Maryland's Rural Legacy Program
The Rural Legacy Program was established by the General Assembly to protect natural resources, farms, forests, and other sensitive environmental areas while maintaining the viability of resource-based economies and the proper management of tillable and wooded areas. The Program provides funds to local governments and land trusts to purchase conservation easements as well as in fee simple in designated Rural Legacy Areas. The Program is focused on a community-up approach to land preservation, stressing partnerships among federal, state, and local governments and non-profit land trusts. Counties are encourages to initiate other land conservation measures, to build upon the land preservation accomplishments through Rural Legacy Program funds.
The Rural Legacy Program...
*Is a voluntary, locally driven
land preservation program
*Protects rural landscapes and the resource-based economies
they support-farming, forestry, recreation and tourism
*Encourages local governments and private land trusts to
identify Rural Legacy Areas and to competitively apply for
grants
*Seeks voluntary easement and fee purchases
*Complements existing land preservation efforts
*Has designated 25 Rural Legacy areas in 21 counties
*Protected over 42,000 acres of land
Rural Legacy Easements...
*Protect land in perpetuity
*Add to local agriculture and natural resource-based economy
*Land stays in private hands and on tax rolls
*Strictly limit residential development and commercial
activities
*Contain a Soil and Water Plan or a Total Resource Management
Plan (BMPs)
*Protect wetlands and stream buffers to improve water quality
*Include Forest Management Plans
*State management limited to periodic monitoring
Rural Legacy Easement Highlights
334 acre farm in Talbot County that protects agricultural land and forested land on a dairy cattle operation that also produces hay, corn, and soybeans. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along the Tuckahoe Creek and Choptank River.
230 acre farm in Baltimore County that is adjacent to over 8,000 acres of protected land and contains a major facility that dries, stores, and markets barley, soybeans, wheat, and corn for a large segment of the agricultural community in Baltimore County. In addition, water quality for the Baltimore Metropolitan drinking water supply will be improved through riparian buffers along streams running through this property.
409 acres over two farms in Frederick County that protect active farmland with mostly prime and productive soils that also serves as a base of operations for an 8,000+ acre farming operation in Maryland and Virginia, which supports the overall resource-based economy of the area. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along tributaries of the Potomac River.
443 acre farm in Dorchester County that protects agricultural land that has been actively farmed for over 100 years and a forested area that has been harvested for timber in the past 15 years and will become part of a 2,400-acre cluster of farms that are permanently protected by easements. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along tributaries of the Chicamacomico River.
87 acre farm in Anne Arundel County that protects farmland and forested land and adds to a block of protected land in the Southern part of the County. The operation of an agricultural supply business on the property that supports agricultural resource-based industries in the area will continue. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along tributaries of the Patuxent River.
268 acre farm in Caroline County that protects agricultural land and forested land and will preserve a significant portion of the dominant agricultural landscape. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along the Tuckahoe and Mill Creeks.
609 acre farm in Worcester County that protects waterfront farmland, forested land, and marshland and is part of over 2,500 acres of contiguous protected easements that support the overall resource-based economy of the area. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers in the Chincoteague Bay watershed.
886 acre farm in Montgomery County that protects active farmland, significant forest resources, and non-tidal wetlands that expands on over 1,000 acres of contiguous agricultural land protected by easements. In addition, water quality will be improved through riparian buffers along numerous tributaries within the Little Seneca Watershed that run through this property.