Off the market

The five properties in line to be purchased have some of the richest bird and wildlife habitat in Maryland and more than 19 miles of shoreline along the Potomac River, officials said. One tract, 4,800 acres in Worcester County, is the largest privately owned forest in the state, according to Nat Williams, Maryland director of the Nature Conservancy, which helped negotiate the deal.
   Four other tracts of woodlands, fields and wetlands in Cecil, Charles and St. Mary’s counties have been owned since the early 1600s by the Roman Catholic Jesuit order. Their purchase was arranged with the help of the Conservation Fund, another national land preservation group. The fund’s Pat Noonan said the land deals represent “a once and forever opportunity.”

From a Thursday Sun article about recent moves in the state-level land-preserve game in Maryland. (The Jesuit angle is interesting — a reminder of Maryland’s pre-U.S. history, its origin as a New World destination for English Catholics.)

Mentioned at the end of the piece is the state’s environment & natural resources policy education tool, green.maryland.gov. A variety of intriguing stuff there, contrived to give a picture of the state-level view of principal areas of environment action — land use & development, watershed & bay recovery, &c. The ‘Greenprint’ land preservation map feature is noteworthy here. A nice discovery for me, following the post of last week about international non-governmental program Green Map’s recent introduction to Maryland.