am is made by MPT to enrich the diverse throughout our state by the generous support of Thank you.

[frogs barking] NARRATOR: Coming up... Delmarva Ponds play host to amateur archeologists search for and the ultimate test Next.

ANNOUNCER: Outdoors Maryland with the Maryland Department DNR: inspired by nature, [waves crashing] Closed Captioning has been made empowering those who are deaf, or speech disabled * [seagulls squawking] [soft music] NARRATOR: of an Eastern Shore wetland, glisten in the February sun, the recently laid egg masses a state endangered species.

SCOTT SMITH: This is a species We basically have two meta one in Caroline County NARRATOR: Scott Smith is a with the Department of Today, he's conducting a tiger It's cold work, but this is the that he and his crew can track SCOTT SMITH: It's in the so it spends most of its life burrows like moles.

NARRATOR: Emerging during the and to lay eggs in ponds like SMITH: Basically, they're that fills up with water And then, in most years, by the end of the summer NARRATOR: Meaning, which is precisely what breeding ground for amphibians frogs, and newts, will be safe from In fact, Conservation Specialist attributes the decline of the in Maryland in part to the BETH SCHLIMM: Unfortunately, many of them have or they haven't been NARRATOR: Culprits include and a large network of designed to drain the landscape.

Human suppression of wildfires encroaching trees.

SCHLIMM: The more trees the more water is being and it really dries them out SMITH: The sites that tiger salamanders a really long hydro period.

They're wet for a NARRATOR: Throughout history, of these ephemeral wetlands meteor shower impacts to of the biblical flood.

SMITH: They say that that as the waters receded beached up on land did their death throws.

NARRATOR: Earning them the But the true origin dates back to when much of the was sand dunes shaped by wind.

SMITH: We're going post-Pleistocene dune and And the next interdunal which is where we're going to NARRATOR: Each year, Scott [counting] SCHLIMM: 39.

SMITH: 39.

NARRATOR: From which he can and get a sense of which ponds for breeding.

This winter, he's taking SMITH: This year, we're trying population, so we're doing So far, we haven't been ECOLOGIST: This is a pipe NARRATOR: Pond after pond, until... SMITH: Yes!

Yes.

Two tigers in the last one.

NARRATOR: Tigers in hand, their vitals.

SMITH: I'm going to weigh them.

NARRATOR: And then mark that glows under UV light.

SMITH: This is part of a come up with some So to do that, you catch then you release them.

Then you catch them again and are marked already.

And we have been monitoring the endangered Eastern tiger since the early 1990's.

There's a lot of But overall, we've seen, since we really started doing we have seen in this extremely NARRATOR: Come summertime, ice and bare branches make way Water levels have dropped and have long since hatched.

Somewhere beneath the surface, venture onto dry land But for several other the breeding season SMITH: Carpenter frog.

Hear that?

[frog barking] NARRATOR: A fact that becomes as day turns to night.

[frogs barking] SMITH: When we arrived here, it was quiet, but tonight it's like NARRATOR: This soundtrack one of the Delmarva Peninsula's the state endangered Early June is peak time for these to descend from the canopies and to float tennis ball like [barking] barking in the hopes of [barking] SMITH: So this is It's the largest tree frog And of course, And he just wants to start, he wants to call right here And I would like to let it go and we're keeping it from NARRATOR: Like the the barking tree frog benefits of these important a process which usually once these seasonal ponds SCHLIMM: We are in a wetland and we're here to do some I checked on this particular In June, there was still And then when I was out the water level had NARRATOR: Right now, [scream of drill] SCHLIMM: The goal of this of these wetlands and remove that we don't think What we're doing is drilling and then we inject and that tissue will pull that and kill the tree.

NARRATOR: Removal of trees will hopefully help prevent from drying out too quickly that enough sunlight SCHLIMM: Having the light into the water column is really amphibians that are laying It helps with their development.

NARRATOR: It's a simple SMITH: So we've had a handful that did not have And as soon as we opened up tiger salamanders moved in.

NARRATOR: Within rain and snow melt will across the Eastern Shore, of these ancient wetlands.

And if all goes according the choruses will be [frog barking] and the egg masses [birds chirping] NARRATOR: Along the verdant in Southern Maryland, millennia lies buried just inches below And on a sunny June morning, are hard at work [shaking] searching for a piece of a point on a century's old MATT MCKNIGHT: The Augustine Maryland in the year 1670.

It shows a Native American location.

NARRATOR: A village that was the last known home of the This summer, archeologists and Stephanie Sperling Wighkawamecq as part of the in Maryland Archeology.

This annual event invites to participate in some of the around the state.

MCKNIGHT: Kids, adults, anybody can come out here And we train them in teach them how to excavate, how to wash and clean It's a great experience NARRATOR: This year, at Billingsley House, from where the Patuxent flows called Jug Bay.

STEPHANIE SPERLING: We know that thousands and thousands There's more than 60 sites that in this area that we haven't discovered yet.

And artifacts have been found 8,000-10,000 years.

But specifically, is looking for this year the Contact Period village.

MCKNIGHT: And I think NARRATOR: A metal detector to this section of the field, a number of test units, and screening it for artifacts.

So far, the clues that they are small things, a few bits of pipe.

Fragments of the 17th century objects.

VOLUNTEER: So this is an It's a little too big So my guess is that it's probably the point of a NARRATOR: But each artifact whether or not it brings offers a direct, tangible link ROY BROWN: Sometimes you're the since it was dropped or lost neat connection to it.

NARRATOR: It's a connection volunteer, Roy Brown, as a primitive technologist.

BROWN: I started back in 1987 up in Garrett County.

[rock chinks] And I thought it was so cool.

I said, "I could make that."

And it escalated from that.

NARRATOR: Flint knapping, not to mention an authentic which he built at Rocky Gap after helping to excavate the at a nearby archeological site.

BROWN: The wigwam site was Native Americans are I feel a sense of responsibility about what the people NARRATOR: And it's not just For Roy, it's also about through doing.

BROWN: Primitive technology it's the process of recreating as accurately as we think so that we get a better And it's nice having the But the real insight you get That was a nice flake.

NARRATOR: The same holds true MCKNIGHT: But I think a lot of thinks that it's really cool artifacts It's more about and reconstructing from where the artifacts relative to one another.

NARRATOR: To capture volunteers take copious notes.

VOLUNTEER 2: Okay.

So it goes NARRATOR: Making maps of the and keeping track of things like For Rico Newman, a member of Maryland's Native it was precisely this care that helped change his once archeology.

RICO NEWMAN: Beyond my I don't know where They could be buried here.

I don't know.

So I always had it that somebody's going to put a shovel and decapitate And I had to get past that.

So for several years, I would go to sites such as this one, what they were doing.

NARRATOR: Before long, NEWMAN: I learn a lot by doing by getting down on the ground shaking screens, looking at coming out of the earth.

And they tell a story.

NARRATOR: For now, what exactly that story will be.

But one of the more promising a cultural feature.

On dig sites, features are or in this case, what looks Unlike artifacts, features are fixed in the soil, for pinning down the location MCKNIGHT: So what we've done As we go down, we'll be able to this feature and how deep it is.

So we hope that there's recovered from this pit that can Hopefully, it's dateable from We've put a lot of hope NARRATOR: And though that hope will pay off with to sometime between just prior to the first English one more clue that they could But there's still MCKNIGHT: All the notes, once the artifacts there'll be And then everything is going to Conservation Laboratory.

And they'll be available basically in perpetuity.

SPERLING: There are so many that could be asked at beyond just the Contact Period.

NARRATOR: And no matter what may be, digs like this one to the tapestry that is NEWMAN: What comes of this, it fills in the blanks.

When you look at that are used in native history, culture and And it's work like this that and put us back [triumphant & dramatic music] NARRATOR: On a crisp the normally sleepy is buzzing with tension.

Equestrians from around the a three-day eventing competition Maryland's 5 Star at Fair Hill of horse and rider.

MAN: We didn't really like here.

We didn't anticipate NARRATOR: three-day eventing is the of a triathlon.

On day one, the dressage horse and rider must On day two, the cross country and stamina.

Finally, day three brings a for show jumping.

And a five star is the JEFF NEWMAN: Only a set amount in the world can compete at NARRATOR: Jeff Newman, Organizing Committee, to bring the event to Maryland.

NEWMAN: It's higher The Olympic level is four star.

NARRATOR: There are only seven And this inaugural competition has attracted some of like Zara Tindall, granddaughter SPECTATOR: all the international riders to have come to this NEWMAN: Kentucky can say and a Five Star.

Now, Maryland can say we have so touche.

NARRATOR: This section of once owned by the has a long and storied history The sport itself originated as with the cross country course the most challenging leg.

And Maryland's 5 Star course at is no exception.

COLLEEN RUTLEDGE: This is NARRATOR: Colleen Rutledge Mount Airy, Maryland.

Like all riders, she's walking to prepare.

RUTLEDGE: every rollercoaster, every jump, and a here and a there.

And it just, I mean it gives me talk about it because it's just, NARRATOR: Walking the course is the only chance riders get or so-called questions.

Lauren Nicholson is one of the top riders This weekend, she's riding and prepares by strategizing and knowing LAUREN NICHOLSON: So you've been And you also, we have to think a pretty difficult question.

So the horses can really, So you definitely want be like we got something big and keep them thinking * NARRATOR: Challenging the is exactly what course designer IAN STARK: it's got to be very challenging.

It's got to be up to standard.

But the one thing that I always is tricking the horses.

I don't really care if have a sleepless night or two on the loo for a few hours.

That's okay, no problem.

I like to kind of intimidate But the horses are the ones So the good footing, and understandable questions in spite of the rider sometimes.

NARRATOR: Ian's four-mile course It has about 45 questions a local flavor.

STARK: So I do try and involve local history, whatever And yeah, the crab's sort But at this stage, I don't expect But they might jump So you might see hit the buckle end of the reins, and their eyes look as though in headlights.

[crowd cheers] RUTLEDGE: Every time we leave it's got to be a And this is an ultimate question we are asking them to they don't actually know It could be 12-feet deep But then Ian's done this a ditch and bank.

It's an Irish bank in the water.

We haven't seen this.

Every question in here is trust.

Every question in here NARRATOR: Eventing is scored Points are given The horse and rider with COMMENTATOR: Colleen Rutledge Colleen from right here NARRATOR: Finally, It begins with the dressage COMMENTATOR 2: NARRATOR: --where horse and graceful partnership It goes well for both who finish out the day in the But as each rider knows, can be the great equalizer.

STARK: It's you and your horse, two minds synchronizing and and attacking the course.

And you can't get any better.

I mean, it's just brilliant.

NICHOLSON: You know, it really comes down to having a really good And by the time you you've usually ridden them and trust you to guide them NARRATOR: On Lauren Nicholson's she led her horse [applause] But with many riders to go, anything can happen.

RUTLEDGE: You always You've planned plan B, plan C, Sometimes plans go Sometimes they don't go so on your feet and make a But that's why we NARRATOR: On this day, for Colleen.

A fall early into the course And she isn't the only one.

Ian Stark's course would outdo COMMENTATOR 2: Oh no.

COMMENTATOR: Oh, buck.

All the looming clouds.

NARRATOR: But as the weather there's still a dozen including Lauren's second run.

Undaunted, she turns in one of finishing sixth overall and final round of [crowd cheers] show jumping.

NARRATOR: Show jumping has jumping fences and rails and recovery of the horse on the cross country course.

COMMENTATOR 2: That's fantastic.

NARRATOR: The top 10 riders from one another.

COMMENTATOR: So it's going to be Monte Carlo, NARRATOR: By the end of the day, Boyd Martin, takes first place.

And Lauren will finish 6th NICHOLSON: These horses and they're still healthy, You know, that speaks NARRATOR: It may be the end but the Maryland 5 Star marks and a continuation of a Closed Captioning has been made empowering those with to stay connected.

* ANNOUNCER: Drop into our website and suggestions.

And now, you can also [owl hoots] ANNOUNCER: diverse natural beauty DNR: inspired by nature, *