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(Music) Hi, my name is Charlie Gischlar.
I’m a spokesperson with the Maryland State Highway Administration.
And we’re in a bog here right off of our route 30 bypass.
The Hampstead Bypass. It’s a one year old road and what you’re
probably wondering about behind me is what these sheep and goats are doing.
Well, they’re helping us manage succession of invasive species
in this bog which is home to the federally threatened bog turtle.
This year, what we’ve done in the second year of our project
was we enlisted the help of Hampstead Elementary and
Sandymount Elementary students in naming these goats and sheep
and also naming the herd.
The herd’s name is the Bypass Babies and the Bypass Babies
are on active patrol against invasive species like the multiflora rose and helping the bog
turtle to thrive.
And the students all voted. The fourth grade class from Sandymount Elementary
and the two fifth grade classes from Hampstead Elementary
and came up with the 40 different names as well as the name of the herd.
And the students were very creative with some of the names
they came up with such as Twitter, Gizmo, Shaggy and also Bobo and Cooper
so that’s just some of the names of our Hampstead “Babies” behind me here.
Teachers loved it because it was a great partnership between the
State Highway Administration and the Carroll County school system
and it also gave the students a first hand look at what they’re studying
about land use and natural habitat.
In addition to this bog and the eight acres that were
permanently preserved here as part of the highway project,
we also set aside three or four acres down the street further
to try to re-establish the American Chestnut Tree
in partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation Maryland Chapter
and in that similar area, there’s the propogation of the Baltimore Checkerspot,
which is the Maryland state insect and is also a very rare insect
and we’re putting the white turtlehead plant in
which is what the Baltimore Checkerspot thrives on.
So, we’re doing a lot of ecological things here
with this one piece of property that surrounds the
Maryland 30 bypass.
(Music)