,600 five years ago to 1,367 today.

"No new parks for Maryland's citizens," Griffin's presentation warned. "No new acquisition of conservation lands."

Lovers of the outdoors, what do you think of all this?

Posted by Tom Pelton at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

About two thirds of Maryland voters polled recently said they'd be willing to pay an additional $20 fee every year to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

"Clearly the public is strong on this," said Kim Coble, Maryland executive director of the Annapolis based nonprofit group. "Pollution in the bay is a problem and needs urgent attention and it has to be a funding priority."

For the second year in a row, the foundation has been lobbying for a "Green Fund" that would raise money to help stop stormwater pollution and runoff from farms. More than 1,000 post cards promoting the fee were sent this week to Gov. Martin O'Malley's office.

Unlike last year's version of the bill, which failed, this year's "Green Fund" does not discourage suburban sprawl. Last year's bill slapped fees only on new construction, and had extra penalties for building in cornfields and rural areas.  This year's proposal has been endorsed by the Maryland Homebuilders Association, because it charges the owners of new and existing homes the same.

The "smart growth" incentives were dropped in an effort to defuse opposition, which last year included developers and rural local governments.  "Politically it didn't seem the (O'Malley) administration and the legisalature were ready to tackle that big issue of sprawl and growth," said Coble. Also, questions were raised about whether the fines for sprawl in last year's bill were big enough to change the behavior of home buyers.

The fact that the bill has been watered down to appease developers strikes some people as a smart move, politically.  But some environmentalists are uneasy with the compromise.  Gary Belan, director of the Healthy Waters Campaign at the nonprofit group American Rivers, said in an email: "In general, I support this legislation because I think the Bay needs a dedicated source of funding to reduce stormwater pollution..... but I don’t think any progress can be made on saving our water, in particular the bay, until we start to manage our regional growth better."

You can read more at the American Rivers blog.

This year's version of the Green Fund billl would raise about $85 million by imposing fees on nearly every property owner in the state. The fees would range from $40 a year for people who own homes of more than 3,000 square feet, to $20 for an average home, to $5 for people whose houses are less than 1,500 square feet.

The money would be collected by local governments, which could keep 45 percent of the funds if they use them to fix leaky stormwater systems.

Half of the rest would go to the Maryland Department of the Environment, for pollution control projects like urban stream reconstruction to filter runoff from city streets, as well tree planting and other efforts. Forty percent would go to the Maryland Department of Agriculture, to pay farmers to plant crops without fertilizer in the offseason and take other steps to reduce fertilizer runoff.  The final 10 percent would go to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, for wetlands construction, river reconstruction and the planting of oysters. 

It's still not yet clear if the bill has enough support to go anywhere.  It's sponsored by state Del. Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat and chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee. And once again it has the support of influential House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat.

But Gov. O'Malley hasn't yet said whether he intends to back it -- and he's already trying to sell the legislature on a complex tax-raising package that includes the difficult subject of slot machines.  Also silent so far has been Senate President Thomas "Mike" Miller, a Democrat who helped kill last year's bill.

The poll, paid for by the foundation, was conducted  Oct. 1 - 3 by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Assocatiates. It found that 63 percent of 500 registered voters would be willing to pay $20 a year "to clean up the bay and local rivers, lakes and creeks."

Eighty-one percent of those polled said the Cheapeake Bay should be a funding priority for Maryland. 70 percent said pollution in the nation's largest estuary is a "serious or very serious issue." 77 percent said the bay and its rivers "urgently need help," according to the nonprofit group.

--------------------

Here is a Bay Foundation "GREEN FUND FACT SHEET":

Green Fund: Restoring Maryland's Rivers, Streams and the Bay

Why We Need A Dedicated Fund for Bay Restoration

Maryland committed to reducing nitrogen pollution loads to the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers by 2010. We are about halfway to meeting our goal. The remainder is the toughest type of pollution to control: non-point source pollution, such as runoff from development, farm fields, and parking lots. We know what actions to take; we just need the resources to get the job done.

If we secure the necessary funds, Maryland will be the first Bay state to make significant progress toward meeting these Bay commitments, remaining a regional leader in Bay restoration efforts.

Proposed Revenue Source (annual fee):

Commercial, Industrial and Institutional
· $0.01 / square foot of hard surfaces - including rooftops and parking lots

Residential
· 0 - 1,500 square feet of enclosed area: $5 per year
· 1,501 - 3,000 square feet: $20 per year
· 3,001 square feet and more: $40 per year

Total of all fees will generate approximately $85 million per year.

Real-World Examples of Annual Payments

 Facility   Annual Fee Size
· Big Box Retailer:  $3,250  (325,000 square feet of roof and pavement)
· Fast food restaurant:  $   320  (32,000 square feet of roof and parking lot)
· Commercial warehouse:  $5,500  (550,000 square feet of roof and pavement )
· Church:    $   100  (10,000 square feet of roof and parking lot)
· Multi-story office tower:  $   650  (65,000 square feet of roof and pavement)
· Small office:    $     50  (5,000 square feet of roof and parking)

Fee Collection and Distribution

Counties, and Baltimore City, would collect fees within their jurisdiction and may keep up to 5 percent of collected revenues to offset administrative costs associated with collecting the fee. Revenues will be forwarded to the State Comptroller, who will allocate funds.

· 50 percent to Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to distribute to local governments for stormwater management projects, urban tree plantings, stream restoration projects, and technical assistance;
· 10 percent to Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for natural filters such as oyster restoration, forest protection, wetland restoration, and technical assistance and research;
· 40 percent to Maryland Department of Agriculture for implementation of agricultural best management practices and technical assistance.

Why this will work

· Fee is minimal and applied broadly - no single sector is over burdened.
· Fee is progressive - the larger the house or the parking lot, the greater the fee.
· Homeowners are NOT measuring their driveways, sheds, or porches.
· Data to assess fee (parcel size and enclosed area) is currently available.
· Fee is strongly supported by entire environmental community and Maryland Homebuilders.
· Fee is the most significant step Maryland has taken toward Bay restoration in 4 years.
· Fee addresses most difficult problem facing Bay - non-point source reduction.
· Fee (with existing programs) will get Maryland about 70 percent toward our Bay commitments - further than any other Bay state.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

One of our multimedia editors has put together this Flash slideshow on invasive species, which you can find on our bay page, but I thought I'd link to it here, too.

It includes the major players: mute swans, nutria, snakeheads. One small thing to note: it says snakeheads showed up here, in the Potomac, in 2004. They were here in 2002, in a Crofton pond behind a Dunkin' Donuts. The fear was that they would get into the Little Patuxent, but they poisoned the heck out of the pond and nobody knows whether they actually did or how they got to the Potomac.

For the record, snakeheads are tasty, but kind of bony. We tried them at Yin Yankee when they got a bunch from New York.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Here's the Bay Weekly's take on the Bush/Gilchrest/Menhaden issue:

"Cynics might say that Gilchrest came up with his plan now because he has once again drawn primary opposition from a segment of his Republican Party that views him as too moderate. His district includes Maryland’s Eastern Shore as well as parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties.

We understand the need to please constituents, particularly at re-election time, though we doubt that is Gilchrest’s main motivation.

We’re also aware of a hugely crowded calendar in Congress due to the usual foot-dragging and gridlock. In short, it’s unlikely that Gilchrest’s bill can pass through the normal progression of committees and public hearings.

That’s why we’re encouraging the Congressman to seek openings to amend his proposal onto spending legislation or another existing bill bound for passage.

It will take an extraordinary effort to combat Omega Protein’s threat to Chesapeake Bay. Now that he’s leapt into this high-stakes fray, we’re hoping that Gilchrest, a former Marine, comes out on top."

Posted by Rona Kobell at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

For anyone who missed it (and that includes me, as it was deep inside the paper), here's a link to the article I wrote the other day on Wayne Gilchrest's menhaden bill.

To be clear, the bill does seek to ban menhaden fishing in state AND federal waters, and is squarely aimed at Omega Protein, the large Reedville company that has been taking millions of pounds of the oily baitfish out of the Chesapeake Bay and turning them into fish oil supplements and other products.

Gilchrest said the bill was inspired by two things: his overall frustration with the slow movement on this issue and the fact that he just read Bruce Franklin's book The Most important Fish in the Sea, which explains the menhaden issue in great detail.

What has made the menhaden issue so vexing is that science has not confirmed that the species has been overfished. Common sense might tell you so, as there are clearly fewer menhaden in the bay now than there were even just a few years ago, and Omega in 2007 was catching about half of what it caught the year before. But without irrefutable proof, the Atlantic States marine Fisheries Commission didn't want to act.

Here's how Candy Thomson described the problem in a 2005 column:

"LET'S SAY YOU come out to your car every morning and find the gas gauge is lower than when you parked the night before.

    Your mechanic says there's nothing wrong with the gauge and no holes in the fuel system.But just as sure as the sun comes up over Ocean City and sets over Deep Creek Lake, every morning that needle is closer to "empty." Do you:

    a) Clean the garage clutter and put the car inside at night.

    b) Check the police blotter in the newspaper to see if others are reporting gasoline thefts.

    c) Get a locking gas cap.

    d) Put duct tape over the gauge so you don't have to look at it anymore.

    Smart folks most likely would choose one or more of the first three. Lesser lights would probably select "d," assuming they knew what duct tape is.

    Unfortunately, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is firmly in the "d" category when it comes to addressing the depleted population of menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay."

Gilcrhrest said he went to the event largely to gain access to the "deciders" in these matters: Bush and his fisheries people. Wonder if he'll show up at the ASMFC meeting in Annapolis next week.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Angus Phillips, in his Post column, lets us in an interesting detail about the event last week with President Bush:

Officials from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources were invited to but did not attend the signing ceremony at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Deputy Secretary Eric Schwaab said later that Maryland's system of allocating rockfish was "fair and equitable."

Posted by Rona Kobell at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

For all of you who have been following The Sun's coverage of large-scale poultry production and the pollution it causes in the Chesapeake Bay, here's another drumstick to gnaw on.

Grist, the edgy environmental journal, has written an indepth series called "Sow What?" on industrial-scale agriculture, including pig, cow and chicken Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's).

"You know where babies come from, sure -- but do you know where Tater Tots come from?" Grist asks. "In this two-week series, we'll take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of your very own diet."

Check it out.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The Waterkeeper Alliance, an international environmental group based in New York, are organizing an “Eastern Shore Poultry Summit” Nov. 1 at the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury.

The point of the event is to raise awareness of water pollution that runs off large poultry farms, and try to find solutions, said William J. Gerlach, attorney for the eight-year-old advocacy organization.

Among the speakers at the day-long event will be Kennedy, a co-founder and chairman of the group; Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler; and Bill Satterfield, director of the Delmarva Poultry Institute, a farming trade organization.  “We’d like to start a dialogue among everybody – so we invited the Delmarva Poultry Institute, not just environmental activists,” said Gerlach.  ”Hopefully there will be good discusion and we will build from it.” 

Gerlach said he hopes to encourage Maryland  to issue factory-style water pollution control permits to large poultry farms, increase the enforcement of water pollution laws, and to allow public access to the nutrient management plans that farmers are supposed to follow.

The Sun reported on Oct. 14 that the poultry industry on Maryland's Eastern Shore produces about a billion pounds of manure a year, and is a significant source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. But Maryland has been slower than other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania, in requiring factory-style pollution control permits for large poultry businesses. The state is now considering these permits, along with inspections by the state's environmental enforcement agency and fines of up to $32,500 for allowing manure into streams. But farmers have complained that chicken houses don't pollute like factories, and that family farms shouldn't be burdened with excessive regulation.

The Poultry Summit is open to the public, and runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Wicomico Civic Center. The cost is $25. The group held similar "Hog Summits" to address animal waste pollution in North Carolina, Iowa and Pennsylvania from 2002 to 2005. 

Michele Merkel, Chespeake regional coordinator for the Waterkeepers Alliance, said: "The goal is to bring policy makers, scientists and members of the agricultural and environmental communities together to discuss tactics for keeping agricultural pollution from entering the bay."

Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for Maryland's Attorney General, said Gansler was invited to attend and will likely talk about increased enforcement of existing clean water laws as a method for reducing pollution.  He may also discuss the possibility of burning more poultry litter to generate electricity.

Posted by Tom Pelton at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

It's dry out there.  Is it just another natural cycle in the weather, or a sign of long-term changes in climate that many scientists warn are coming?  A story in today's Sun by Frank Roylance reports that long-range weather forecasts see no relief through next spring for the near-record drought gripping Maryland.  Stream and ground-water levels are at or approaching record lows in Central Maryland and the Eastern Shore, with some of the fastest growing parts of the state most affected.

Looking around the country, there are similar reports elsewhere.  The Southeast is suffering its worst drought ever,  The New York Times had this story about the even more severe drought conditions across the Southeast. With less than four months' water left in the lake supplying the sprawling Atlanta metro area, Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency for more than half of the state.  Another story in the NYT noted how the Great Lakes are low as well - and while their water levels rise and drop as the seasons change, there's been less-than-normal rain and snow to replenish them in the past couple years.

Of course, it's a stretch to pin any area's unusual conditions on climate change, as droughts come and go.  Also, the most dramatic impact predicted from global warming is one of too much water - rising sea levels and destructive storms.  New Orleans, still struggling to recover from devastation in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, was flooded again today by torrential rains.  

But climate scientiest also predict that warmer temperatures can make dry areas drier, causing more water to evaporate from reservoirs and rivers while also preventing the buildup of snow in mountains that replenishes water supplies every spring when it melts. 

In that vein, the NYT magazine on Sunday had a cover story headlined "The Future is Drying Up" warning of potentially catastrophic water shortages in the arid West, where surface water supplies are dwindling and scientists warn that changing climate could diminish the mountain snowpacks that replenish the reservoirs and rivers sustaining the farms, ranches and cities of the region.  The story quoted the water czar for Las Vegas saying the rapidly growing city already is the first U.S. victim of global warming.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Overheard on Curb Your Enthusiasm Sunday night:

The scene (and stop reading if you have Tivo'd it and haven't watched it yet):

Cheryl David has finally left her insufferable husband, Larry. Except for the family of refugees living in the David manse, everyone seems to have taken Cheryl's side in the separation. Larry is no longer on the guest list for social events with his crowd. Not a surprise, since the final straw was Cheryl calling from a scary plane ride about to tell Larry that she loved him in case anything happened to her (such as death) and him blowing her off because the Tivo guy was there and you know how hard it is to get the Tivo guy to come.

Anyway, Larry runs into his friend, noted environmentalist Ted Danson, on the street.

David: How come you didn't invite me to your oceans fundraiser?

Danson: I don't know. I thought you were a global-warming guy.

Incidentally, in real life, David is now separated from his wife, Laurie David. She's the founder of Stop Global Warming Now and has given generously to many environmental causes, many of which are lampooned with glee on the show. And Danson is a longtime oceans activist who was talking about water pollution long before it was trendy.

I admit I wasn't always a fan -- who wants to watch such a miserable guy inflict his misery on everyone else. But this season has been pretty funny, especially with all the environmental in jokes.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

OK, here I go, trying to do my public service duty and sift through all of the noise of the blogosphere to tell you what it really means. Admittedly, some of that noise was generated by yours truly at bayblog so let's see if we can clear it up:

On the striped bass issue: President Bush came here to declare striped bass and red drum "gamefish," which would place them off-limits to commercial watermen in federal waters. The president can't, in effect, command that states change their laws, and the administration isn't seeking to do so, or so they say. The job of regulating the Chesapeake Bay's fishery falls to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission -- which is meeting next week in Annapolis.

The Sun's story said that Maryland has no plans to change its management, which has been one of the few success stories in the bay. Honestly, the story in The Sun by Candy Thomson and David Nitkin does the best job explaining this law's impact on the bay of any account I've seen. Frankly, a lot of stories got it wrong or just didn't address the state issue.

I'm still not sure how much of an effect the federal waters ban will have on the striper fishery. All I can say is it can't be good for the commercial guys, who are struggling.

Posted by Rona Kobell at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

From the Maryland Department of Natural Resources:

DNR has submitted proposed new regulations for yellow perch fishing to the General Assembly's Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR) Committee .

“These new regulations are designed to allow more yellow perch to reach critical spawning streams and rivers,” said Howard King, Fisheries Service Director. “We also hope to increase the opportunity for recreational anglers to catch a legal sized yellow perch with this new, more equitable harvest allocation and creel size.”

As proposed, the regulations would prohibit the use of fyke nets in tributaries of less than 200 feet in width during February and would extend the prohibition on commercial harvest and sale of yellow perch through March 14. This aims to enable yellow perch to migrate to historical spawning rivers and streams. The proposed regulations also lower the minimum recreational size from 9 inches to 8.5 inches, which should increase the probability of legal recreational catch. These proposed changes more equitably allocate yellow perch harvests between recreational and commercial anglers.

Under the proposed regulations, DNR designates two restoration creeks, McIntosh Run off Breton Bay (St. Mary’s County) and Northeast Creek off Northeast River (Cecil County), where recreational harvest and commercial harvest will be prohibited from February 1 through March 31. Yellow perch populations show positive signs of recovery due to natural and anthropogenic restocking efforts. The goal of declaring these creeks as restoration creeks is to accelerate that recovery.

The proposed regulations also remove language referring to an ineffective barbless hook requirement. As proposed, the regulations will apply to the 2008 season and could take effect as early January 28, 2008.

The regulations will be published in the Maryland Register on November 26, and the public comment period will run from November 26 to December 26, 2007. A public hearing on the proposed regulatory amendments is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5 at 6 p.m. at the Calvary United Methodist Church, 301 Rowe Blvd. in Annapolis, MD.