News Stories

Man, nature busy on 6,000-acre easement
By: COOKY McCLUNG, Special from The Kent News . Reprinted with permission form the Star Democrat

CHESTERTOWN - Just moments off the heavily traveled asphalt ribbons that connect Kent and Queen Anne's counties lies a 6,000-acre cathedral, a natural sanctuary that has protected flora and fauna in its parsonage of woods and fields since the beginning of time.

Until November, Grasslands Plantation, Inc., (formerly known as Chino Farms), was a developer's dream, thousands of spectacular acres stretching from Route 213 to 301 in Queen Anne's County.
But the plan that could have permitted hundreds of houses on the largest farm in Queen Anne's County was brought to a screeching halt last fall, when all the pieces came together to forever protect the largest single property ever put under easement in Maryland history.
"When I first drove out here with the person who was then chairman of the Rural Legacy Board, we paused at the top of a hill and looked over the property," said Phil Hoon, a Chestertown lawyer who has helped guide Grasslands through the bureaucratic labyrinth to permanent easement.
"He just looked at me and said, 'This property is larger than Rockville.' He simply couldn't believe someone would want to preserve such a huge, valuable piece of landscape. If fully developed, including cluster housing and such, it could have become another city."
Hoon said it took nearly a decade to weave through the easement process, which resulted in state and federal agencies pooling $8 million in funds to buy the development rights which guaranteed to protect the extraordinary swath of land from the rampant development that is overtaking Queen Anne's County.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, through Program Open Space, The Rural Legacy, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and Queen Anne's County were all among the myriad of entities involved in completing the easement process.
"In fact, when we first started, there was no Rural Legacy program and none of the governor's initiatives existed to preserve land," said Hoon. "It's been very difficult for some people to understand why any landowner would ease property of this magnitude," he added.
"But there was this sincere desire by the owner to keep the property he loved safe from development and keep it as an entirety forever."
Harry Sears, whose parents purchased the property more than half a century ago, remains an intensely private man, shunning any publicity about his role in the salvation of this priceless property, despite the fact that it is the major factor that convinced the Sierra Club to rate Maryland number one in the nation in land conservation.
Included in Grassland's environmental treasure trove are several miles of Chester River shoreline, a 90-acre lake and 600 acres of Delmarva "bays," wetlands tucked into the forests that remain dry in winter but stay covered with water in spring and summer, providing perfect habitat for the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel, as well as protection for several species of rare and endangered plants.
In addition to the 90-acre waterfowl sanctuary, the recesses of woods and fields are a bird-watcher's paradise, rife with bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, wild turkey and dozens of other avian species. There is even a very sophisticated laboratory for bird banding, nestled deep in the woods, housed in a small, unobtrusive wooden building.
Beaver, fox, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, deer, possum, skunks, and other woodland critters thrive and reproduce in this garden of Eden, without threat of eviction by bulldozer.
With the fate of the Chesapeake Bay so clearly tied to the land, acquisition of this valuable farm was a triple hit for the state. Besides nurturing woods and wetland, the property plays an important role in reaching the goals of the renewed Chesapeake Bay Agreement, which has set its sights on preserving 1.4 million acres of the watershed by 2010.
Preserving this sweep of land has also added to the long-term goal of protecting the Chester River, cited on Maryland's list of impaired waterways.
"Mr. Sears came to us to describe his land preservation project," said Andrew McCown, president of the Chester River Association.
"We've left a terrible legacy with the Chester River, which is in very bad shape, and he wanted to know how he could help us. What's important about his project is that it's a grass-roots cleanup effort that's come from someone in the agricultural community who is both a farmer and a steward of the land."
Corn and soybeans are grown on Chino Farms, the agricultural arm of Grasslands, but far more takes place on the property than crop production. Ongoing experiments conducted in partnership DNR and the University of Maryland include experiments testing the types of grasses, both short and long, that best prevent nutrients and phosphorus from flowing into the water.
Nearly 500 acres of the property have been taken out of production to create both forest and grassland with the aim of gaining useful information on halting erosion in addition to providing additional habitat for all the wild creatures.
Three hundred acres being managed under the Federal CREP program create shore buffers, and more than 100 acres of trees have been replanted to provide shelter for the woodland wildlife.
Thirty acres of the property, which will include a boat ramp, have been donated adjacent to a larger Queen Anne's County park for public use.
In addition to carefully plotting corridors which link adjacent forest land, Sears is working hard to convince other landowners to put easements on their properties. Work has also started to add a 400-acre section of Kent County farmland, also owned by the Sears family, to the Grasslands easement.
Another plan, still in the embryonic stage, will one day offer the chance to purchase land on the plantation to a select, very few buyers, who would be allowed to build a home, and perhaps a small barn on their property, but none of which could ever be subdivided. Among those who have shown an early interest are equestrians, who believe it would be an extraordinary opportunity to buy property on which to ride and hunt that was forever safe from development.
The owner believes potential buyers of such property would share his feelings for preservation.

"There were times during the process of trying to get this huge amount of land under easement that we wondered if we would ever reach our goal," said Hoon.
"It took 10 years to accomplish, but this is such a unique piece of property, it was worth every minute."

©The Star Democrat 2002