Thousands of trout fingerlings, like this brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), are raised and stocked every year by students in classrooms across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Photo by Ryan Davis. Trout are excellent ambassadors of forested landscapes. They are widely fished for recreation, economically important, and downright charismatic, especially the stunning native brook trout.
Photo credit: Corinne Lamontagne Wintry weather can take a toll on year-round wildlife residents of mid-Atlantic and northeastern forests. For roughly one third of the year, regional forests offer little protective broadleaf cover from predators and the elements, have limited food sources, and are frequently inundated with snow. In response to these lean
On a warm Saturday morning this fall, over 30 landowners gathered on a property in Baltimore County, Maryland to learn a little about promoting the birds and the bees. Literally. The workshop, titled “Get to Know Your Backyard Habitat”, invited local residents to see an example of stellar wildlife habitat tended by landowners Pascale Meraldi
Despite occasionally being a bit of a Grinch, something I love about the holiday season is that we fill our houses with wild flora. Dozens of conifer species are displayed in homes as Christmas trees, wreaths of hemlock and fir hang from doors, and sprigs of American holly brighten up rooms with their glossy green
Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata), oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), and Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) swallowing up a pine in York County, PA. You could be next! Photo by Ryan Davis Invasive plants have a lot in common with zombies. They’re dangerous, hard to dispatch, and have a tendency to surround and overwhelm even the most
Bats are not something that you should be afraid of, but to nocturnal insects there is no greater danger. An individual bat will eat thousands of insects each night! This is good news for humans who want less insect pests, but means that bats need good foraging habitat to satisfy their voracious appetites. In Forests
Bats of the eastern US are in trouble. Millions have succumbed to White-nose Syndrome in the past decade, which can kill 90-100 percent of bats that hibernate together in caves over winter. Our bats have been declining for decades before White-nose Syndrome began spreading throughout the northeast, however. Their reliance on forests, outlined in Forests
Bats are important members of our forest ecosystems and perform invaluable functions for humanity. All October long, you can learn more about these fascinating animals and their current conservation plights as we feature articles and blog posts about our furry friends and their importance to our Chesapeake ecosystem! Alliance Blog Posts Forests for
The federally endangered Virginia Big-Eared Bat (Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus). Photo by Jesse De La Cruz Bats are typically associated with caves, attics, and Halloween, not trees. However, all 15 of the bat species within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed use forest habitat for breeding, foraging, and/or shelter. They are a critical part of forest
Photo by Jake Dingel, PA Game Commission The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Axioms aside, neither do acorns. How, then, do oak saplings grow anywhere but directly beneath or downhill of adult oaks? How can they possibly end up on ridges, where gravity couldn’t possibly take them? Acorns can be dispersed
A Table Mountain Pine limb, Shenandoah National Park. Photo by Ryan Davis Dry, rocky ridges are home to plants that show how tough it is to live there. Gnarled limbs and stunted stature are common on wind-scoured peaks where soil is shallow and poor in nutrients. Many species can be found in better
Native moisture-tolerant shrubs that fringe this stream in western Maryland improve the water quality and habitat for both terrestrial and aquatic fauna. Ninebark fruits are developing in the foreground, and several dogwood and viburnum species hold the white flowers peppering the shrub layer in the background. (Photo by Ryan Davis) Not many woody
