Maryland

E

Soils

Gray-brown podzolic soils predominate, except in the western mountains, where thin infertile podzols cover most of the slopes. The soils of the Eastern Shore include heavy loams and silt loams in the north and light sandy soils in the south. On the plain west of the bay the soils are also silt loams and sandy soils, but they tend to be comparatively less fertile than the soils of the Eastern Shore.

The soils of the Piedmont valleys are fertile loams and clay loams, which are well suited to agriculture. The soils of the Piedmont hills and of mountain ridges farther west are generally thin. Where they are productive, they are used for pastureland and orchards. In Hagerstown Valley there are fertile silt and clay loams that support good crops of corn and hay.

F

Plant Life

In the years of early settlement, most of Maryland was forested. Nearly all the virgin forest has been cut, but second-growth forest covers 41 percent of the state’s land area. Forest cover exceeds three-fifths of the land surface in extreme western Maryland, the far eastern portion of the Eastern Shore, and the southern part of the state.

The most common trees in the forests of Maryland are oaks, maples, hickories, tulip trees, southern pines, and beeches. The black locust, black cherry, and ash are also common in the hardwood forests, and the cottonwood, willow, and sycamore are found along the streams. The white oak, a common hardwood, is the state tree. About four-fifths of Maryland’s forests are hardwood while one-fifth are softwoods, mostly southern pine.

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In the mountains of Maryland the hardwoods are intermixed with conifers. On the higher slopes, white pines, red spruces, and hemlocks are sometimes found in almost pure stands. Where hardwoods predominate, the undergrowth includes the dogwood, raspberry, Virginia creeper, sassafras, blackhaw, spicebush, holly, huckleberry, and azalea. The most common wild flowers include the mayapple, mountain laurel, jewelweed, cranesbill, golden aster, goldenrod, and the black-eyed Susan, which is the state flower.

In the forests of the east the loblolly pine and Virginia pine are often dominant. Also occurring in these lowland forests are the sweetgum, blackgum, hackberry, persimmon, sweetbay, and many of the major hardwoods common to the uplands of the west.

The Great Pocomoke Swamp, in eastern Maryland and southern Delaware, contains the northernmost stand of bald cypress in the United States. The vegetation is typical of southern swamps. Southern white cedars are found along the fringes of the swamp.

G

Animal Life

All the large mammals found in colonial Maryland have disappeared, with the exception of white-tailed deer and a few black bears in the western mountains. However, small mammals are still common and include the red fox, raccoon, muskrat, otter, mink, woodchuck, cottontail, gray squirrel, chipmunk, opossum, and striped skunk.

The marshes of the Chesapeake Bay area, which lies in the Atlantic Flyway, harbor numerous migratory and resident waterfowl. Among the most common are the canvasback, mallard, black duck, wood duck, scaup duck, red-breasted merganser, Canada goose, great blue heron, great egret, whistling swan, and snow goose. Shorebirds are abundant in the east during summer. Among the great variety of land birds are the robin, blue jay, cardinal, eastern meadowlark, Carolina wren, mockingbird, and species of warblers, vireos, sparrows, thrushes, hawks, and swallows. Bald eagles are found in increasing frequency. The Baltimore oriole is the state bird. Common game birds include the quail, ringnecked pheasant, and mourning dove, found in most areas; the wild turkey and ruffed grouse, found principally in the west; and waterfowl on the Eastern Shore.

Common snakes found in Maryland include the non-venomous hog nosed, green, black, corn, yellow rat, milk, king, and garter snakes. Venomous snakes include the copperhead, cotton-mouthed moccasin, and timber rattle snakes.

Many fish inhabit the waters of Maryland. In the streams can be found black bass, trout, perch, sunfish, and other game fish. Fish in Chesapeake Bay include the striped bass, or rockfish, shad, white perch, menhaden, drum, and alewife, or river herring. Marlins are the main attraction of Maryland’s sport fishing. Other ocean fish are tuna, sea bass, sea trout, and porgy. Shellfish found in Chesapeake Bay include oysters, clams, and blue crabs. The diamondback terrapin, now scarce, is found in the marshes around the bay.

H

Conservation

Conservation activities in Maryland include the prevention of soil erosion, the conservation of fish and wildlife, and the preservation of open space. The major federal agencies active in the field of conservation in Maryland are the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Agricultural Research Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service. State conservation programs are administered by numerous state agencies whose activities are coordinated by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Much of the state has escaped severe soil erosion. However, there has been considerable erosion in extensive areas of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and also in the Piedmont, where the continuous cultivation of tobacco for more than three centuries has robbed the soil of its fertility and has left the bare hillsides exposed to the heavy spring and summer rains. Since the 1930s, Maryland farmers have adopted such conservation practices as contour plowing, no-till farming, diversion terracing, grass rotation, and drainage of pasture land.

Water pollution, overfishing, the use of illegal fishing gear, the taking of immature fish and shellfish, and the prevalence of plant and animal pests have increasingly reduced the annual harvest from the waters of Chesapeake Bay. However, efforts are being made by federal and state agencies, as well as by private organizations, to restore the bay’s productivity. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) joins federal, state and local governments in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania in a cooperative effort to clean up and improve the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. By the mid-1990s the CBP reported significant positive results, but some environmental problems persist. In 1997 repeated microbial infections caused thousands of fish to die in several rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay. Scientists are investigating the cause of the disease outbreak, but believe that agricultural runoff may be a major source of the problem, along with pollutants from factories, sewage systems, and even lawns.

The preservation of open space around the rapidly expanding metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., is a growing concern of many federal, state, and municipal agencies. Efforts are being made to prevent suburban development from absorbing the potential recreation sites that are still not in any park system.

In 2006 the state had 17 hazardous waste sites placed on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or proximity to people. Progress was being made in efforts to reduce pollution; in the period 1995–2000 the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment was reduced by 14 percent.

III

Economic Activities

Maryland, while small in area, has a highly diversified economy. Originally it was an agricultural colony, with tobacco as its main crop. Farming remained the chief occupation until the late 19th century. In the 1890s manufacturing became a more important source of both jobs and income. Although agriculture is still practiced in most of Maryland, it now provides less than 1 percent of the state’s gross product. Manufacturing, meanwhile, has grown to produce as much income for the state as does retail trade. The services sector, however, provides the largest share of economic activity. Some 3,009,000 people held jobs in Maryland in 2006. Those employed in services, with such jobs as caterers and dry cleaning attendants, were 41 percent of the workforce. Another 19 percent percent worked in wholesale or retail trade; 21 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 34 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 6 percent in manufacturing; 7 percent in construction; 5 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 2 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. Employment in mining was just 0.1 percent. In 2005, 13 percent of Maryland’s workers were unionized.

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