BALTIMORE, MD—The Maryland Board of Public Works this week approved more than $1.7 million in grants to help local governments and land trusts buy land and conservation easements to protect natural resources and create parks. The money was from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Program Open Space Local and Rural Legacy programs.

Governor Wes Moore, Treasurer Dereck E. Davis, and Comptroller Brooke E. Lierman make up the three-person Board of Public Works. The Board of Public Works’ February 26, 2025 meeting agenda lists all funded projects.

Of that, $226,000 in Program Open Space — Local funding was approved for three projects, including $4.5 acres in Charles County that will become a recreational park. Another $1.5 million in Rural Legacy funding was approved for five properties, totaling 365 acres, to be protected by conservation easements. They include:

• A 37-acre easement on a farm in Cecil County within the Fair Hill Rural Legacy Area. The easement protects a forested buffer along Principio Creek.
• 34 acres of farmland and forest in the Baltimore County Coastal Rural Legacy Area. The easement protects a forested buffer alongside an unnamed tributary of the Bird River that feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.
• A 116-acre farm in Frederick County’s Carrollton Manor Rural Legacy Area. The easement will protect stream buffers along a cold-water stream in the Monocacy River watershed.
• Two conservation easements on adjoining farms, totaling 177 acres, in Queen Anne’s County’s Foreman Branch Rural Legacy Area. The easements will protect farmland and 3,400 feet of forested stream buffers along Pearl Creek and the Chester River.

In 1997, the Rural Legacy Program was established to conserve large working landscapes across 36 locally designated areas in Maryland. The Rural Legacy Program, along with the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, have recently earned the State of Maryland a national recognition from the American Farmland Trust.

A recent survey by the American Farmland Trust ranks Maryland among the top five states in total protected acres and purchased conservation easements, according to the DNR.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

Photo: Foreman Branch Rural Legacy Area via Maryland Department of Natural Resources.