• Purple Loosestrife Control, MD DNR. Maryland biologists will manually cull purple 
loosestrife if encountered in the field. The state has also used biocontrols for several 
years. 
• Cooperative Giant Hogweed Eradication, MD DNR, Maryland Department of 
Agriculture (MDDA). MD DNR works to eradicate giant hogweed by using a 
combination of hand-pulling, herbicide application, burning, and bagging techniques each 
summer. 
• Plant Pest Survey and Detection, MDDA, Plant Protection and Weed Management 
Section. No specific action. 
• Phragmites Control Cost-Share Program, MD DNR, private citizens. This program 
supplies private landowners with herbicides for Phragmites control. MD DNR or MDDA 
can apply the herbicides and bill landowners, or the landowner can use a private 
applicator. Landowners incur any application costs. 
• Aquatic Weed Control with Herbicides, MDDA, Plant Protection and Weed 
Management Section. MDDA staff consider timing, permitting, organism’s effect on 
ecosystem, expense, and level of effort required for control in deciding which herbicides 
to use and when to use them. 
• Chinese Mitten Crab Investigation, MD DNR. The MD DNR, in cooperation with the 
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the USFWS, and NOAA has established a 
joint effort to evaluate the status of the Chinese mitten crab in Maryland. 
A.21.3. CLIMATE CHANGE CONCERNS 
• Climate change may affect the nutria problem. 
• A rise in sea level may place additional stress on marshes, which are highly sensitive to 
changes in water level. Marsh resources, if any remain, will migrate landward. Marsh 
loss is caused by a combination of nutria and sea level rise and subsidence of the general 
terrain in the area. 
• Significant warming may result in habitat changes, causing species such as the Bulls-Eye 
Snakehead, in Florida, to become an issue in Maryland. 
A.21.4. CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIONS 
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will use an ongoing nutria study to implement a 
4-year marsh restoration project, potentially covering 150 acres of marsh in the 
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The Corps is using sediment spraying to raise the 
level of the marsh, which helps to restore the marsh grass. 
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