Webinar: Decades-Long Partnership Successfully Eradicates Destructive Nutria Rodents from Maryland
November 15, 2023 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm CST
Nutria are invasive, semi-aquatic, South American rodents first released into Dorchester County, Maryland in 1943. Since their release, nutria have destroyed thousands of acres of wetlands through their destructive feeding habitats. A concerted effort to eradicate nutria in Maryland began in 2002 following a two year pilot project to determine if nutria could be eradicated from the Chesapeake Bay and if the damaged marshlands would recover. The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, under the direction of a management team initially composed of representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR), Tudor Farms, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and University of Maryland, began the first phases of the project in April 2002. Twenty years later in 2022, the The Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project announced that nutria were successfully eradicated from the state of Maryland. In this webinar, participants will learn about nutria and the successful partnership-based program that eradicated the invasive rodents from Maryland.
Presented by Jonathan McKnight, Associate Director of the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service within the Department of Natural Resources
Jonathan McKnight has served in numerous roles in wildlife habitat conservation since 1986. He is currently the Associate Director of the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service, the wildlife management section of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
