Thank you for your story today about the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and their inaction and subsequent fines against the two men who rescued a deer in the Patapsco River ("Rescuers fined after freeing deer from Patapsco ice," Dec. 18). The story made me wonder about the culture in this agency.
I had one experience with them, aside from them chasing all the fish away to check fishing licenses in the bay. When my son was about 12, I gave him a new spinning rod for Christmas and bought one for myself (it was new technology at the time — a push button atop of a conventional-looking reel). I put light weights (no hooks or bait) on the end of our fishing lines and we went up to the local community pond to see how they worked.
A DNR pick-up arrived a few minutes after we did. The officer ran the tags on my pick-up to see if it was stolen, gave us a lecture about fishing out of season, and then fined me $70. I mentioned twice we weren't fishing, but it was like talking to a table. I was amazed to see this character was armed.