Conserving Chesapeake Forests

Many Hands Make Light Tree Planting: Leibs Creek Buffer Planting with Trout Unlimited, Muddy Creek Chapter

Planting 500 trees in one day sounds like a daunting task. On your own, you would need to plant one tree every 173 seconds for 24 hours straight. But on this beautiful October morning, with a team of motivated volunteers on the job, we had the final tree in the ground in less than two …

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Macroinvertebrate Menagerie

Entering the World of Macroinvertebrates For much of my life, the extent of my knowledge about organisms in streams consisted of the crayfish I would sometimes hunt for, the water spiders that skimmed across the water’s surface, and fish. That finally changed in college as I was searching for a summer internship. As I started …

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Winter in the Forests of the Chesapeake

Colder temperatures, snowpack, shorter days, and reduced food sources create challenges for many organisms throughout the forests of the Bay watershed.

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The American Eel: International Fish of Mystery

The American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a fish that has fascinated me since childhood. It began at an early age while fishing at my family’s cabin. We were night-fishing in a small stream for bullhead catfish when I hooked into something that was obviously too large to be a bullhead. By the time I hauled …

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Riparian Rangers Spotlight

As November turns the corner, autumn weather has begun to deepen our world with burnt orange hues, maroon, and umber tones. The leaves have fallen and are turning crisp underfoot. The trees are now returning to dormancy for the remainder of the year. Despite this, our work is not yet over for the season. This …

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Dangerous Doppelgangers of Native Trees

Oh, the horror! Controlling invasive plants can be grisly work, and in the heat of hunting down and hacking away at victims of land management, mistaken identity can result in tragedy. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard landowners say that they’ve committed ghastly acts against trees and shrubs that they thought were invasive …

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Fall Volunteer Tree Plantings: Socially Distanced and Still A Success

Volunteers planted over 3,500 trees to reforest 19 acres across 12 sites in south-central Pennsylvania.

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The Ghost Forests of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, often referred to as the “Everglades of the North” encompasses an extensive amount of plant, animal, and habitat diversity.

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Carnivorous Plants of the Chesapeake Bay

For some, fall weather and thoughts of Halloween bring to mind spooky decorations. Often those decorations include sticky spider webs and bubbling cauldrons of unknown substances. But did you know that our plant world has its own spooky substances? In fact, various types of carnivorous plants lurk within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Like spider webs, …

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The Great Hack of 2020

As I finally finish regaling another successful and collaborative spring tree planting season and the last of the maintenance is being implemented, I can’t help but to praise the various tree species that have worked so hard over the season to help us realize our lofty dreams of more forests in our landscape. We strive …

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