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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Yesterday I wrote about Money Magazine’s list of its best small cities to live. Eden Prairie, Minn., edged out Ellicott City/Columbia for first place thanks to attributes like “gently rolling hills,” “plenty of outer beauty” and other idyllic, Midwestern traits of the type long chronicled by writers like Garrison Keillor.

But consider:

1. The magazine says one of the headlining reasons the Minnesota town wins is because it has “a dynamite economy.”  But then it turns around and says not only does Ellicott City/Columbia have a jobless rate “just as enviable as Eden Prairie’s,” but it is an “economic powerhouse.”  I’m not sure how dynamite compares quantitatively with a powerhouse, but by Money Magazine’s standards, the difference is apparently a measly .1 percent.  Come on.  Negligible at best.

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Wondering what you can do for the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico? Get your hair cut. Seriously.

Catonsville’s Narcissus Salon is collecting hair and working with Matter of Trust to supply the ingredients to make hair mats for the “Hair For Oil Spills” program. The program collects donations of hair, fur and nylons to make hair mats that are placed around oil spills to contain the oil and keep it from spreading.

On Thursday, the salon will also be hosting a Matted Manes collection event where you can drop off donations of hair, fur and nylons that will be sent to Matter of Trust. Narcissus is asking other salons and grooming facilities to join them in the collection.

According to Matter of Trust, hair-filled nylon booms work better than the traditional ones because they absorb the oil better. After all, we wash our hair to get rid of that oil, right?

Interestingly enough, BP declined Matter of Trust’s offer to donate the booms and said it is using its own synthetic boom. I sensed a bit of frustration from Matter of Trust on BP declining the donations after the oil company’s Critical Resources Department initially said it was interested in the donations:

“On May 21st BP’s Public Affairs department, who were not in contact with the Critical Resources Dept. until we introduced them, told us that BP wanted to apologize but that [it] had enough of their own BP synthetic boom,” Matter of Trust said on its website. “We want to thank BP Crtitical Resources Materials Management Team For Boom Acquisition for their forward ideas and to say that they were a pleasure to work with.”

Instead the hair/nylon booms are being used by municipalities and harbors. In addition, people are rolling them on the beaches and putting them in shrimp bags that are tied together in strings from pier to pier. This also helps remove tar balls from the beach.

For other businesses interested in getting involved, Matter of Trust has contact information on its homepage.

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In honor of Earth Day on April 22, lots of businesses are teaming up to do good, offering giveaways and hawking Earth-friendly items or programs to attract your attention.

Sears is hoping to catch the eye of Maryland residents looking to save some green — that is, getting rebates for buying Energy Star-qualified appliances when the state’s program kicks off next week. Maryland has $5,405,000 up for grabs in rebates in its “Cash for Appliances” mail-in rebate program.

Sears will open at 6 a.m. on April 22, and have extra staffers on the floor to help people sort out appliance purchases and get rebates sent in electronically while they’re in the store, so that rebate doesn’t get forgotten in a pile of papers on the kitchen counter.

Sears is also the “2010 ENERGY STAR Retail Partner of the Year,” so it has revamped its Web site with all of the relevant information on rebates, credits, disposing of old appliances and buying new ones.

They have a handy section that shows you how much money you’d save buying a new appliance based on what you already have, the cost of electricity in Maryland and what model you plan to swap in (for refrigerators, think side-by-side fridge and freezer vs. freezer on top).

The company will also haul away your old appliance and make sure it’s disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, recycling the parts that can be reused.

In Maryland, here are the rebates available for buying Energy Star-qualified products:

– $50 for refrigerators
– $100 for clothes washers
– $300 for heat pump water heaters

Through the state’s EmPower Maryland program, residents can also get additional rebates on appliances offered by their utilities. For more info, check out the Maryland Energy Administration’s list of extra rebates.

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