Md. Seeks To Preserve Land Along Shoreline

Areas Would Be Open to Public

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced plans yesterday to spend $72 million to acquire more than 9,200 acres to preserve along the Potomac River in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore, including the state's largest privately owned tract of forestland.

The land, held by a private owner and the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, would eventually be open to the public as trails, parkland, beaches or ecological preserves. The 9,242-acre tract, which stretches almost 20 miles along one of the most coveted shorelines in the Washington region, would be protected from much of the development-related stormwater runoff that pollutes the Chesapeake Bay, officials said.

The properties stretch through St. Mary's, Charles, Cecil and Worcester counties, some of the fastest-growing areas in Maryland. Environmental officials said the region is one of the state's most ecologically significant farm and shoreline areas and is among the oldest forestland.

O'Malley (D) said the acquisitions, to be funded by the state's land preservation fund and federal money, would more than double the 8,100 acres of open space that his administration has bought since he took office almost two years ago.

"The globe is becoming increasingly hotter, flatter and more depleted," O'Malley said at a news conference to announce the land purchases, which must be approved by the Board of Public Works. He said his administration is seeking a "far more sustainable future" and mentioned one of the "downsides" of Maryland's 8 percent population growth since 1990: a 41 percent increase in paved surfaces in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The proposed conservation measures reflect O'Malley's effort to build a legacy as an environmental governor. When he took office, he pledged to restore land preservation money diverted by his predecessor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R). Revenue for that fund, which comes from the real estate transfer tax, is expected to dwindle in the sour economy.

The governor also announced a "GreenPrint" for Maryland, a Web site that shows state land preservation efforts on an interactive map. The site allows the public to look at land set aside for conservation and acquisitions planned by the state, "parcel by parcel," O'Malley said. A user can zero in on streets near his home or look at a county as a whole.

The governor compared the online map with the first map that Capt. John Smith drew of the Chesapeake Bay more than 400 years ago. "Today, we are unveiling the second map, which is every bit as revolutionary," he said.

Conservation experts said the map, at http://www.greenprint.maryland.gov, could be a national model that prods people to take an interest in the open space in their neighborhoods.

"It can become an opportunity for people to get engaged in conservation," said Jon Schwedler, a spokesman for the Nature Conservancy, which helped broker the purchase of the Eastern Shore property.

That land, bordering the Pocomoke and Chesapeake state forests, is a former logging site for a nearby iron business that closed in 1853 and has been owned by the Foster family for at least a century. Rare and threatened species can be found on the property, as well as deep-forest and neotropical migratory birds.

The state has agreed to pay $14.4 million in state and federal money for the property. Officials with the Department of Natural Resources said some of the area would continue to be logged through low-impact techniques.

The Southern Maryland property covers the shoreline along Port Tobacco Creek at Cedar Point in Charles County, the St. Inigoes peninsula south of St. Mary's City, and the waterfront along Breton and St. Clements Bay, also in St. Mary's.

The Cecil County site includes more than 975 acres north of Route 282. The land, meadows and natural forests, is owned by the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, one of the state's oldest religious orders. Jesuit officials said the $57 million sale would help secure money to cover health-care expenses for the group's senior clergy.