As we strategy the beginning of the summer season season, DNR is ready to fulfill it with new additions to our Maryland State Park system and a rising listing of outside recreation and training alternatives. 

Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford joined us at Sandy Level State Park to chop the ribbon on our new nature middle, which is able to present the general public with instructional alternatives about wildlife native to the Bay and the integral half that they play in sustaining its normal well being. Together with the Middle’s interactive shows and details about our Bay – in each English and Spanish – the park additionally opened a Chesapeake Bay-themed playground. He additionally proclaimed April 15-22 as Maryland State Park Week for the second 12 months in a row.

In Baltimore County, DNR devoted a portion of the Gunpowder North Path in reminiscence of the late Jim Gracie, trout fisherman and stream restoration advocate. She served as a long-time member of the DNR Sport Fisheries Advisory Fee.  This path is a becoming tribute to Jim for his extraordinary accomplishments in defending our state streams, wetlands, and coldwater fisheries and his efforts that contributed to remodeling the Gunpowder River into one of many prime trout streams in the US. It was really an honor to work with him throughout my time within the Maryland Normal Meeting and as secretary of DNR as he raised consciousness of the significance of water high quality in our Maryland streams.

At Patapsco Valley State Park, we additionally devoted our new customer middle to a person who labored tirelessly to develop it – the William Offutt Johnson Historical past Middle is called in honor and reminiscence of the one that labored tirelessly to determine this customer middle. Throughout a 30-plus-year profession with DNR, Johnson performed a key function in creating the Helen Avalynne Tawes Backyard in Annapolis. As a park naturalist at Patapsco Valley State Park, he spent 5 years changing the final surviving stone duplex from the Avalon Iron and Nail Works into the park’s first full-time Customer Middle that now bears his identify.

In Montgomery County, DNR opened a brand new five-mile multi-use path community at Monocacy Pure Assets Administration Space in Dickerson. This three-year mission concerned planning approval, mapping, hall clearing, and putting in new maps, blazing, and wayfinding signage. 

The week of occasions culminated on Earth Day, with the Lt. Governor becoming a member of us as soon as once more for ribbon-cuttings on two new Maryland State Parks on the Higher Jap Shore – Bohemia River State Park in Cecil County and Cypress Department State Park in Kent County. These occasions bookended every week of celebrations and new beginnings all through our public lands. 

As you possibly can see, our employees has been working diligently with our volunteers and companions to make sure that these new additions improve the customer expertise, help our pure assets mission, and supply better entry to Maryland’s outdoor. We invite you to go to and revel in one among these new areas and keep tuned for added bulletins! 

Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio is Secretary of the Maryland Division of Pure Assets.