eastern shore maryland farmland conservation

ESLC

August 3, 2012

MAPP defeated

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, along with the Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, successfully fought and won against the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway project. This transmission line requires a 200 foot right-of-way for the 140-150 foot high towers and would transect 27 miles of Dorchester County (27 miles) with large transmission towers. The rights-of-way required for these lines would consume 650 acres of Dorchester’s agriculture, forest and rural lands. There are many unanswered questions on the impacts to Dorchester’s economy, environment, and the possible alternatives and the MAPP Action Center was designed to provide visitors with resource information, the latest project news and links to ways you can make your voice heard on this project.

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July 30, 2012

ESLC Celebrates Land Conservation Successes

The Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) announces a successful 2012 fiscal year for land preservation, during which more than 2,250 acres were preserved from northern Kent County to southern Dorchester County, including two easements each in Dorchester, Queen Anne’s and Talbot Counties, three in Kent County, and one in Caroline County. Five of these easements were donated to ESLC. The two easements donated by Queen Anne’s County landowners helped add to a block of contiguous preserved lands that now totals over 1,700 acres. The donated easement in Kent County helped a young farmer acquire a beautiful farm to continue the family farming tradition. In addition to preserving a 440-acre historic farm in Talbot County, ESLC partnered with the community of St. Michaels and the Maryland Environmental Trust on the preservation of a property that put to bed an immense housing development that had been looming unwanted over the community for years. ESLC also completed five purchased easements in FY2012; two Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program easements, 2 Rural Legacy easements and one easement to preserve habitat for the federally listed, endangered Delmarva Fox squirrel. The CREP easements preserved farms in Caroline and Dorchester Counties in order to protect the water quality in the Nanticoke and Choptank watersheds. Two Kent County Rural Legacy easements added more than 370 acres to a large, contiguous area of preserved land in the Sassafras Rural Legacy focus area. ESLC also partnered with The Nature Conservancy to purchase an easement that permanently protected a 725-acre farm in Dorchester County that is critical habitat for the Delmarva Fox Squirrel, a species listed as federally endangered. More than $2.5 million dollars were paid to local farmers and landowners to preserve forever more than 1,245 acres of farmland and forest on the mid- and Upper shore. ESLC has been preserving farmland, forest and open

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July 19, 2012

Lynch Preserve Now Open to Public

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s (ESLC) Lynch Preserve trails are open to the public and ready to use, thanks to the work of 20 Chesapeake Conservation Corps Members and staff members from ESLC, who gathered Wednesday, July 18, for a work day at the Lynch Preserve. ESLC won $1,500 from “All Hands on Deck,” a contest run by Chesapeake Bay Trust, for the materials. The day was a great success, and the Conservancy is thankful for the funding that was provided by the Chesapeake Bay Trust and educational materials from the Chestory Virtual Archive and associated Chesapeake Conservation Corps Volunteers. Also, the Baltimore Tool Bank was an excellent resource for the project, as ESLC was able to rent the necessary tools at three percent of the retail cost. Wayne Gilchrest, former U.S. Congressman and current ESLC Program Director for the Sassafras Environmental Education Center at Turner’s Creek, Kent County, kicked off the day with an inspiring talk. “Never forget why you are doing the work you do,” he told the Chesapeake Conservation Corps volunteers, who engage in environmental education and restoration work during their one-year terms. Volunteers then worked in groups to clear trails, build a kiosk, and install benches and trail signage. The Lynch Preserve is a 206-acre natural area donated to the Conservancy in 1999 by Mary Lynch in loving memory of her husband Jim Lynch Sr. The Preserve contains three trails that wind through a forested canopy along the Choptank River and Robins Creek. ESLC invites the public to visit the Lynch Preserve. Limited parking is available where the trails begin, at the end of Robins Creek Road, Preston. Since its inception in 1990, ESLC has helped landowners to protect more than 53,000 acres of farmland and important habitat on 283 Eastern Shore properties.

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July 15, 2012

ESLC Hopes to Establish Eastern Shore Conservation Center

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy will host a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, at the Talbot County Historical Society Auditorium in Easton, to discuss plans to purchase the McCord Building on Washington Street. In the coming year ESLC hopes to transform this vacant Easton warehouse into a charismatic green building that brings new vitality to both the neighborhood and the town. Called the Eastern Shore Conservation Center, this facility will create a working home for our employees and for other organizations and businesses. This hub of activity will spark collaboration and innovation around conservation at a new scale for the Eastern Shore. At the meeting, staff members will give an introduction to Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and a description of the McCord Building site, and will ask community members to express what they would like to see on the site. The Conservancy also invites the public to attend an Open House from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, July 26, at the McCord Building.

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June 19, 2012

McKnight on the Fourth Economy

In his keynote address, Stephen McKnight, Vice President of Community and Market Assessments for Fourth Economy Consulting advised Annual Planning Conference participants to consider the nature of our evolving economy in planning growth for Eastern Shore communities. National issues that determine local economic development include global financial uncertainty, political divides, federal transportation funding and revenue generation, including taxes, incentives, and global competition. Fourth Economy Consulting examines historical economic development to determine characteristics of a successful economic development model today. The first three economies in the United States were agricultural, manufacturing, and technology. Today’s economy has the following characteristics: • Constant innovation • Collaborative approaches • Enabled and accelerated by the rise of social media • Smaller size of companies • Grow by being buying companies or being bought by other companies • Corporate image is important • Place based, happening in both urban and rural settings Trends that impact the fourth economy: • Technology: accelerating change; shifts in occupations, products and workplace environment; leveling locational advantages • Energy: rising prices leading to rethinking lifestyles, and the housing blimp is refocusing priorities on real cost of housing • Commurbanism (community urbanism): people again prefer to know their neighbors, people want amenities without traffic congestion or other undesirables, desire to give back, organize through social media. Places that have a high ranking on the fourth economy index, like Clarke, Georgia and Woods, Ohio, have a university and are leveraging that opportunity by retain graduates with a diversified economy. They have quality K-12 education, blend rural with urban amenities through town centers and recreation, provide quality, reasonably priced options for housing, and are driven by educational and medical institutions. There are working relationships with the local college/university, partnerships with banks and VCs to offer small business credit and loans, and offer high value business support initiatives.

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ESLC

MAPP defeated

ESLC Celebrates Land Conservation Successes

Lynch Preserve Now Open to Public

ESLC Hopes to Establish Eastern Shore Conservation Center

McKnight on the Fourth Economy

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