Didymo was found in early 2008 in Gunpowder Falls below Prettyboy Reservoir in Baltimore County. Since July 2008, DNR and Baltimore County/DEPRM have been monitoring Didymo occurrence monthly in the Gunpowder Falls between Prettyboy and Loch Raven reservoirs.

1996 marked the 90th anniversary of Forestry in Maryland and the birth of what is known as the Department of Natural Resources Forest Service. Although we have been known by many names over nine decades, our mission has been consistent, "To conserve and enhance the quality, quantity, productivity and biological diversity of the forest and tree resources of Maryland."



To commemorate this milestone, the citizens of Maryland received a gift on April 22, 1996 when the state-of-the-art John S. Ayton Forest Tree Nursery was dedicated in Preston, Caroline County. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to open a facility that will grow trees for the future of Maryland's forests and the Chesapeake Bay well into the 21st century?



As we look forward to the challenges of conserving and protecting our forests and greenspaces, it's equally important to reflect on the people and policies that have enabled us to approach a century of service. To do this we must travel back to the year 1900 to a home on Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, D.C.



It was in this home where an eager group of young "student assistants" met on Sunday evenings in a group they called the "Baked Apple and Gingerbread Club" to learn the science of forestry. Their teacher was Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service and widely credited as the father of American forestry. One unforgettable evening, their guest speaker was a pioneer of conservation, President Theodore Roosevelt. Pinchot selected sixty-one young men to participate in forestry training and sent them out in groups around the country to collect forest data for twenty-five dollars a month. One of these young men was Fred W. Besley, who six years later would become Maryland's first State Forester and establish one of the first state forestry agencies in the nation.