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Way Downstream

In Annapolis, in reviewing how a proposed constitutional amendment will read on our November ballot, Maryland League of Conservation Voters smelled a rat. Question One would prohibit the Board of Public Works from selling conservation land without legislative oversight. But the amendment — passed as Senate Bill 102 — no longer reads as written by Sen. Brian Frosh and Del. Peter Franchot. Maryland League of Conservation Voters blames the Ehrlich Administration for altering the text to increase the governor’s powers. “The new language is obtuse, difficult to understand, and we believe it is misleading,” said Conservation voters’ new executive director Cindy Schwartz …

In West River, octogenarian Mary Kinder brings Anne Arundel County’s preserved farmland to a round 12,000 acres, with the below-market, $2.8 million sale to the county of her 400-acre Miller Farm. A state-first partnership with the Soil Conservation District allows the farm to remain a working cattle farm, doubling as an educational destination. The farm, bounded by Muddy Creek, Sudley and Nutwell-Sudley roads, abuts another protected working farm, the Leatherbury Horse Farm, and the headwaters of Rockhold Creek …

On the Eastern Shore, the fate of the controversial billion-dollar golf resort that would bring thousands of new residents to the Bay is now in the hands of the state Critical Area Commission appointed by Gov. Robert Ehrlich. Conservationists say the massive development would threaten the nearby Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Chesapeake Bay. The commission says it will make its ruling by December, which sounds to us like a convenient way to dodge the issue before the gubernatorial election in November …

In Virginia, 2,000 tons of concrete from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge’s drawspan is being shipped down to Point No Point in St. Mary’s County to build an artificial reef. Maryland environmental officials and fishing enthusiasts originally lobbied for all of the 30,000 tons, but the cost was too high. The concrete had been ground into chunks to cushion demolition of the old bridge’s steel frame above Virginia’s Jones Point Park. The remaining concrete will be sold for recycling. Some 4,000 tons of steel will also be sold to recyclers. The new bridge’s contractors will keep the proceeds …

Our Creature Feature also comes from Virginia, where it seems to us like a disturbed fellow named George Seymour got justice for shooting his neighbor’s cat for scampering over his cars.

A judge in Charlottesville last week sentenced him to 60 days in jail. But he will have to spend just 10 days behind bars, plus performing unspecified community service. That service ought to include apologizing to the dead cat’s humans, which the Associated Press reported that he hasn’t done …