GARRETT COUNTY, MD — While Annapolis debates gender-neutral signage for state bathrooms and pushes legislation to let 16-year-olds vote, Garrett County is once again dealing with something real—a renewed cankerworm infestation that’s chewing through the county’s hardwood trees like Congress through your paycheck.
Drone footage taken May 27 over Deep Creek Lake State Park shows vast patches of defoliated treetops—an unsettling view for anyone who still appreciates the difference between a healthy forest and a bureaucratic PowerPoint on “climate equity.”
Yes, fall cankerworms are back. And while they don’t care about politics, they do seem to thrive in the kind of regulatory environment where real conservation is replaced with virtue signaling and academic buzzwords.
An Unwelcome but Predictable Visitor
This isn’t Garrett County’s first rodeo with the inchworm invaders. Locals remember similar outbreaks from 2020, 2022, and even decades prior. In those days, pest management wasn’t politicized—it was just something a responsible citizen or state agency did. You saw a problem, you sprayed, you pruned, you protected your land. You didn’t form a task force or seek public comment for six months while your trees died.
Now, the Maryland Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources are “studying” the outbreak and suggesting residents consult management strategies. Translation: read a pamphlet and hope for the best.
“We’ve been through this before,” said one longtime Garrett County resident. “But nowadays, they won’t even let you hang a bug trap without filing a permit request. It’s easier to get a zoning waiver for a wind farm than it is to trim your own tree.”
Nature Is Brutal. Policy Shouldn’t Be Stupid.
The return of the cankerworm is a reminder of something basic: nature operates on competition, resilience, and adaptation—not DEI initiatives and wishful thinking.
These caterpillars don’t care about carbon neutrality or urban rewilding theories. They’re here, they’re hungry, and they’re proof that managing a state’s environment means getting your hands dirty—not just publishing another grant-funded study.
And while Garrett County residents do what they’ve always done—look out for their neighbors, protect their land, and rely on good old-fashioned common sense—the state’s agencies are more concerned with optics than outcomes.
Maybe it’s time Annapolis paid more attention to the counties that still grow food, chop wood, and teach their kids to respect both nature and hard work, instead of letting our forests turn into symbolic casualties of political inaction.
Here’s What You Can Actually Do:
- Monitor your trees for signs of defoliation
- Contact local extension services (the people who actually know trees)
- Ignore the red tape and protect your property
- Push for policies that empower local action, not stifle it with form-filing
Because the cankerworms aren’t waiting for a focus group. And neither should you.
Maryland Bay News: Covering the real Maryland. One tree, one truth, and one forgotten corner at a time.
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