DNR says APHIS team expanding on-ground bird flu response; flags park, land and funding actions for Eastern Shore

Secretary Josh Kurtz, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, told the Eastern Shore Delegation that the department has expanded a long‑standing contract with the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to provide additional staff on the ground to collect sick and dead birds amid an avian influenza outbreak affecting Caroline and Queen Anne’s counties.

Kurtz said APHIS already fields roughly 30,000 calls a year through a statewide 1‑800 number and that “starting today, we will have additional staff on the ground from APHIS helping us to continue to do that collection.” He added that DNR staff who manage aviaries and park lands are also assisting in collection and quarantine work on state properties.

Delegates on the panel pressed the department about earlier communication gaps. Delegate Jay Jacobs said residents in his district were told to call the Department of Agriculture and then called him when nothing happened, and asked for more direct help for callers. "There should have been... better communication with people when they have these problems," Jacobs said. Kurtz accepted responsibility for unclear messaging and said DNR would centralize information and “very quickly” tighten communications around the APHIS 1‑800 line.

Nut graf: The department described both operational changes to respond to the outbreak and several Eastern Shore priorities. Members were briefed on DNR’s near‑term land, park and grant activity — including a legislative notice for a proposed state park property in Wicomico County and multimillion‑dollar grants aimed at resilience and forest management on the Eastern Shore.

DNR updates and Eastern Shore funding

Kurtz told the delegation that Wicomico County — one of two Maryland counties without a state park — is the focus of a legislative notice for a roughly 450‑acre property on the Nanticoke River (referred to in the meeting as the Grama property). He said the next administrative step would be the Board of Public Works review.

Kurtz also described a departmental provision expected in an upcoming public lands bill that would allow local programs to use 100% (up from a current cap of 75%) of certain local acquisition funds for park operations and improvements once acquisition targets are met.

Kurtz briefed members on two grants that will target the Eastern Shore: a $1,000,000 award from the Chesa peake Sentinel Landscape Resilience Project for easement purchases near Blackwater and Fishing Bay, and a $43,000,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to support regional forestry management, roughly 1,000 acres of forest management and about 200 acres of marsh restoration for blue carbon projects.

Fisheries, park staff, and other operational notes

On operations, Kurtz said DNR park staff with wildlife handling certifications have been deployed in places such as Tuckahoe where they were able to quarantine and collect large numbers of affected birds. He said the department has asked its wildlife unit to respond directly to some calls rather than routing all calls through APHIS in order to supplement APHIS capacity.

Kurtz also addressed the role of the Power Plant Research Program and how DNR evaluates energy projects, including smaller modular nuclear reactors: "When Power Plant Research Program does those analyses... we’re looking at water usage, impacts to water temperature, impacts to freshwater species," he said, adding that some smaller modular reactors may present different scale impacts than traditional nuclear facilities.

Questions and next steps

Members pressed DNR on communications and a single point of contact; Kurtz said he would raise the idea with the governor’s office and the Department of Agriculture and said he planned to join an interagency call later the same day. He also said DNR would issue a press release and centralize information about response tools.

Ending: Delegation leaders thanked Kurtz for the briefing and for department participation in watermen and fisheries meetings. Kurtz said he would return to brief the delegation again and invited members to a later 2 p.m. briefing referenced in the meeting.