Scientists studying the natural links between Maryland's mountain streams and its bay marshes are beginning work in a state-funded $20 million laboratory that officially opened yesterday on the campus of Frostburg State University.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., an Allegany County Democrat, was the keynote speaker at the unveiling of the lab, which was built to house researchers for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The center's three laboratories -- near Cambridge, on Solomons Island and at Frostburg -- specialize in research aimed at protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal waters.

At the Frostburg lab, scientists focus on the ways the bay is affected by changes in air and water quality far to the west, in the mountains at the outer edge of the bay watershed. Among their research projects are restoring streams damaged by mining waste; learning whether gypsy moths' forest damage has caused more pollution to reach the bay; and understanding the traits of the region's native fish.

Pub Date: 4/23/99