From the Mason-Dixon Line to the Chesapeake Bay, and from the Gunpowder River to the Susquehanna, Harford County contains some of Maryland's loveliest and most varied countryside. Located right on the busy corridor between Baltimore and the major cities of the Northeast, it still has ecologically-vital tidal marshes, rolling uplands, clear streams, a viable and diverse agricultural economy, and valuable forests. Rare plants and animals still survive in the county, and the conservation ethic is well established among its residents.
However, because of its natural resources as well as its convenient location, Harford County continues to grow, and growth brings challenges to conservationists.
The Harford Land Trust is Harford County's first and only county-wide land trust. Organized in 1991 by local residents, it joins over 52 other land trusts protecting land throughout Maryland.
Land trusts are non-profit groups that protect land directly by acquiring it through gift or purchase (sometimes for later conveyance to a government agency), by establishing conservation easements that place permanent legal restrictions on future development, by negotiating limited developments, and by other methods. They may also be involved in land conservation education and advocacy.
Land trusts operate in rural, urban, and suburban areas, protecting natural areas, wildlife habitat, coastlines, farmland, urban gardens, trails and other special places. There are over 1600 land trusts in every state of the nation. Collectively, they have protected over 37 million acres of land.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 March 2008 )
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