I have been staying out of this for the time being because I have been awaiting a response from a friend of mine that is a supervisor on the project. He and I have talked about Hart-Miller every time we get together. Although I would agree with the desires to have the north cell managed as wetlands habitat for ducks and waterfowl, the word that I have been getting from him over the last couple of years is that the Army Corps is planning to cap the north cell and there will be nothing to put boardwalks in & nothing to manage water levels for. The last that he told me was that under the Corp's plan the cell would be completely covered and capped with no impoundments left for wildlife habitat. A grassland was proposed at one point but there was concern that the dredged 'soil' may not be suitable for supporting native grasses on the site. They only planned to have water habitat is the existing south cell.

Another major problem would be the Phragmites that is so prevelant in the south cell. They have tried plowing under, burning and poisoning the Phragmites in the south cell and there has been nothing that has had any effect in trying to eliminate this menace. Creating mudflats would just increase the available habitat for this native 'weed' to spread and it would not take too long for the grasses to cover all of the exposed shorebird habitat and render the area useless for its intended purpose. The grasses along the edges of the impoundments would likely make viewing of ducks on the open deep water impossible through the 8-10 foot high natural wall. 

That is the last information that I had been told and those are the problems that he claims they face in trying to do anything but cap the cell. I have sent him a request for an update on the plans to see if anything has changed but I have not yet received a response. Perhaps Gene can expand on this and shed a little more light on the subject.

Regards,

Ed Boyd
Westminster, MD

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: danny poet <> 

> >From: Jeff Shenot 
> >Reply-To: Jeff Shenot 
> >To:  
> >Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Hart-Miller Island North Cell 
> >Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 22:06:30 -0500 
> > 
> >Gene - my two cents: 
> > 
> >I urge that they should keep it (and all of H-M Is.!) as wild as possible. 
> >It will 
> >last much longer that way. I don't think it needs any new buildings or 
> >facilities, with the possible exception of a port-a-john at either end. 
> >Any 
> >facility construction will eat up funding, and will require future 
> >maintenance 
> >funding - please keep any structures as basic as necessary, the more 
> >facilities 
> >there are the more expensive it gets, 
> 
> 
> > 
> >Cheers! 
> >Jeff Shenot 
> >Croom MD 
> 
> 
> Hi Gene and everyone My comments go along the same lines as Jeff Shenot 
> keep things basic For Shorebird waterbirds etc . while a raised 
> veiwing area would be nice , if things are kept they the way they are now 
> veiwing the birds was too much of a problem when I was there a couple of 
> years ago . Off course we need a way to get there . Most of the funds 
> should be used for providing for the wildlifes needs however 
> 
> Happy Birding 
> Danny Poet 
> Queenstown , Md 
> birder2312hotmail.com 
> 
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