Current Forest Conservation Efforts in Maryland

In Directive 06-1 signed by the Chesapeake Executive Council on September 22, 2006, The Governor of Maryland committed state resources to “conserving those forest lands in the Bay watershed where conservation to protect water quality is most needed.” A major part of this commitment is to use the best available tools to locate areas where retention and expansion of forests is most needed to protect water quality and to set a goal, framework, and milestones for protecting forested areas of critical importance to water quality (in acres or percentage of forested lands) while considering which of those are most vulnerable to development. The State of Maryland is charged with delivering a proposed goal by April 30, 2007, to allow for a Chesapeake Bay wide goal to be adopted in Fall 2007. The draft Maryland goals for forest conservation for water quality are summarized in the attached document. Additionally, Dr. Anne Hairston-Strang’s Powerpoint presentation describing the goal setting process in Maryland is available here.

Why do we need to conserve forest in Maryland?

According to the State of the Chesapeake Forests report produced by The Conservation Fund, forests offer many invaluable benefits. Forests help remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Forests also provide clean drinking water (see graph below), flood control by interception of rainfall, erosion control, and habitat for aquatic species. Forests insure proper watershed function by regulating water flow into streams after heavy rains and by supporting base flow of water slowly released from the soil between rains.

Other reasons why forests must be conserved in Maryland are:

• The need to reach and maintain nutrient caps: Currently forests in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are being lost at a rate of about 100 acres per day. If the 5 million acres of land designated by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Resource Lands Assessment as vulnerable to development is converted from forest, it would add 29 million pounds of nitrogen to local waterways and the Bay every year. If water quality conditions in the Chesapeake Bay cannot be improved on a voluntary basis before 2010, more regulatory approaches to reduce loads and maintain a nutrient cap are likely. Effective forest conservation is needed to avoid widening the gap between current pollutant loads and required caps.
• To provide a higher quality of life: In addition to the air and water benefits that improve the quality of life, trees provide wonderful aesthetic benefits. Studies highlighted in the State of the Chesapeake Forests have shown that worker efficiency is improved when employers provide a view of a natural environment, and that residents are less likely to move from a neighborhood with a high aesthetic value.
• The need for a long-term sustainable development pattern: Studies are substantial development in most of Maryland’s counties into the year 2030. It is important to identify forests that can provide the functions described above, maintaining basic environmental functions that are expensive or impossible to replace.

To assist in setting an achievable goal for forest conservation and to locate those forests with imperative water quality functions, the Maryland DNR Forest Service is developing three geographic information models: a conservation model, a management model, and a restoration model.

The Conservation Model

The Conservation Model is composed of map data layers collected over the course of years and incorporates—in addition to the forested areas called for in the Directive—layers grouped according to three categories:

• Forest Resource Layers, which incorporate data layers such as forested wetlands, steep slopes, headwater streams and wetlands, large forest blocks, and Green infrastructure hubs and corridors, and others.
• Water Quality for Nutrients and Sediment, which includes data layers like drinking water protection areas, phosphorous and nitrogen loading, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, and percent impervious surface.
• Water quality for Living Resources, which recognizes special streams and watersheds, Sensitive Species Project Review Areas (SSPRAs) and The Nature Conservancy’s Forest Matrix Blocks.
  
  The Management Model

  The Management model for Maryland is, for the most part, based on the Spatial Analysis Project (SAP) for forest stewardship, a national targeting effort. The purpose of the SAP is to create a series of GIS data layers and tools for the state that represent various levels of potential benefit from, and suitability for, inclusion in the Stewardship Program as delivered by state forestry agencies and the U.S. Forest Service. Private land programs and GIS staff from the four states involved in the pilot SAP effort (Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Missouri), along with U.S. Forest Service program identified 12 factors which help identify the “Stewardship potential” of a given piece of land. The factors were differentiated into two groups: resource potential and resource threats.

  

  The resource potential factors include: Riparian Zones Priority Watersheds Forest Patch Size Natural Heritage Data Public Drinking Water Supply Sources Private Forest Lands Proximity to Public Lands Wetlands Topographic Slope

  The resource threat factors include: Forest Health Development Level Wildfire Assessment

  • Identify and recommend ways that planning, regulations, easements, tax incentives, funding programs, and other strategies will be used to ensure the protection of these important forest lands, slow forest loss and enhance needed stewardship.
  • Expand efforts to link stormwater management and land use regulations with conservation of forests and riparian buffers.
  • Work collaboratively with landowners, forest product industries, land trusts, watershed organizations,and other business partners, to create new partnerships, and develop innovative actions, programs, and incentives to support retention, expansion, and stewardship of forest lands of critical importance to water quality.
  Forest Conservation Goal Setting Meetings

  To address these issues, members of the DNR Forest Service organized a series of meetings composed of representatives from the DNR, Department of Planning, Department of the Environment, Department of Agriculture and other state agencies as well as Maryland Environmental Trust, The Nature Conservancy, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Chesapeake Bay Program, the EPA, the US Forest Service, The University of Maryland, private citizens, and officials of various county governments.

  These meetings took place on:

  • Wednesday, December 13, 2006,C-1 Conference Room, Tawes State Office Building.
    Meeting Notes.

  • Monday, January 29, 2007,C-1 Conference Room, Tawes State Office Building.
    Meeting Notes.

  • Tuesday, February 20, 2007, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Conference Room, Annapolis.
    Meeting Notes.

  • Wednesday, March 28, 2007, C-1 Conference Room, Tawes State Office Building.
    Meeting Notes.

  • Monday, April 30, 2007, C-1 Conference Room, Tawes State Office Building.
    Meeting Notes.

  The first meeting on December 13, 2006, provided a basis for developing the conservation goal. Steven W. Koehn, State Forester, provided a welcome and background on the forest conservation directive. He identified the need to build a simple core concept to guide the process of developing a coherent goal. “Keeping forestland in forest” was offered as a core concept.
  Next, Dr. Anne Hairston-Strang, Forest Hydrologist, provided an overview of the Forest Conservation Directive, the elements of the directive, and initial State goals for inclusion in a collective Chesapeake Bay-wide forest conservation goal.

  The second meeting on January 29, 2007, discussion involved the draft targeting strategies for conserving forests for water quality. Three models for identifying important forest lands were drafted, based on the recommendations received in the first meeting. The three models were for:

  1. Protection long-term, such as for easement purchases on highest function acres,
  2. Management, for an extensive working forest landscape, and
  3. Restoration, to augment water quality protection through forests.
  Considerations related to landscape context, watershed, and hydrogeomorphic regions. Models were developed by assigning 0-10 points for multiple equally weighted data layers, with values calculated in GIS for each pixel. Anne Hairston-Strang presented the data layers showing the geographic distribution for each layer of the protection model, the draft model result, and existing protected lands in Maryland. Eric Sprague conveyed an offer from the Chesapeake Bay Program to model the relative nutrient contributions of forest conservation and restoration strategies proposed.

  The third meeting was opened with introductions by attendees, followed by presentations and discussion on land conservation programs that have potential to protect forest land from development. Dr. Christine Conn, of DNR’s Watershed Services, led off with an overview of the variety of state and federal land conservation programs. Patrick Meckley, of DNR’s Forest Service, presented the status of the Forest Legacy Program in Maryland. Pamela Bush, of DNR’s Public Lands Policy and Planning, presented information on Program Open Space and Rural Legacy.

  The fourth meeting focused on the potential for new ecosystem services markets. It also dealt with land conservation organization approaches and the MALPF program guidelines were presented and discussed. Approaches for urban areas were reviewed. Presentations are listed below.

  "Dr. Jim George, Program Manager, Maryland Department of the Environment—Dr. George’s presentation
  Potential for Forest Conservation and Restoration in Water Quality, highlighted Clean Water Act requirements that can build demand for trading, TMDLs for nutrient and sediment impairments in water bodies, Point and Non-point source nutrient caps, NPDES permits and stormwater permits (MS4), and Source Water Protection and Anti-degradation policy."

  Dr. David Brownlee, Principal Environmental Planner, Calvert County Planning and Zoning—Dr. Brownlee’s presentation, Transferable Development Rights Programs (TDR and PDR)—The Calvert County Experience, explains how Calvert County’s land preservation initiatives work and the successes they have achieved.

  William C. Price, Director, Northeast Regional Programs, The Pinchot Institute for Conservation—Mr. Price’s presentation, Carbon Sequestration, describes how carbon is currently traded, including Registries and Protocols, how current forests can contribute to carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration work in Maine, and ingredients and steps for Maryland.

  James Remuzzi, Forestry for the Bay Coordinator, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay - Mr. Remuzzi’s presentation, explains the Forestry for the Bay program and the Bay Bank™, and how these two programs can help bring small landowners to markets and increase income potential, and through this, how forest conservation can be augmented.

  Gary Allen, Executive Director, Center for Chesapeake Communities - Mr. Allen’s presentation, Trees and Air Quality Regulations, explains what SIP is, and critical steps for inclusion of tree planting into Maryland’s State Implementation Plan (SIP).

  The Fifth Meeting will take place on April 30, 2007. Meeting summary will be posted here soon after.

  Additional Regional Meetings were held in DNR’s four geographic regions of the state. These meetings were held to provide a forum for local planners and representatives of county governments to comment on the Conservation objectives. DNR staff also sought suggestions for changes and insight as to whether the model accurately portrays forest values for water quality in their jurisdiction. These meeting were held: April 2, 2007 at Allegany College in Cumberland; April 4, 2007 at the Regional Fire Training Center in La Plata; April 11, 2007 at the Oregon Ridge Lodge in Sykesville; and April 12, 2007 at the Airport Conference Room at the Cambridge Airport.

  Goals and Benchmarks

  Read the draft of the proposed goals for forest conservation and recommendations for reaching those goals, along with restoration objectives and mechanisms for obtaining those objectives.

  Maryland mechanisms for forest conservation include

  Rural Legacy, Program Open Space, MD Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, MD Environmental Trust and local land trusts/donated easements, Forest Conservation Act long-term protection, Purchase of Development Rights/Transfer of Development Rights programs, Forest Legacy, continued enforcement of Forest Conservation Act, Critical Area Law, and local zoning and subdivision ordinances.

  Forest retention through tax programs: Forest Conservation and Management Agreements, reforestation tax incentives/TAXMOD

  Ag Certification Programs, Water Resource Protection Element in Comp Plans, Impervious Surface Tax (Green Fund), NPDES and MS4/stormwater permits.

  Requests for Specific Input (Information we’re still lacking)
  1. GIS information on lands protected through local easements, TDR and PDR programs, or zoning protection of resource lands.
  2. Areas appropriate for future growth.
  3. Existing or desired commitments to conserve forest or other rural resource lands.
  Comments

  Please send comments or questions to Dr. Anne Hairston-Strang, Forest Hydrologist at astrang@dnr.state.md.us or 410-260-8509.