Facebook Twitter Twitter    Archive | www.aapa-ports.org October 7, 2013
   

Outreach & Community: Baltimore, Houston

Print Print this Article | Send to Colleague

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on September 26 designated Masonville Cove in Baltimore as the nation’s first Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership and with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Chesapeake Bay Trust will dedicate a total of $55,000 in support of the partnership. The Port of Houston Authority is introducing a smartphone mobile application that enables customers to check on the status of containers and their availability for pickup at the port authority's Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals.

Baltimore: MPA’s Masonville Cove Designated an Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on September 26 designated Masonville Cove in Baltimore as the nation’s first Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership. 

Masonville Cove Nature Area was opened in 2012 on a restored site owned by the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) on the Patapsco River, allowing public access to the cove for the first time in more than 70 years. The nature area offers opportunities within the city limits for walking, fishing, bird watching and other recreational activities. Currently, 11 acres of the nature area are open to the public and, after further restoration, 52 acres will be open to the public.

"National wildlife refuges are the best of America’s wild places, but many are not near major metropolitan areas," said FWS Director Dan Ashe. "Most Americans have grown up without a real connection to the outdoors and wildlife, and the Urban Wildlife Refuge Initiative gives us a chance to change that."

The FWS, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Chesapeake Bay Trust will dedicate a total of $55,000 in support of the Masonville Cove partnership.

The Urban Wildlife Refuge Initiative grows out of the FWS’s Conserving the Future vision, which sets a strategic path for the National Wildlife Refuge System for the next decade and beyond. 

In 2007, the MPA selected Masonville Cove as a future site to store material dredged from the harbor to maintain shipping channels and began the massive cleanup of the site. During restoration, 27 abandoned vessels and 61,000 tons of trash have been removed, including debris believed to date back to the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

An energy-efficient, "green" environmental education center opened in 2009 at Masonville Cove. Living Classrooms Foundation, the National Aquarium, and the Brooklyn and Curtis Bay Coalition run programs at the center that have reached thousands of community members, local school children and their teachers.

The nature center and its outreach program earned the MPA an AAPA Environmental Improvement Award in 2010.

Houston: Port Houston Releases New Mobile App 

The Port of Houston Authority is introducing a smartphone mobile application that enables customers to check on the status of containers and their availability for pickup at the port authority's Bayport and Barbours Cut container terminals.

The application features include the display of any and all terminal announcements, container status, summary of booking details, vessel schedules and cutoff dates, and information related to transiting through the terminal gates.

The application is designed for easy installation on smartphones and mobile tablets. Users may access information to choose Barbours Cut or Bayport container terminals through http://mca.poha.com.
 

Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn