1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

A bill threatening some of Maryland’s most sensitive and pristine Wildlands is moving fast in Annapolis, and birds need your help to stop it. HB1270/SB399 will accelerate the process of building a transmission line through state Wildlands in Western Maryland and allow these areas to be exempt from protected status. Wildlands are state-owned lands that have retained their wilderness character as well as containing rare or vanishing species of plant or animal life and other features worthy of preservation. Additionally, Marylanders will not benefit from this line. It will carry fossil fuel generated energy from Pennsylvania to Virginia! SB 399 already passed the Senate, so immediate action is needed to stop this legislation from moving forward in the House of Delegates. The benefits of forests and its inhabitants cannot be understated. Forests provide us with clean air, helps mitigate flooding, stores carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas impacted climate change), and supports a vast and diverse range of species that are worth protecting and researching. A full 40 percent of the drugs behind the pharmacist’s counter in the Western world are derived from plants! As a horticulturist, a hiker, and a lover of science, I urge you to reconsider this bill. The impacted Wildlands and Important Bird areas include Big Savage Mountain, Savage River State Forest, Dan’s Mountain, and Meadow Mountain. Science shows that eastern U.S. habitat is becoming increasingly fragmented, and that fragmentation leads to lower productivity in bird populations. One-third of eastern forest bird species have experienced significant population declines in the past 50 years, including three billion birds lost during that time. Having reviewed HB1270, we can confidently say that this proposed legislation is not a project that brings birds back. In fact, HB1270/SB 399 will accelerate Maryland’s habitat loss while removing critical protections to some of the last wild places in Maryland and our special forested Appalachian woodland ridges.