{"id":16736,"date":"2017-09-01T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=16736"},"modified":"2017-09-11T05:22:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T09:22:03","slug":"secretarys-message-september-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/09\/01\/secretarys-message-september-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary&#8217;s Message: September 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>A Higher Level of Protection for Our Lands and Waters<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4401\/36804072205_dc0102e87c_b_d.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Secretary Mark Belton giving the thumbs-up aboard Natural 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In August I had the opportunity to participate in a <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/nrp\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland Natural Resources Police<\/a> boating and water safety patrol off Ocean City. I was fortunate to get a birds-eye view in our newly reacquired helicopter, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2016\/11\/23\/aviation-unit-returns-to-the-department-of-natural-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Natural 1<\/a>, during a flight to ensure the safety of anglers and boaters along Maryland\u2019s waterways.<\/p>\n<p>Natural 1 has been back in the air for about a year since we restarted the <a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/nrp\/Pages\/NRP_aviation.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">aviation unit<\/a> following a seven-year absence. The\u00a0helicopter is a force multiplier, providing many times its own value in terms of prevention and deterrence of conservation law violations.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->At the Ocean City patrol in mid-August, Natural 1 was used in tandem with our other boats and officers to effectively patrol a large swath of land and water that was crowded with weekend traffic.<\/p>\n<p>The aerial presence is part of a focused and concerted effort by our police and partners, along with a lot of educational outreach. And while no price can be put on lives saved, our Jet Bell Ranger helicopter is also a great value to taxpayers. With the strong support of Governor Larry Hogan, the department reacquired the helicopter at no cost from a federal military surplus program. Operational costs are about $350 per hour for Natural 1, a fraction of the costs incurred by Maryland State Police helicopters, which provided air support in our aviation unit\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m proud to see the return of this efficient, effective tool to assist the Natural Resources Police as they patrol 17,000 miles of waterways and nearly a half-million acres of public lands.<a href=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4345\/36804058565_7b0d77835d_b_d.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/c1.staticflickr.com\/5\/4345\/36804058565_7b0d77835d_b_d.jpg\" alt=\"Natural 1 in flight\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Higher Level of Protection for Our Lands and Waters In August I had the opportunity to participate in a Maryland Natural Resources Police boating and water safety patrol off Ocean City. I was fortunate to get a birds-eye view in our newly reacquired helicopter, Natural 1, during a flight to ensure the safety of<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2017\/09\/01\/secretarys-message-september-2017\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,3171,11,1965,3172,23,12,14,33,13],"tags":[2952,3439,3011,2958],"class_list":["post-16736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-fisheries","category-maryland-forest-service","category-hunting","category-land","category-parks","category-nrp-news","category-the-bay","category-wildlife","tag-larry-hogan","tag-maryland-state-police","tag-natural-1","tag-ocean-city"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16736"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16815,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16736\/revisions\/16815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}