Living History Program Oct. 5-6 Point Lookout State Park invites visitors to its annual “Soldiers Timeline Weekend” event Oct. 5-6, highlighting the site’s long history of defending Maryland and the entire country during wartime.
Marylanders Urged to Take Extra Precautions The Maryland Department of Natural Resources warns residents and visitors that potential for wildfires has steadily increased in the past several weeks due to a lack of rain and unseasonably high temperatures. While open-air burning is legal in parts of Maryland, the department strongly encourages homeowners to refrain from Read the Rest…
Collection Sites in Frederick and Washington Counties Open Until Oct. 26 Marylanders with black walnut trees on their property are asked to donate extra walnuts to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The Maryland Forest Service will use the walnuts to grow and plant trees along creeks, rivers, and streams as part of state’s tree Read the Rest…
Welcome to the Fall Foliage and Festival Report for Sept. 28 and 29, brought to you by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “As we officially welcome fall this week, the cool nights and sunny days are making for a beautiful start to a colorful display in Garrett County,” reports Melissa Nash, Garrett County forest Read the Rest…
As summer slips into history and we step into fall, there is a lot of exciting fishing in Maryland. Trout fishermen are getting ready for the fall stocking program that begins in October. The Chesapeake Bay is teeming with Spanish mackerel and behemoth red drum, providing some amazing catch-and-release fishing.
Conservation Easement Preserves Green Space Maryland Environmental Trust, a unit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, partnered with the Charles Koiner Center for Urban Farming Inc. to complete a conservation easement protecting green space in downtown Silver Spring. The one-acre property is home to Koiner Farm, an urban agricultural and educational enterprise. Maryland Environmental Read the Rest…
Monarch Butterfly Festival in Prince George’s County The Maryland Department of Natural Resources invites everyone to Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary to celebrate the fall migration of the monarch butterfly on Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Adults and kids of all ages are encouraged to take part in a variety of activities, including tagging Read the Rest…
‘Artillery Weekend’ Highlights Wartime Roles History buffs of all ages are invited to the annual Civil War Artillery Weekend event Sept. 28-29 at Point Lookout State Park. Programs run 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Point Lookout is a peninsula in St. Mary’s County where the Potomac River Read the Rest…
Three-Day Course Held in Garrett County The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will offer a Hunter Safety Education Class on Oct. 1, 2, and 5 at Herrington Manor State Park, Oakland. Read the Rest…
Welcome to the Fall Foliage and Festival Report for the last weekend of summer, Sept. 21 and 22, brought to you by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Having melted down almost daily through a typically hot and humid — and exceptionally wet — Maryland summer, you just might be looking forward to the official Read the Rest…
Opportunity for New and Lapsed Hunters The Maryland Department of Natural Resources invites all junior license holders, apprentice license holders, and lapsed hunters to apply to participate in a mentored pheasant hunt Nov. 23-24 at Wild Wings Hunting Preserve, located in Friendsville. Participants will enjoy a day at Wild Wings that will include a hunter Read the Rest…
The change of seasons is always a push-and-pull affair – recently it seemed that summer was just not ready to let go. This is a wonderful time of the year to still enjoy the outdoor activities Maryland’s warm weather affords, and is perhaps the best time of the year to enjoy large and heavy crabs Read the Rest…
Eligible Hunters Can Apply Until Oct. 18 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources invites junior, apprentice, and lapsed hunters to apply to participate in this year’s stocked pheasant hunts, which take place November 23-24. These do-it-yourself hunts will take place on nine wildlife management areas across the state and two state forests in western Maryland. Read the Rest…
DNR Begins Implementation of the Maryland Oyster Management Plan The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has issued season limits for the 2019-2020 oyster harvesting season. Effective immediately, the 2019-20 season will begin October 1, 2019 with no commercial harvesting on Wednesdays, and temporary closures to wild harvesting in certain areas where there is a low Read the Rest…
Public Meeting Scheduled in Salisbury Sept. 24 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has developed a new, revised proposal for administering hunting leases on Chesapeake Forest Lands. A copy of the new revised proposal and place for comment is available on the department’s website. Additionally the department is hosting a public meeting from 6 p.m. Read the Rest…
New Public Opportunities in Charles and Queen Anne’s Counties The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is pleased to announce two new public hunting opportunities in state wildlife management areas. Browns Branch Wildlife Management Area in Queen Anne’s County and Popes Creek Wildlife Management area in Charles County are now open to regulated hunting and trapping.
Fan Favorite Winner to be Chosen on Facebook The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has announced the winners of the 2019 Natural Resources Photo Contest, with the grand prize going to David Illig of Gambrills for his stunning close-up shot of an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources monitoring data show that dissolved oxygen conditions in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay mainstem were near average in late August. This is a significant improvement from hypoxia results observed earlier this summer. The hypoxic water volume (waters with less than 2 mg/l oxygen) was 1.06 cubic miles in Read the Rest…
Welcome to the Fall Foliage and Festival Report for Sept. 14 and 15, brought to you by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Soon the landscape will explode with vibrant colors of orange, red and yellow. Kids will be jumping into newly raked piles of leaves and we’ll all “fall” back to Eastern Standard Time Read the Rest…
September is an exciting month for those who love the outdoors and fishing is usually at the top of the list. Mild late summer weather is providing exciting fishing opportunities across the Maryland landscape from the western mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. In the Chesapeake Bay, we have relatively warm water, higher salinities, and a Read the Rest…
Annual Privileges at State-Owned Properties The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is now accepting bids for the 2019-2020 trapping season at several Eastern Shore public lands. Individuals with the highest bid for each area will be awarded annual trapping privileges. Locations and bidding dates are as follows: For Cedar Island, Deal Island, E. A. Vaughn, Read the Rest…
Anglers Can Sign Up For Notifications The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will stock thousands of brown, golden, and rainbow trout in several creeks, lakes, and rivers starting in early October. The majority of this year’s trout stocking come from the department’s Albert Powell Hatchery near Hagerstown. Throughout the summer, staff have been looking after Read the Rest…
Special Season Provides Additional Waterfowl Opportunity The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announces that the September teal-only hunting season will be open from Sept. 16 through Sept. 30. Shooting hours are one half-hour before sunrise to sunset, the daily bag limit is six teal (blue or green-winged), and the possession limit for teal is three Read the Rest…
First Out-of-State Deployment of the Season Maryland has assembled and mobilized a crew of wildland firefighters to help battle ongoing wildfires in northern California as part of a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. It’s the first out-of-state deployment for a Maryland crew this season. The 20-person crew assembled this weekend Read the Rest…
Critical Maintenance Completed for Sept. 6 Opening The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is pleased to announce the rifle and shotgun ranges at Elk Neck State Forest in Cecil County reopens at 9 a.m. Sept. 6, following completion of a critical maintenance project this summer. During the six-week project, the department’s contractor enhanced numerous safety Read the Rest…
The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Lives Again This Weekend Visitors to South Mountain State Battlefield can help commemorate the 157th anniversary of the Civil War battle that occurred there, with a series of battlefield hikes, tours, and living-history events Sept. 7-8. On both days, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., guests can experience “Fury at Read the Rest…
Prehistoric Fish Once Thought Gone from Maryland The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has been awarded more than $700,000 in federal funding to study and monitor the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. The money will be used over three years to continue the department’s tagging and tracking of fall spawning Atlantic sturgeon in the Nanticoke River and Read the Rest…
September is a Great Time to Enjoy Nature and to Give Back Fall is one of my favorite seasons, so while I am sad to see summer coming to an end, I am also looking forward to cooler weather and changing leaves. Autumn is a great time of year to experience outdoor recreation in Maryland; Read the Rest…
Now that Labor Day activities are behind us, anglers can focus on fishing more with family and friends. Cooler weather will begin to show its face and Maryland waters will begin to shake off the summer heat. Fishing for Spanish mackerel has been very popular in the bay.
If you look at a map of the United States, Maryland appears small—so small that depending on the map, you may hardly be able to see it at all. But when you’re here, the land of the Free State is actually quite expansive and diverse. In the 1970s, National Geographic dubbed Maryland, “America in Miniature,” Read the Rest…
Four centuries ago, Captain John Smith discovered the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding region of thick forests, fertile valleys, serene rivers, rolling mountains, lush marshes and sandy beaches. Smith’s view of this “delightsome land” has since been transformed by four centuries of growth and development.
The units that make up today’s Department of Natural Resources mostly date back farther than 1969, many having gone through numerous names and structural changes before and even after becoming part of the department. The earliest version of what is now a Department of Natural Resources function is the Maryland Geological Survey, which originated with Read the Rest…
In terms of wildlife, with many species predating the time humans arrived on the scene, 50 years may not seem like a long time. But as the Maryland Department of Natural Resources celebrates our 50th anniversary this year, we can look back on the Maryland of 1969 and see that significant changes took place. The Read the Rest…
Brooke Landry’s passion for biology started early. “I was a little science geek,” she laughs. Her interest in underwater grasses really picked up as she snorkeled around coral reefs and beds of seagrass on a middle school class trip to Belize. A few undergrad summers spent studying salt marshes on Maryland’s Eastern Shore immersed her Read the Rest…
Fifty years ago, Governor Marvin Mandel replaced the former Board of Natural Resources with the cabinet-level Department of Natural Resources and our operations began. As we celebrate this milestone, DNR is proud of the fact that our work is making a difference in every county and community across Maryland.
It seems like a lot of earthquakes have been in the news in recent years. How often does Maryland have earthquakes and why do they happen here? (Lourdes in Baltimore City)
Maryland has changed quite a bit in the past 50 years, but one thing has remained the same: the dedication and hard work of the employees of the Department of Natural Resources. Since its official founding on July 1, 1969, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has conserved, protected and restored the critical areas of Read the Rest…
Hunting Continues Through Jan. 31 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced that archery hunting for white-tailed and sika deer opens statewide Sept. 6, and continues through Jan. 31, 2020. For the 2019-20 season, the statewide bag limit for white-tailed bucks is two deer (no more than one per weapon season). Maryland hunters in Region B (the state’s Read the Rest…
Department Provides Native Seedlings Sept. 15 The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will give away potted native tree seedlings on Sept. 15 during the Corsica River Day celebration at Corsica River Yacht Club in Centreville. A mix of 50 native species will be available at the Maryland Forest Service table on a first-come, first-served basis. Read the Rest…
Visitors Can Explore Historic Washington County Hunting Grounds The Maryland Department of Natural Resources invites the public to visit Woodmont Lodge on Sept. 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The annual open house will allow guests to tour the hunting lodge and its picturesque surroundings while hearing vivid stories of the early days of Read the Rest…
