The Winner of our annual Face of Summer Contest

Okay okay... We get it. You like your kids.

This is the moment in the article where if I was writing an email, Id add LOL. And thats because as we received hundreds of submissions for our annual Face of Summer contest-- the most we have had in the five year history of the contest -- about 90 percent of them were of children. A few were images of adults but by and large most of them were people under the age of --oh...at least 13. And thats okay. We like kids too. Like We have said before, they are the future subscribers to Allegany Magazine. With that said, its little wonder then that our Face of Summer 2010 is another child. And really, take a look at her. How could we resist that face? Those blue eyes, the slight dimples, even the earrings. Shes the very picture of summer fun in her blue and yellow sun dress on the beach. Meet Devyn Neff. Shes the daughter of Leon and Kelly Neff of Cumberland. Her mother, Kelly, really wanted her baby girl on the cover because she submitted multiple entries and even had some of her friends submit pictures of Devyn as well. It apparently was a campaign that worked on us. All of these pictures of Devyn were taken by me at Rocky Gap on two different summer evenings in August and beginning of September 2009, KellyNeff wrote in an email that accompanied the photographs. She does have beautiful blue eyes, they just seem to really catch the light when photographed. Hard to take pictures of her now that she can walk...too busy and too fast! While Devyn was ultimately chosen by the staff here at Allegany Magazine to be our official Face of Summer several entries came very close to making the cover.

Bringing up baby

By GINGER SQUIRESCORRESPONDENT Photo Credits/GINGER SQUIRES

It began with a phone call last August.Hi guys, can you baby-sit today? Huh? Bob and Donna Candy -- the owners of the Tri State Zoo in Cumberland -- had come home that weekend from the Natural Bridge, Virginia Zoo with a two week old white Bengal tiger. That was great, but you cant run a zoo and tend to a baby at the same time. So, as excited as we were by the idea, we got put on the list of babysitters. A few days a week, for the day, Mowgli -- as the tiger was named --would come and live with me, my husband Tim, our golden retriever and black lab. They were 12 hour days, but joyful in nature. When tiny, his waking area was the kitchen on a blanket and nap room was set up in the half bath. The dogs loved the cub but were a tad leery. He didnt smell like anything they had ever encountered. Bottle Feeding was every few hours. The feeding part was a joy. Cleaning up after his potty breaks..um...not so much. But, hey you get used to anything, right? Days off from cub sitting were laundry days to get ready for the next round. At least, early on, Mowgli took nice naps which allowed for other normal duties. Then came stage two. After what seemed like a short while,milk alone was no longer enough.Now it was mix the formula, add the baby oatmeal, shake, feed, encourage potty time, clean up, start over. Naps became shorter. Yelling to get out of the nap room became louder. Feeding became more frequent. Not only did I do laundry on off days, but stocked up on Band Aids and first aid cream. Unintended scratches were the norm and I learned quickly that tiger babies have big claws.

To read the entire wild article,click here...

Could one little beetle wipe out an entire species of trees?

You bet your sweet ash it could

by SHANE RIGGSManaging Editor

They are coming. And when they get here, it could mean war. They are transcurrent green beetles -- some less than an inch long -- that feed on the insides of ash trees. Once you see one on your trees, its too late. The tree is beyond being saved. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is an exotic beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. But the larvae of the beetle feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients. The larvae eat their way out of the trees, boring a D-shaped exit hole in the tree. Once that hole is spotted, the trees sustainable properties inside have been wiped out and its only a matter of time before its on the brink of falling. The EAB is already a nationwide problem. Environmentalists and agents with the federal department of agriculture have been monitoring its migration for eight years. So far, all they can do is follow it and hope perhaps to starve it to death by immediately eradicating trees within the beetles fly zoneonce an adult is spotted. Stateside, the EAB infestation has already claimed millions of ash trees in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The outbreak has caused regulatory agencies and the USDA to enforce quarantines -- one of those quarantined places is less than 100 miles away from Western Maryland. Thats where Cumberland resident Nathan Bennett comes in. Bennetts full time job between February and July as a field technician with the Maryland Department of Agriculture is to set and then monitor all 300 EAB trap sites between Garrett and Washington Counties. It is his duty to place the purple kite-like traps in the tops of ash trees and then pull each one down everyday to check for any EAB evidence in Western Maryland. So far, he has found none. But Bennett believes this area is sitting in an unholy triangle. Recent discoveries of adult EABs in nearby Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, as well as Charles County and Prince Georges County in Maryland and Cranberry Township outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania could mean its not a matter of if the beetle arrives but when. People think they are being nice by leaving firewood behind but if that firewood is from an ash tree and there is an EAB inside any of it, for the trees nearby thats Russian Roulette, said Bennett. Just dont move firewood around. Dont take any wood from ash trees into a wooded campsite. Just dont. Firewood is a great carrier of any insect including the EAB, said Sue DuPont, communications director with the Maryland Department of Agriculture based in Annapolis. We need to stop transporting firewood into campsites like those in Western Maryland. Buy it where you burn it is what we like to say. The canopy of infested trees begins to thin above infested portions of the trunk and major branches because the borer destroys the water and nutrient conducting tissues under the bark. Heavily infested trees exhibit canopy die-back usually starting at the top of the tree. One-third to one-half of the branches may die in one year. Most of the canopy will be dead within two years of when symptoms are first observed. Sometimes ash trees push out sprouts from the trunk after the upper portions of the tree dies. They are very evasive species, Bennett said. They can lay thousands of eggs in one tree. And the tree tries but it really cant protect itself. The ash tree is also an important contributor to the environment, said DuPont. They are great for air and water quality, she said. They are mostly planted along streams and water sources and they hold the soil in place and it helps prevent soil erosion. We need to keep them. So its very important that we keep looking at those purple traps and keeping an eye on them. But all it takes is one unaware person to start the dominoes tumbling. One ignorant person could bring in a load of wood from outside the area with an EAB in it and all of our ash trees will be gone within two years, said Bennett.

To read the entire special report and learn how you could help protect your trees,click here...

Golden Books

Allegany County Library Celebrates its 50th anniversary

by AMY SHUMANCorrespondent Photo Credits/JOHN SHUMAN

Theres a big 50th anniversary celebration in our area this year and its spectacular in its scope. More than 7,500 people of all ages and backgrounds utilize at least 40,000 items each month, all at no charge. A total of 50,000 people take part in the offerings year-round. Many people come who are interested in 4-H, archeology, astronomy, beekeeping, boy and girl scouts, bridge, coins, doll collecting, gardening, glass, history of our area, hot rods, knitting and crocheting, legal matters and tax preparation, quilting, radios, scrapbooking and stamps. Did you guess? Nearly 3,000 people interested in going ghost hunting, tie dying shirts, spitting watermelon seeds, pizza taste testing, making paper airplanes, celebrating each season, giving blood, swapping plants, entering photography contests, learning to pickle vegetables, understanding Reiki and Qigong and experiencing the basics of the computer gather each year in seven locations in Allegany County. Did you figure it out? The answer: The Allegany County Library System. In a local poll several years ago, having a park and a public library in a community were rated as the two most valuable assets, so its no wonder that the six local libraries and the bookmobile are so revered in Allegany County. Each library evolved from providing countians with just books to the modern resource centers that many people have grown to count on for so many things. Todays librarian -- or media specialist -- is in charge of more than just books. Librarians are also in charge of audio books in CD, DVDs, music, e-books, digitized collections, online data bases, play aways (shirt pocket books) and more, always wanting to meet the consumers request with advancing technology of our time. Although there were library branches in Allegany County since the 1920s, what is being celebrated is the 50th anniversary of becoming the Allegany County Library System. There was an initiative in 1950 through 1960 to establish new county libraries and strengthen existing libraries through cooperative arrangements among neighboring libraries, following the Public Library Law of 1945. This not only meant funding from the county government, but it also established Allegany Countys first library board, the first library director, and, by bringing all of the small town libraries under the county umbrella, staffing, collections and buildings were able to grow and expand to meet the needs of each community. The pivotal date, then, was July 1, 1960, when the public libraries located in Cumberland, Frostburg, LaVale, Pennsylvania Avenue School and Westernport became the Allegany County Library System.

To read more about the golden anniversary of our library system,click here...