MARYLAND BRIEFING

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Stronger Forest Protections Moving Ahead

Montgomery County officials are considering new protections for the county's dwindling forest in the wake of the tree-cutting controversy involving Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder.

Council member Howard A. Denis (R-Potomac-Bethesda) on Tuesday embraced recommendations from a task force assembled by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and said he plans to introduce legislation as soon as September. The measure would strengthen the county's forest conservation laws to try to keep residents from clearing mature trees.

The task force suggests increasing forest replanting requirements and applying the conservation law to smaller properties and more communities in the county.

"Hopefully, people will think twice about clearing an extra acre," said Katherine Nelson, a Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning Commission planner who served on the task force.

Van Hollen put together the task force after Snyder failed to get county approval before clearing 55,000 square feet of land behind his Potomac estate and beside the C&O Canal and Potomac River.

-- Ann E. Marimow

PRINCE GEORGE'S SCHOOLS

Coach Accused of Pimping Is Dismissed

Prince George's County school officials said yesterday that a man accused of being a pimp for a teenage prostitute would not be allowed to continue as an assistant junior varsity football coach at Bowie High School.

School system spokesman John White said Arron J. Burroughs, who has been jailed in the District on a charge of first-degree child sexual abuse, was not a school employee but an unpaid volunteer.