Maryland’s nickname — “America in Miniature” — is a fond reminder of the broad diversity of our State. Maryland ranges from the Appalachian Mountains to the tidal rivers of the coastal plain and the Atlantic beaches and barrier islands. Preserving the rich natural resources of these regions — and the economies they support — is essential to Maryland’s future.
Disappearing Habitat
When European settlers arrived in Maryland more than 350 years ago, it was said that the Eastern forests were so expansive that a squirrel could travel from the Chesapeake Bay to the Mississippi River without ever touching the ground.
Today, in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, development has reduced the amount of tree cover from 51 percent to 37 percent in just 25 years. Thousands of acres of wetlands have also been lost, and the habitat that remains is often so fragmented that it no longer supports diverse wildlife or performs many other functions such as flood control or groundwater replenishment.
Fortunately, a growing number of programs focus on habitat quality as well as quantity. Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program aims to conserve large areas of agricultural and forested lands, and the Department of Natural Resources has developed a program called” GreenPrint” that identifies the forests and wetlands needed by wildlife so they can be protected and linked by future conservation efforts. In 1999, Maryland’s Critical Area Commission adopted a forest conservation policy aimed at directing development in the Critical Area (the 1,000 feet of shoreline next to tidal waters) away from these ecologically valuable lands. Incentives to private landowners to keep their land in forest, and a healthy forest industry are also vital to conservation efforts. Ultimately, efforts to save habitat — and the species that rely on it — will depend on the cooperation of all those responsible for land management to identify and protect the most valuable areas.
Only 80 acres of forest in all of Maryland has never been cut. That area is about equal to the size of a mall parking lot.
Disappearing Farmland
Maryland’s farmland is also shrinking. Agricultural lands are a key part of Maryland’s cultural heritage and are critical to our environmental and economic future. Currently, agriculture contributes more than $17.8 billion in revenue annually, making it the State’s largest commercial industry. When you purchase food and fiber products grown, produced or processed in Maryland, you stimulate the local economy. But this industry is threatened by the loss of agricultural lands.
The average age of Maryland’s farmers, 55, is increasing each year. As farmers face retirement, many find that their grown children chose careers other than farming. This trend, coupled with high development pressure and competition from outside of Maryland makes selling land a tempting option and has resulted in rapid conversion of farm and forest land in Maryland. Development also threatens agriculture by fragmenting farmland. This complicates farm management and the industries needed to support agriculture.
Well managed agricultural lands provide more than economic benefits, preserving the natural resource base, protecting sensitive areas such as wetlands and streams, and supporting important wildlife habitat.
For those who farm, or want to begin farming, Maryland Farm Link matches landowners with young people who want to develop a career in farming. The service provides a database with information about available farms located within the State of Maryland. The program also offers consultations, periodic seminars, and literature. More information is available at www.mda.state.md.us/ or call (410) 841-5700.
Whoooo... Cares About Saving Forests?
Many of our most beautiful birds — Barred Owls, woodpeckers and warblers —need large areas of forest to nest and raise young. Tanagers, wood thrushes and many other forest birds are migrants that winter in the Caribbean, and Latin America and return each spring to North America to breed. Other forest birds live in Maryland year round.
As forests shrink and become fragmented by roads and development, the number of forest birds is declining. According to an annual volunteer bird count called the Breeding Bird Survey, there was a 63 percent decline in these migrants in Maryland between 1980 and 1989.
All forests are not created equal. Many forest birds have specific nesting requirements, such as large standing dead trees. Smaller forests are less likely to have diverse habitats and food sources, and more likely to have invasive, non-native plants that limit the regrowth of native plants.
Forest fragmentation also causes problems. By creating more edges, it allows predators and parasites more access to birds and their nests. For example, domestic house cats are estimated to kill 3-4 million birds each day in the United States.
But protecting forests is not just about saving birds. Birds are also an indicator of the overall health of the forest ecosystem. When we protect large forests, we also protect headwater streams needed by fish, forested wetlands, and the habitat of many other plants and animals.
Techniques like clustering new buildings around the edge of existing forests and minimizing the number, width and length of roads can help save our most valuable forests and all the creatures that live there.
Preserving for the Future
Elizabeth Flower recently donated a conservation easement on her 303-acre farm in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland (above), to the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and the Maryland Environmental Trust. Mrs. Flower has lived on the farm, with 110 acres of tillable land and 185 acres of forest, since she and her late husband purchased the property in 1951.
“My husband and I never wanted to develop the land, even when we could have used the money. You can look down the road and see farmland that is now houses. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. I feel very strongly about this and I wanted to do this now. I know it would have been my husband’s wish too.” The conservation easement will permantly limit further development on the property, which now has one house, to one additional home.
Tools of the Trade
Local governments and conservation groups offer many tools to preserve farmland, forests and other open space. Some rely on the donation or sale of easements by a property owner, while other tools may include marketing assistance or protective planning and zoning.
- Protective Rural Zoning is zoning of a very low density. This is one of the most effective ways to protect rural and agricultural land and to maintain a critical mass of land required to support agricultural economies without buying conservation easements.
- A Conservation Easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust or government whereby a landowner sells or donates the rights to develop his or her property to a conservation organization. When development rights are sold or donated, the land can never be developed.
- Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is a legal agreement that allows a developer who wants to build at a higher density than is permitted to purchase or trade for additional development rights from a willing seller who owns land in an area designated for preservation. This is only available in some counties in Maryland.
Your Support is essential
With broad public support, Maryland is setting national standards in land preservation. In 1999, the Sierra Club rated Maryland as having the best open space protection program in the country, based upon how well state programs are protecting lands for the public, keeping farmlands in the hands of farmers and managing floodplains. Here is how it’s done.
The Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program preserves productive agricultural land and woodlands. Funded through 1/2 of 1 percent of the transfer tax paid when properties are bought and sold, this program purchases agricultural easements in areas specially targeted for agricultural preservation. It has now preserved over 166,000 acres, and is the most successful program of its kind in the nation.
Also funded by the real estate transfer tax is our parkland acquisition program, Program Open Space. Almost all state park lands purchased in the last 30 years, and more than 3,000 county and municipal parks and conservation areas have been made possible through this program.
One Giant Step for Conservation
The acquisition of 58,000 acres on the Eastern Shore — the largest conservation land purchase in Maryland’s history — has made a major contribution to land conservation in the State. In 1998, the State of Maryland, together with the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Conservation Fund, purchased land formerly owned by Chesapeake Forests Products in order to protect these lands for the future, and create a national model of public/private partnership for sustainable forestry. The preservation of these lands protects water quality, essential wildlife habitat, the rural landscape and economy of the region, and will offer additional recreational opportunities.
The Rural Legacy Program is a key element of Maryland’s Smart Growth Initiative. This land conservation program is unique because it seeks to protect large contiguous blocks of land by working with local partners to define preservation boundaries and concentrating preservation efforts and funding in these areas.
On an even broader scale, a new Chesapeake Bay Agreement signed by Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and the federal government in 2000 includes a pledge to permanently preserve 20 percent of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to reduce by 30 percent the conversion of open space to sprawl development by 2012.
Through a combination of innovative programs and partnerships Maryland is leading the nation in land preservation.
What You Can Do:
- When you renew your license plates, support the protection of the Bay and agricultural lands by buying Bay or agricultural plates.
- Contribute time and/or money to a local land trust or conservation organization.
- Investigate conservation easements, estate planning and other conservation tools to preserve your land for the future. Contact the Maryland Environmental Trust: www.dnr.state.md.us/met/
- Manage your own property to reduce runoff and, improve wildlife habitat. Protect large trees. Department of Natural Resources: www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/wildacres.html
- Protect nesting birds and curtail mowing, tree pruning and use of pesticides. Keep cats indoors. www.dnr.state.md.us/ forests/programs/faguide.html
- Shop at farmers markets and roadside stands. Ask your grocer to buy local produce.
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www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets
www.mda. state.md.us/geninfo/products
www.naturalmaryland.com/farmersfishermen/farms
www.mda.state.md.us/org/choose/
www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/states/MDfarm.html
Need More Info?
Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program: www.dnr.state.md.us/rurallegacy/
Maryland Conservation Council: www.us.net/mcc/
Forest bird conservation: www.partnersinflight.org
Maryland Agriculture Land Preservation Foundation: www.mda.state.md.us/agland/main.htm
Chesapeake Bay Foundation: www.cbf.org
Sierra Club - Maryland Chapter: www.sierraclub.org/chapters/md/
The Nature Conservancy: www.tnc.org/infield/state/maryland/
Maryland Cooperative Extension: www.agnr.umd.edu/CES/ CoOffices.html
Landowner Stewardship Referral Service 800.989.8852
Audubon Society - Maryland Chapters: www.audubon.org/chapter/md/
Maryland Environmental Trust: www.dnr.state.md.us/met/
Trust for Public Land: www.tpl.org
Preservation Maryland: www.reservemd.org
Where Do We Go From Here?
Although Maryland’s record of open space preservation is good, we can’t afford to become complacent. As land values rise and development pressures increase, the stewardship of private landowners will become even more important. Local citizen groups can play a key role by working with their neighbors, joining land trusts and working with local governments to provide a voice for preservation in planning and zoning decisions.
Conservation in the Air
“I consider myself a custodian of the land, not an owner” – Paul Facchina, Sr.
Thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Facchina, Sr., with the recent donation of 199-acres on the historic Mt. Air Farm, a connected, protected block of land along the Potomac River has been created. This block also adjoins Chapel Point State Park and is part of a series of easements along the shoreline from Port Tobacco River south to Popes Creek in Charles County.
A native of Washington, D.C., Paul has seen the Potomac come a long way since his youth. “I remember when it was more of a sewer than anything,” he recalls. “Today we’re seeing huge rockfish right out here.” Efforts like this have made this possible.
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