Governor Ehrlich Announces BPW Approval of $406,953 in Rural Legacy Funds for Frederick County
Conservation Easement Protects Buffers Along Catoctin Creek
ANNAPOLIS, MD — Emphasizing his commitment to protecting rural lands and Maryland’s watersheds, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. today announced Board of Public Works approval of $406,953 in Rural Legacy Program funds to acquire a conservation easement on 148 acres in Frederick County.
“This Frederick County project illustrates how the Rural Legacy Program serves multiple purposes,” said Governor Ehrlich. “Besides protecting our rural heritage, the program frequently advances the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay by protecting riparian buffers, which are essential to filtering nutrient and sediment runoff that would otherwise pollute streams, rivers, and then the Bay itself.”
The Board approved $406,953 to acquire a conservation easement on 148 acres of wooded and agricultural land in the Mid-Maryland Frederick Rural Legacy Area. In addition to preserving prime farmland and augmenting a greenbelt west of Middletown, this acquisition will protect buffers along 3,700 feet of Catoctin Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River. DNR, Frederick County, and the Mid-Maryland Land Trust Association will jointly hold the easement title.
The Rural Legacy Program is designed to preserve large blocks of contiguous open space that are among Maryland’s most valuable lands because of their multiple agricultural, forest, natural, and cultural resources. To protect these resources, the Rural Legacy Program acts through local governments and private land-trust sponsors to purchase conservation easements from willing property owners.