Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
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Visualize the shape of West Virginia. Now visualize Garrett and Allegany counties being a part of the Mountain State rather than a part of Maryland.
To me it makes a lot of geographical sense to boost West Virginia up to 57 counties instead of 55. And, by dropping Almost Maryland from the Free State, it would get by just fine with 21 counties.
Shoot, draw the state border at Hancock where Maryland is only 1.5 miles wide. It wouldn’t take much pencil lead.
While taking a trip from Martinsburg to Matewan, you would be out of the Mountain State only briefly on pieces of Interstates 81 and 70.
Weirton to Welch?
You might have to dip into the Buckeye State for a spell.
I’ve written more than once about the social and cultural differences that exist in the two states, even though they are side by side.
Fer example, laws exist in each state that make it illegal to harass hunters. In Maryland, that law is more likely to be applied when someone who hates hunting tries to screw up a hunter’s day in the field.
In West Virginia, that law is more likely to come into play when a guy who has spotted a big buck and is trying to kill it does something to keep another guy from putting a tag on it.
Over the years, governors from West Virginia have sent out press releases, including photos, about the bucks they killed in any particular season.
I remember such a photo from Governor Cecil Underwood. I told Cecil, I mean Governor Underwood, when I interviewed him as he stood atop the toll bridge linking Oldtown and Green Spring, that he had been a really lucky hunter because I was pretty certain that Maryland Governor Parris Glendening didn’t get a buck that year.
Not that it makes any difference, but in Maryland the D in DNR stands for department. In West (By God) Virginia, it stands for division.
When Bob Ehrlich was trying to get re-elected as Maryland’s governor in 2006, he sent a DNR team throughout the state to talk about how good a job he had done.
DNR Secretary Ron Franks visited us at the Times-News and wanted to talk for an hour about oysters. I told him my readers weren’t really interested in oysters, but that didn’t deter him. I think he knew a lot about oysters.
I will gar-run-tee you that had Ed Hamrick gone to Keyser or Romney or Moorefield to help either Gaston Caperton or Bob Wise get re-elected he would not have talked about wild boar in Logan County or about the Ohio River Management Plan. Ed would have talked about South Branch smallmouth or Nathaniel Mountain bears.
Recent articles by the directors of the natural resources agencies in each state have further pointed out to me the different mindsets.
John Griffin is the secretary of natural resources in Maryland. Frank Jezioro is the director of West Virginia’s DNR. I have known both men for some time and appreciate the access they have given me, and consequently the readers, to their thoughts on various issues.
In a recent agency publication, Griffin wrote, “Tourism, including ecotourism, is Maryland’s third leading industry, bringing millions of dollars into local economies.”
In a recent news release, Jezioro wrote, “I had the groundhog in the scope and the crosshairs settled on his shoulder. A little pressure on the trigger and the afternoon silence was broken with the sharp crack of the rifle.”
Griffin wrote, “Our contiguous forests in Western Maryland serve as carbon storehouses. Our wetlands protect our coastal communities from the impacts of sea rises.”
Jezioro wrote, “The bass shot out into the middle of the fast water, jumped and bored deeper into the green water. All I could do was hold on.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying one DNR director is good and the other one is bad.
Am I suggesting that Frank Jezioro worries only about his bobber and his bird dog and doesn’t look at the big picture? Absolutely not.
Jezioro is always thinking about his fellow hunters and anglers and the valuable natural resources that make their lives a joy.
Under his watch, a program has begun to create older age bucks on a half-dozen or so public hunting areas. Another of his efforts saw to it that the big name trout streams were stocked as close to the weekend as possible, something his constituents requested.
And, please don’t infer that I am saying John Griffin is aloof, concerned about something called sustainability and not grounded in the pastimes of Joe Angler or Johnny Hunter.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I’m sure the secretary has felt the cold flow of a Maryland trout stream striking him thigh-high on his hip boots. I’m guessing John and I to be in the same age bracket so I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if back in the 1960s he plunked a gray squirrel with a .22 bullet and then tied its tail to his car’s antenna. That was the thing to do then and there wasn’t much deer hunting to be had anyway.
I know I did, attach squirrel tails that is, until my mother said, “Michael, get those (expletive deleted) squirrel tails off the car antenna.”
Nope, I’m saying that one DNR director believes he has a certain kind of constituency — say people who prefer commercial bottles of water with just a hint of lime — and one who believes he has another kind of constituency — say folks who like old metal ladles holding scoops of chilled well water or spring water.
Point is, here in Garrett and Allegany counties, us constituents link up better with the West Virginia point of view than the one centered around the Chesapeake Bay.
It wouldn’t be all that big a step from Almost Maryland to Almost Heaven.
Residents of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle drive through here to get to Charleston anyway.
Annapolis wouldn’t even know we were gone.
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
