Maryland

Governor Wes Moore is calling on the federal government to declare the expanding population of invasive fish species—including blue catfish, flathead catfish, and snakehead—to be an ongoing commercial fishery disaster in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The governor sent a letter [Mar 2023; PDF, 2.4 MB] to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo requesting the declaration under provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. The declaration would qualify Maryland for federal fishery disaster assistance.

The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project (CBNEP) announced at an event at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge today that Maryland is now free of the exotic, invasive nutria. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (WS), and Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have worked more than 20 years to make this difficult task -- never accomplished before on this scale -- a success.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) expanded its spotted lanternfly quarantine.  A quarantine order first issued by the state secretary of agriculture in October 2019 for Harford and Cecil counties is still in effect, but has been expanded this year to also include: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Kent, Montgomery and Washington counties, as well as Baltimore City. This quarantine is effective immediately, and restricts the movement of regulated articles that might contain the spotted lanternfly in any of its life stages, including egg masses, nymphs, and adults.

See additional resources on the Maryland Department of Agriculture's site for Spotted Lanternfly for up-to-date information. For questions related to the quarantine, permitting, treatment, or to report a sighting of the spotted lanternfly, especially outside of the quarantine zone, call 410-841-5920 or email DontBug.MD@maryland.gov. If you report a spotted lanternfly via email, please provide the location of the sighting and your contact information.

In an effort to monitor invasive northern snakeheads in the Chesapeake Bay and Blackwater River, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announces a new tagging program in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Both agencies are placing yellow or blue tags on up to 500 northern snakeheads. Each tagged northern snakehead caught and harvested from now until 2024 could be rewarded with a gift card of $10 or $200 depending on the tag.

In order to qualify, the harvester must report the tag number to USFWS at 800-448-8322, and is asked to take a picture of their harvested and tagged northern snakehead. Only harvested northern snakeheads with reported tags will qualify for gift cards.

Are you a crabber, waterman, or concerned citizen? We need your help to detect and assess the status of Chinese Mitten Crabs. The "Mitten Crab Watch" website provides information on the invasion of the mitten crab and allows users to more easily report catches.

Please help us detect live mitten crabs by reporting any sighting in North America. We are especially interested in collecting sightings from the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, Hudson River, and San Francisco Bay --- where the crab has been common in the past. Please visit the Mitten Crab Watch website to learn more about the crab and to report sightings.

Do you hike, ride, bird, camp, fish, or otherwise recreate in state parks, forests or wildlands? Lend YOUR eyes to help Maryland's biodiversity! The Maryland Natural Heritage Program designed Statewide Eyes to allow volunteers and researchers alike to collect more information about invasive plants on state lands quickly. Volunteers (like you!) use a free mobile application called the Mid-Atlantic Early Detection Network (MAEDN) to identify, photograph and map the location of invasive plants, focusing on ecologically significant sites.

Thousand cankers disease (TCD) is a disease complex native to the western United States and primarily affects black walnut, Juglans nigra. This disease is the result of the combined activity of a fungus, Geosmithia morbida, and the walnut twig beetle WTB), Pityophthorus juglandis. On January 12, 2015, the the Maryland Secretary of Agriculture issued a quarantine order to minimize the risk of moving infested material out of the limited action area in Cecil County, and to provide confidence in Maryland walnut products moving into neighboring states from non quarantined areas. The 2015 quarantine order has been updated to include all of Baltimore City and part of Baltimore County [PDF, 1.2 MB]. The new quarantine [PDF, 1.0 MB] was signed on May 1, 2019 by the Maryland Secretary of Agriculture.