Pamela Wood

Here are some of my favorite stories from recent years.

Skipjack survivor
I spent time with Capt. Barry Sweitzer and his crew aboard the Hilda M. Willing, one of the few remaining working skipjacks on the Chesapeake Bay. Skipjacks are sailboats that use dredges to harvest oysters. These boats won’t be working the bay in another 10 years and I felt privileged to tell this story, this bit of history. I also shot photos for a slideshow. PDF version.

Fort Meade environmental problems
I dug through piles of government documents, attended meetings and pestered the military for this package of stories explaining the scope of environmental contamination at Fort George G. Meade, which is a Superfund site. PDF version.

Small fines for big sewage spills
Each time there’s a big sewage spill, I get phone calls and e-mail messages from readers and sources who want to know if anyone is going to get in trouble. So I did some research and found that most often, the consequences for spilling raw sewage are minimal. I blogged about the team effort that went into the story. PDF version.

Fear for the Turtle
A look at efforts to boost the population of the state reptile, the diamondback terrapin. The headline is a play on the University of Maryland slogan, “Fear the Turtle.” This story was fun to report. I had some adventures with photographers Colleen Dugan and Bob Gilbert while reporting this story.

Sturgeon
Atlantic sturgeon are a very cool fish in the Chesapeake Bay. I wrote about what makes them unique, as well as the people who are passionate about saving them. Photographer J. Henson and I went over to Cambridge to see a lab where scientists keep sturgeon to study them.

Holding on to a heritage
I profiled a father-son team of watermen, the last working watermen of Eastport — and probably the last in all of Annapolis proper. I enjoyed hanging out with them on their boat and in their seafood shop, seeing how they work.

Capt. John Smith Shallop
I spent a fun day tagging along with the crew of a replica of the rowboat/sailboat used by Jamestown settler and Chesapeake explorer Capt. John Smith. Earlier, I had written about the “shallop” when it was under construction.

Tiny stem cells generate huge debate
As state lawmakers considered legislation about stem cells, I took a step back and looked at the debate through the eyes of regular people on opposite sides of the issue. I think stories like this are best told through regular folks, instead of through politicians, lobbyists and talking heads.

Crownsville cemetery
The state decided to close one of its under-utilized psychiatric hospitals to save money. I wrote scores of stories about the decision and the effects it had. This story looked at what might happen to an old cemetery on the hospital grounds.

First haircut
I wrote about this assignment on my blog. My editor sent me to cover a little boy’s first haircut. I was skeptical, but it turned out to be a sweet little story.