NorthBay Live!

At NorthBay, we believe learning is not constrained to simply books, the classroom or our own camp even! We know that all of these venues and mediums together give students the best chance at success! But getting out and about and doing real research and real science can open the eyes of learners to possibilities they never dreamed of…

This past week some students from Baltimore City who have recently been to NorthBay got a chance to be aboard the Denis Sullivan, a teaching vessel from Michigan on its way to do research on the reefs of the Caribbean! See a bit of Meghan Luttrell and Tim Driscoll’s day with them above and stay tuned for Rick & Salena’s footage with Cecil County students coming soon!

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Catonsville & Somerset April 14-18, 2008

April 18th, 2008

Click here for slideshow! Read the rest of this entry »

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The Denis Sullivan

April 17th, 2008

The Denis Sullivan and her crew are docking at the mouth of the Sassafrass River near NorthBay and doing research with a group of middle school students from Cecil County on a 3 day trip. Several days ago we returned from a 3 day program with Baltimore students in which we surveyed several oyster beds in Chesapeake Bay. The students were looking to compare and contrast the beds based on water quality, sediment, oyster size and abundance, and known past productivity. In addition to ponar grabs and our water sampling equipment, students also utilized an otter trawl and dredge on a smaller boat to survey the area. The trip was great fun and we are excited to spend the next 3 days studying oyster beds with another group of students.

Find out more information from the Denis Sullivan’s daily record here: http://voyage.pierwisconsin.org/classroom/daily_reports/index.php

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Restoration By Fire

April 16th, 2008

Ecological restoration is a hard process. It’s uncertain, and takes a lot of planning, thinking, rethinking and finally hard work. The key is to not cause a degraded condition in the environment that requires restoration since prevention is much easier than the cure. But we humans, as a species, make mistakes and cause environmental problems that require restoration to reverse.

Fire is one of the tools restoration ecologists use to help repair damaged ecosystems. This is a dangerous process that requires years of training and months of planning to execute. We recently used fire at NorthBay, under the supervision of the Maryland DNR, as part of an effort to restore native grasslands.

Sometimes we make mistakes in our lives, like we do in the environment and we need to restore the damage we have done due to our poor choices. This is also a lot of work and can be painful. But it is needed just like ecological restoration, if we are going to have hopeful futures. Is there an ecosystem or neighborhood near you in need of restoration? Do the results of a bad choice you made need to be restored? How can you prevent a degraded condition in the environment and your life so that restoration isn’t necessary?

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