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Porcupine

TRACEY BARNES, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO

My family and I recently headed to Deep Creek Lake for some largemouth bass fishing. And although we caught and released some sizable fish, the highlight of our vacation was seeing a North American porcupine eating bark from a sugar maple along the side of Interstate 68.

The presence of porcupines in Maryland came as a surprise to me and my wife, but we have since learned that our state’s western counties have a regular population of these nocturnal rodents.  

W. Brooks Paternotte took the helm of Irvine Nature Center as executive director in July 2013 and immediately began building on the strong 35-year foundation. Brooks is a Baltimore native who was a teacher, coach, advisor, dean and Head of the Middle School during his 13 years at Boys’ Latin School in Baltimore. He is also an instructor and ambassador of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and is a Leave No Trace Master, as well as an avid outdoorsman and a features writer for FlyLife Magazine.
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