{"id":37506,"date":"2022-11-03T09:19:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T13:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=37506"},"modified":"2022-11-03T09:19:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T13:19:56","slug":"secretarys-message-november-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2022\/11\/03\/secretarys-message-november-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary\u2019s Message &#8211; November 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Park Quests are Completed, but the Adventure Continues<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 376px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a title=\"Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio and Lt. Governor Rutherford at St. Clements\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/marylanddnr\/52461445920\/in\/dateposted\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52461445920_6ae178f01a.jpg\" alt=\"Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio and Lt. Governor Rutherford at St. Clements\" width=\"366\" height=\"245\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Anthony DePanise, Maryland State House<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The beginning of November marks the end of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/parkquest\/Pages\/Home.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Park Quest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland Park Service<\/a>\u2019s annual program geared toward youth and families. Many thanks to our creative team members who have organized this fun and educational series for 15 years now! And thanks to everyone who participated. We hope it inspired you to continue your enjoyment of Maryland State Parks, which are open year-round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I also want to congratulate Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, who finished his own quest! Last month, he completed his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/governor.maryland.gov\/ltgovernor\/2689-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">State Park Bucket List<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> challenge, having <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/governor.maryland.gov\/ltgovernor\/2022\/10\/21\/photo-release-lt-governor-rutherford-celebrates-milestone-of-visiting-all-75-maryland-state-parks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">officially visited all 75 Maryland Park Service properties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> with a visit to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/pages\/southern\/stclements.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">St. Clement\u2019s Island State Park<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in St. Mary\u2019s County.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our department has been honored to join Lt. Governor Rutherford on many of his journeys through our spectacular state park system, starting with a<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> New Year\u2019s Day in 2019, when he began his State Park Bucket List. Since then, we have hiked the <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/at.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Appalachian Trail<\/a> through <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/western\/southmountain.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Mountain State Park<\/a>, rowed along the river at <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/eastern\/tuckahoe.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tuckahoe State Park<\/a>, released sea turtles at <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/eastern\/assateague.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assateague State Park<\/a>, and learned how to fly fish at <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/central\/morganrun.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Morgan Run Natural Environment Area<\/a>, just to name a few adventures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He also joined in the opening of four new state parks, <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/eastern\/tubman.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad<\/a> in Dorchester County, <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/western\/Wolf-Den-Run.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wolf Den Run<\/a> in Garrett County, <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/central\/Bohemia.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bohemia River<\/a> in Cecil County, and <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/publiclands\/Pages\/eastern\/cypressbranch.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cypress Branch<\/a> in Kent County. With his efforts, in fiscal year 2023, the administration secured historic funding for our state parks. In November, we will celebrate one more park opening \u2013 look for an announcement soon!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lt. Governor Rutherford\u2019s visits and intense interest in our parks has been a regular reminder of this administration\u2019s steady support for our public lands, and has helped others find and enjoy the diverse outdoor recreation opportunities we have here in Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/DNR_Secretary.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0is Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Park Quests are Completed, but the Adventure Continues The beginning of November marks the end of Park Quest, the Maryland Park Service\u2019s annual program geared toward youth and families. Many thanks to our creative team members who have organized this fun and educational series for 15 years now! And thanks to everyone who participated. We<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2022\/11\/03\/secretarys-message-november-2022\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"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":[957,3171,11,1965,4998,3172,23,12,14,33,13],"tags":[4861,4035,5205,3262,4371],"class_list":["post-37506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-boating","category-fisheries","category-maryland-forest-service","category-hiking","category-hunting","category-land","category-parks","category-nrp-news","category-the-bay","category-wildlife","tag-boyd-k-rutherford","tag-jeannie-haddaway-riccio","tag-maryland-park-service","tag-park-quest","tag-st-clements-island"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37506","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\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37663,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37506\/revisions\/37663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}