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Mission Statement
Conserve, steward, and advocate for the unique rural landscape of the Eastern Shore.

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Miles Point Saved Forever!

Miles Point Green is a Success!! ESLC is excited to work with conservation buyer on permanent preservation and public access Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, who has spearheaded the fundraising and communications around the efforts to save the Miles Point property in St. Michaels, announced today its plans to continue to work with the Town, residents and the new conservation buyer for the property, to ensure the property's permanent preservation. The town of St. Michaels voted Friday to approve the transfer of their option to purchase the property to a conservation buyer JD LLC, which will purchase the property, and then work with ESLC to place a conservation easement on the 89 acres and provide the public access to the Miles River. JD LLC is the same entity which made a $5 million pledge to saving Miles Point Green. Price negotiations between the seller and JD LLC resulted in a final $8 million purchase price. Private funds raised for this project will go towards this public access area, with donor approval. "Eastern Shore Land Conservancy is thrilled that the property will stay as it is now - green and undeveloped - forever! This has been the ultimate goal for over a decade," said ESLC Executive Director Rob Etgen. "We are excited to work with the town and conservation buyer to place a permanent conservation easement on the property and to creating a public access space on Miles Point Green." The purchase and conservation of this property ends a 12-year-long series of legal proceedings and lawsuits among the developers, those opposed to the development and the Town. "So many people have done so much to show their commitment to help keep this amazing piece of property green forever and it is exciting to see those dreams come true. This is a rare example of what can happen

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ESLC to Celebrate 20th Anniversary at Andelot Farm Gala

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy will cap off its summer tour series with a final tour in Kent County followed by a Gala celebration at one of Maryland's biggest protected properties. The Kent County Tour will be held on Sunday, October 17 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. A special separate Gala event will take place that evening from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Andelot Farm in Worton. The Tours were held throughout the summer - taking participants to six counties in five months - as a way for showcase the beautiful scenery of the Eastern Shore and bring participants to beautiful properties protected by ESLC. Registrants can help celebrate ESLC's 20th year of keeping it rural by going into the communities and seeing open spaces, habitat and parkland that have been saved from development - often seeing privately owned properties that are open to the public for the first time. "It's a great opportunity to take a break from saving land to enjoy the magnificent farms and natural areas that have already been saved," said Rob Etgen, ESLC Executive Director. The Gala Event at Andelot Farm will cap off ESLC's anniversary celebration and provide participants an opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful farms on the Eastern Shore. The farm is protected forever from development - thanks to the generous donation by the Duemling Family of an easement on its 2,900 acres. "There is no better place than Andelot farm for celebrating ESLC's 20 years of protecting our Eastern Shore landscape," said Etgen. "The Duemlings have supported us since ESLC's founding, they preserved their family lands, and they have been tireless cheerleaders for protection of farmland and natural areas on their beloved Eastern Shore. We are so grateful to the Duemlings for their continued kindness in hosting this Gala event as well

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ESLC Announces Howard Wood Memorial Scholarship

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) will offer an annual $1,000 scholarship to an Eastern Shore student who will be attending college. The new Howard Wood Memorial Scholarship honors a founding board member of ESLC. The scholarship application is open to anyone looking to pursue a career in agriculture, land use planning alternative energy planning or other conservation related field. The scholarship competition is open to those who are residents of the six counties ESLC serves -Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot. Applications are available via ESLC's website. To apply, applicants should fill out an application, provide a high school or college transcript and submit a 500-word original essay describing their response to the following question: Consider the Eastern Shore in the next 25 years - what is your vision for the Shore? What will you do to assure the Eastern Shore remains the rural gem and special place that it is for the future?" Please include your academic plans, career aspirations and future goals when responding to this question. "Our young people are the key to the Shore's future and we are so grateful to the Wood family for this generous gift to help a local youth further their education in conservation." said ESLC's Executive Director Rob Etgen. "We hope this scholarship will help assure that the Shore's rural legacy that was so important to Howard is maintained for future generations." Scholarship applications are due by December 31. Click here to download and print an application. Applications will be judged by a panel in January and one scholarship recipient will be selected and announced in late Winter 2011. For more information about the scholarship program, contact Kristine George at 410.827.9756 ext. 165 or kgeorge@eslc.org. About the Howard Wood Memorial Scholarship Howard Wood spent summers at his grandmother's farm crabbing, sailing and swimming if the jellyfish weren't too thick.

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ESLC Hosts Native Plant Sale on Sunday, September 26

ESLC is hosting a Native Plant Sale on Sunday September 26, 2010 from noon until 4 p.m. Whether you are an easement owner looking to engage in restoration or an interested gardener who wants to add some natives to the garden, we have plants for you! Sale will be held at ESLC’s Galena Office, located at 100 S. Main Street in downtown Galena. Call 410-648-5840 for more detail! Come ready to buy plants and get some gardening advice.  All proceeds to benefit the efforts of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.

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ESLC to Host Bird Walk Saturday

Please join us on September 25, 2010 for a guided bird walk in Easton. We will meet at 7 a.m. in the Waterside Village parking lot and carpool to Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage’s Bailey’s Neck property. We will walk the beautifully restored waterfowl impoundments and native grass and forested buffers on the property looking for migrant songbirds and early waterfowl. The bird walk will be guided by ESLC land protection specialist and life-long birder, Jared Parks. This property is not normally open to the public, so grab your binoculars and join us September 25th for a fun time. Cost is $10 for ESLC members and $15 for non-members, limit 25 participants. Call Jared at 443.988.8128 for more details. Sign up today - registration is sure to fill up fast!

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Place Work[s]hop Named Semi-Finalist in National Strong Communities Competition

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) announced today that Place Work[s]hop, a community project led by ESLC, Urban Dialogues and the town of East New Market has been selected as a semifinalist in the national competition "Strong Communities: Engaging Citizens, Strengthening Place, Inspiring Change." The national competition, held by CommunityMatters and Ashoka¡'s Changemakers features Place Work[s]hop as one of 24 semi-finalists in the competition.  The Strong Communities competition was designed to address problems and threats that face the vitality and quality of life in small towns and urban neighborhoods ¨C including one-size-fits-all development, decreasing social capital and disconnections between neighbors, struggling local economies, and rampant or sluggish growth. Place Work[s]hop was selected from among 260 entrants in the competition for the unique way it is helping to create positive change, address community challenges and build a more vibrant future.  Place Work[s]hop is a collaborative community design initiative founded by ESLC and Urban Dialogues, Inc. Designed for the specific needs of the Eastern Shore's small towns, Place Work[s]hop uses a process combining the local knowledge of the community with the design and planning knowledge of local architects, planners, preservationists, policy-makers and more. The entire community of East New Market gathered last fall to create a vision for their community which includes numerous drawings, input and ideas about the best strategies for helping East New Market become a vibrant small town once again. One result of the progress made from Place Work[s]hop is a community wide fundraising effort to purchase an historic home and park area Friendship Hall in the center of town.  "This is very exciting for an Eastern Shore project to be selected and we are so pleased to see East New Market's efforts to create a vision for the future of the town and the Shore get the recognition it deserves,"

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ESLC and Queen Anne’s County Partner to Protect 486 Acres of farmland

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) recently announced the permanent protection of 486 acres of farm, forest, and marshland in Queen Anne's County with the purchase of conservation easements on Brown's Branch Farm and Home Farm. Brown's Branch Farm is located on the northwest side of Church Hill and has a half of a mile of frontage along Route 213, which is the main spine of Chesapeake Country national scenic byway. The 218-acre farm consists of approximately 134 acres of tillable ground, 36 acres of wetlands, 43 forested acres, and a 5-acre farmstead area. The conservation easement permanently eliminates the possibility of 24 building lots on this productive farm. The easement will provide a forested stream buffer to protect the water quality of the adjoining Brown's Branch stream, which is home to an endangered freshwater mussel. Funding for this project came from a mutli-million dollar allocation from a federal transportation bill spearheaded by former Congressman Wayne Gilchrest for ESLC to protect the rural landscape along the Chesapeake Country byway corridor. Maryland State Highway Administration administers the federal funds and will reimburse Queen Anne's County for settlement of both easements. The landowner sold the conservation easement for 20 percent less than the appraised value, which was necessary to complete the easement. "This was a great opportunity for us to partner with Queen Anne's County to expand a protected greenbelt around Church Hill and ensure that important scenic areas along Chesapeake Country remain as open space for the continued enjoyment of byway travelers.," said Sandra Edwards, ESLC's Land Protection Specialist. "We are very grateful to both the landowner and Queen Anne's County for making this happen." The second protected property - Home Farm - is located near Kingstown in Queen Anne's County. The farm consists of 267 acres of which 238 acres are considered prime farmland. Situated

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Owsley Named ESLC Deputy Director

ESLC is pleased to announce the promotion of Amy Owsley to Deputy Director of the organization.  Owsley, who joined ESLC as its Director of Community Planning in 2001, has a Masters in Forest Science from Yale University, a Bachelor's in Earth Sciences from Pennsylvania State University, and was a Knauss Seagrant Fellow, Morris K Udall Congressional Scholar, and is a recent graduate of the National Conservation Leadership Program. She left ESLC in 2005 for a two year project with the Land Trust Alliance, where she led a coastwide conservation collaborative called the Maine Coast Protection Initiative. In Amy's time with ESLC before working in Maine, she created and led the original Eastern Shore 2010 initiative and launched a land use planning educational forum for the Shore.  "I am so pleased that Amy has accepted this new position within our organization," said Rob Etgen, ESLC’s Executive Director. "Amy knows our issues and institution, she has well established relationships with the ESLC staff, Board and the community, and she is especially well equipped to handle the new issues we will be facing as we head into our new strategic plan."  ESLC recently kicked off its new strategic plan – which runs from 2010-2015 –and will focus on towns, access to land and inviting a much broader segment of Eastern Shore residents, friends, and supporters into ESLC’s mission and work.  Amy, who splits her time between ESLC’s Queenstown and Cambridge offices. resides in Easton with her husband, Ryan Ewing and their infant son, Liam.

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Nearly 2,900 acres in Kent County protected forever

Donated easement protects important waterfront, farmland and wooded areas  Eastern Shore Land Conservancy announced today that nearly 2,900 acres of Kent County farmland and waterfront have been protected forever from development, thanks to a donated conservation easement. The easement on the Andelot property near Worton - which  features 1,087 acres of woodland, 9.2 miles of waterfront and 1,692 acres of tillable ground  - will be jointly held by Eastern Shore Conservancy (ESLC) and the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET). Of the 2,894.2 acres, 1,303 acres are located in the Critical Area. Current zoning would allow for 175 residences to be built on the property so this easement - which allows a maximum of 14 residences - reduces the property’s development potential by 92%. The forest also supports FIDS (Forest Interior Dwelling Species) - a diverse population of bird species that need large forest areas to breed successfully and maintain viable populations. FIDS include songbirds, warblers, woodpeckers, hawks and owls.  This easement was originally approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works in 1991 as a bequest - which would take effect upon the landowner's passing. Today’s approval by the state makes the easement effective immediately.  Located partially in the Sassafras Rural Legacy Focus Area, Andelot is considered a high priority project because of its size, location, amount of waterfront and the presence of rare, threatened or endangered species. There are five known bald eagle nests on the property as well as Delmarva fox squirrel. In addition to nearly 1,700 tillable acres and 1,087 acres of woodland, this property also boasts scenic public views of the Chesapeake Bay, Worton Creek, Tims Creek, Still Pond and Churn Creek. It is located adjacent to several other protected properties held in easement by ESLC and MET including the 632 acre Copeland-Biddle site. There are 3,577 acres of permanently protected lands within

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ESLC Hosts Successful Town Planning Event

Nearly 200 elected officials and representatives of dozens of planning agencies, environmental groups, design firms, developers and community stakeholder groups convened recently for one of the first Eastern Shore based conferences dedicated to town planning. The conference, titled "About Town: A Gathering to Uplift and Invest in our Eastern Shore Towns" was hosted by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC).  ESLC hosts a planning conference annually and this year’s About Town conference gathered experts, opinion leaders and citizens to discuss strategies, success stories, models and tools for investing in and revitalizing our beloved Eastern Shore towns. Featuring talks and information sharing from both national experts and local opinion leaders, About Town provided attendees a variety of educational opportunities ranging from informative keynotes, panel discussions and interactive workshop sessions. Speakers included nationally recognized experts Jess Zimbabwe, Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute's Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use and Ken Snyder, CEO of PlaceMatters. Maryland Secretary of Planning Richard Hall and various local leaders rounded out the roster of speakers.  "This year’s About Town conference represents a new approach to planning for a better Eastern Shore and as ESLC looks to expand its focus to towns and municipalities we are excited about the energy behind this approach from our local planners and decision makers," said Jake Day, ESLC’s Town Planning Manager. "We really wanted our attendees to walk away with an understanding of how we achieve sustainable, safe walkable town design and planning and engage our local communities in achieving this kind of desirable growth. We are grateful to everyone who attended – they made it a great conference!"  The winners of ESLC’s Eastern Shore 2010 awards were also honored at a special ceremony during the conference. This year’s award recipients include Muskrat Park, the Mid-Shore Regional Council, Habitat for

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