Just in time for Maryland’s spring turkey hunting season — which begins April 18 — we have news of one manufacturer of turkey calls suing another.

Down-N-Dirty Outdoors alleges Knight & Hale Game Calls has copied its air-blown turkey call and is selling a version that is basically a rip-off of Down-N-Dirty’s.

Here’s how Down-N-Dirty’s call sounds:

And here’s Knight & Hale’s:

According to the lawsuit, the companies had been in talks about doing business together or possibly merging, but when nothing came of the discussions, Knight & Hale took one of the calls it was given by Down-N-Dirty and copied it.

Regardless of how the suit comes out, turkey hunting remains difficult. As the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says: “It is nearly impossible to sneak up on a turkey.”

And whatever sound you’re making, we say: Many are called, few are frozen.

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Lockheed Martin may be responsible for your future plate of sushi. The defense giant from Bethesda has developed an aquaculture system so innovative that it was named one of Time magazine’s top 25 inventions of 2012.

Working with Kampachi Farms of Hawaii and Illinois Soybean Association, Lockheed has come up with a mobile fish pen that floats along on ocean currents while attached to a barge. Automated systems — tied to satellite communications — feed the fish and clean the pen while it journeys through deep water.

“This truly revolutionary approach to aquaculture is a remarkable example of the breadth of missions and projects to which Lockheed Martin technology can be applied,” Gerry Fasano, president of Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions-Defense, said in a news release. “We took technologies and software developed for defense-related applications and used them to create a sustainable, environmentally sound method of farming, which will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on our oceans and wildlife.”

The mobile pen could help alleviate environmental or crowding issues related to inland  and shore-based fish farms.

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An Associated Press article posted earlier Monday on our website reported how opponents of fracking — the controversial method of extracting natural gas from rock deep beneath the ground — apply shaky science to back their stand.

Meanwhile, another news report says the natural gas industry has been backing university scientific studies that reach conclusions favorable to continued fracking — though the studies’ connection to the industry isn’t at all apparent.

“Producers are taking a page from the tobacco industry playbook: funding research at established universities that arrives at conclusions that counter concerns raised by critics,” a Bloomberg article states.

As examples, the Bloomberg piece cites the following:

*An economic study from Penn State that favored the continuation of Pennsylvania’s policy of not taxing gas drillers. “What the study didn’t do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist … with a history of producing industry-friendly research on economic and energy issues.”

*A University of Texas study that said fracking did not contaminate ground water. The professor who led the study is on the board of a gas-drilling company and received $400,000 in compensation from the company last year.

*A study from the State University of New York at Buffalo, partially authored by the same economist from the Penn State study, that “did not acknowledge ‘extensive ties’ by its authors to the gas industry, according to a watchdog group.”

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If you’re seeing @MDBlackBear suddenly becoming active on Twitter these days, it’s for good reason.

Apparently ’tis the season for the state’s black bear hunting lottery, and the Twitter account (created by the Dept. of Natural Resources) has about 800 followers. The DNR is spreading the word that the 2011 hunting permit lottery opened online July 1, and is accepting applicants through Sept. 2.

DNR will issue 260 bear hunting permits this season, with only one black bear to be harvested by a permittee/subpermittee hunting team. More details on the process and the sport itself can be found here.

Kind of a peculiar way to use Twitter, but hey, it’s beary innovative.  (Yes, I did.)

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A group of business, agriculture, science, environmental advocacy and government leaders have been appointed to a state task force to study the impact of septic systems on future development of rural land.

Today’s move comes after debate during the 2011 General Assembly over the proposed Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act.

Del. Maggie McIntosh, chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee, was appointed head of the task force and Jon Laria, named on Monday as managing partner in the law firm of Ballard Spahr will be vice chair. Laria, is a close political ally of Gov. Martin O’Malley, who appointed the task force. Laria also chairs the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission.

“This effort is not about stopping growth — it is about stemming the tide of major housing developments built on septic systems to generate clean water and protect our environment and public health,” the governor said in a statement.

Task force members are Erik Fisher, land use planner with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Fred Tutman, executive director of the Patuxent Riverkeepers and a member of the Patuxent River Commission; Robert Mitchell, administrator of the Environmental Programs Division of Worcester County; Rob Etgen, executive director of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and Pat Langenfelder, president of the Maryland Farm Bureau.

Studies show that over the next 25 years, 26 percent of new residential units built in the state will install septic systems. Those systems are anticipated to create 76 percent of new nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and other Maryland waterways and tributaries.

The task force is expected to report findings by Dec. 1.

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You might start seeing this “SolarBee” floating in the harbor soon.

Blue Water Baltimore, the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and KCI Technologies are partnering up on a pilot project to study the aeration and mixing in the waters of Baltimore’s harbor.

The project will determine the scope of engineering and scientific skills needed to design a system that would reduce low oxygen “dead zones,” which form throughout the summer months. Those zones are responsible for wide-spread fish-kills that you’ve seen (and smelled?) around the harbor before.

A solar-powered “SolarBee” aeration and mixing device will be anchored in the harbor off the end of the Recreation Pier at 1715 Thames St. in Fells Point starting Thursday.

The pilot study program will monitor and track dissolved oxygen, the temperature of the water, salinity, density and conductivity.  Getting that information will help the companies create devices to reduce those “dead zones.”

Funding for the program comes from a $100,000 grant from the Abell Foundation. KCI will be conducting the monitoring of the program.

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The Baltimore Blast are headed to the Major Indoor Soccer League championships this year for the sixth time in nine years.

To celebrate, the Blast are throwing a party downtown on Thursday so visitors and those on their lunch break can mingle with the players and join in. The celebration will be at noon at Hopkins Plaza on Charles and Baltimore streets. There will be music, free food and Blast paraphernalia, as well as the chance to win tickets to the championship game.

As for the game itself, Baltimore will play against the Milwaukee Wave at First Mariner Arena on Friday. The game will be at 7:35 p.m. and tickets range from $16 to $30.

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Q: What do you get when a rock crosses with didymo?

A: Rock snot.

As I learned from covering the algae story in Monday’s paper, scientists came up with this clever nickname for the dribbles of goo that cover river rocks and bugs. And after seeing pictures of it, yeah, didymo looks like snot.

Apparently the stuff is most problematic for fishing lures and bait — it covers your line with foot-and-a-half long rat tails, said Jason DuPont, a guide on the Gunpowder River. So you can imagine that must do wonders for fishing.

But it starts to grow like peach fuzz in the fall, DuPont said, and practically doubles in size over the winter. Until spring, the goop will be at its fullest bloom, if you want to catch some pretty views of rock snot.

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A new initiative by Baltimore officials to get the city’s surplus of vacant properties back on the tax rolls has prompted an environmental nonprofit to spring into action — and marshal mobile technology and crowdsourcing in its effort.

Baltimore Green Space is planning to send 20 two-person teams throughout the city on Dec. 11 to take pictures with their smartphones of vacant lots that have been turned into community green spaces.

They include gardens, so-called pocket parks, horseshoe pits and other lots converted into what the city calls “community use” spaces. Baltimore Green Space says it has given the city about 200 block/lot numbers but there are many more. And with 13,000 vacant lots throughout the city time is of the essence, organizers say.

“The city faces an information problem — it simply cannot know which of these ‘vacant’ lots are actually community assets that improve the livability of neighborhoods and thus property values,” Baltimore Green Space writes in an online event listing publicizing the effort.

The Daily Record’s real estate reporter, Melody Simmons, wrote about Baltimore’s “Vacants to Value” initiative last month.

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A Baltimore roofing company wants to give away a “green” roof to a nonprofit looking to reduce its carbon footprint.

Cole Roofing has dubbed the promotion the “Green Roof Giveaway” and values it at $30,000, either in the form of solar panels or a vegetated roof, which Cole says are growing in popularity. Interested nonprofits can go to a website and upload a video or submit an essay explaining why a green roof would help them in their work. The deadline is Nov. 15.

Cole Roofing will determine the type of roof to install based on the structure of the nonprofit’s building.

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