Monitoring
Our work doesn’t stop with the acquisition of an easement. Each parcel requires annual inspections to ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement. It’s the heart of our program and it requires the work of volunteer monitors. We’ve recently reinvigorated the monitoring program with the training of 20 new volunteers who’ve already begun inspecting some of the most beautiful properties Southern Maryland has to offer.
Awards & Grants
In October I had the pleasure of announcing that the Maryland Board of Public Works has awarded PTLT with $1.08 million for its 2025 Rural Legacy Grant Award cycle in support of conservation efforts in the Huntersville Rural Legacy Area. The Rural Legacy Program was established in 1997 to preserve contiguous tracts of land in designated areas. Huntersville Rural Legacy Area in the northern portion of St. Mary’s County has significant agricultural, forestry, and environmental value, including endangered species habitat, wetlands, historic structures, and archeological sites. The Smithsonian Center for Natural Areas even designated the area as critical wildlife habitat in need of protection. All acquisition work and grant success since the Greenwell property is due to the hard work of our acquisition manager, Abby Greenwell.
Earlier this year I was awarded the Aileen Hughes Award by Forever Maryland for “Outstanding Leadership of a land trust”.
Stewardship and Community Involvement
A year ago, we closed a totally unique forest conservation easement in St. Inigoes as mitigation for tree removal at Chancellor's Point to allow boat-facility construction for Southern Maryland Rowing Assoc. and Sailing Center Chesapeake. This month Rosa Hance and her class at St. Mary’s college, with PTSALT volunteer help, planted 24 trees on the easement to establish the required grove.
This month we resumed our “Weed Warrior” activities at Myrtle Point Park in St. Mary’s County and at Historic St. Mary’s City. After years of volunteer effort (much of our success is due to our loyal volunteers – thank you) we are seeing real progress at both parks.
Our Chesapeake Climate Corps intern, Jake Stergio, is planning several foot path connectors in the Lexington Park area and possibly beyond. His first success is a new path across Nicolet Park which also provides a community connection between the Valley Road to the communities and services on the Great Mills Road corridor.
It's been a productive year for PTLT, and now we’d like to ask for your continued or first-time support. Because PTLT is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, your contribution will go a long way in assuring the sustainability of our mission. Your donation will help us acquire easements, monitor properties, conduct further community and stewardship work and achieve our administrative needs.
We know you have many choices in this giving season. We hope you will think local by keeping PTLT in mind as you consider your end-of-year giving. Our children will thank you.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Frank Allen
President
Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust
On September 7, 1944, Liege, Belgium was liberated. Dabney rode on a USA tank through town and finally saw the front of the house where he had been hidden in the attic. He was ordered to go to Paris for debriefing then returned to England.
Dabney was sent home on leave and he told the Statue of Liberty that she would never see him again. He never flew again. He reported back to the Base for training on the Norton System, but chose to come home with his Honorable Discharge as a Lieutenant. He was awarded two Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, the Air Medal for heroic action while participating in aerial flight, two Caterpillar Pins, and a Special Award from Belgium Red Cross. On March 6, 1947 he married Irene Jones of Elkins, WV on her birthday. They were married for 52 years. Dabney and Reeney were part owners of the Bartow Drive-Inn but sold their share when they opened the Pocahontas Motel and Restaurant in 1953 at the top of Cheat Mountain, which they operated until the 1990's. The restaurant was famous for the German pot roast and homemade pies. Reeney passed away in May of 1999.
Dabney hosted hunting groups including deer, raccoon, and bear hunters. He also raised hunting dogs for coon hunting. He was an avid fisherman and taught all his nieces and nephews how to fish. He spent hours making intricate fishing flies. Dabney and Reeney moved to Olive, their mountain farm, when they retired. On this gentle farm, Dabney grew Christmas trees, raised peacocks and cared for his horses. Dabney believed in protecting the environment and preserving wildlife before it was fashionable. This special gift in Lloyd "Dabney" Kisner's memory will help preserve open space in perpetuity for future generations.
A heartfelt thank you,
Frank Allen, President of Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust (PTLT)
Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Powassan Virus disease, Borellis miyamotoi disease, Borrelis mayonii disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Alpha Gal. All these maladies are carried by ticks. The problem (and the suffering) is getting worse.
All appear to come from the environment. A genetic study by Yale School of Public Health found that Lyme has been endemic in eastern North American forests for at least 60,000 years, longer than people have been known to be here. Yet, it wasn’t until 1975 that the first case of Lyme was “discovered” in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Alpha Gal was first reported in 2002. Since then, the number of victims of Alpha Gal has exploded. All these diseases are at a minimum debilitating and at worst fatal.
Why have these diseases suddenly appeared in the population to cause such suffering? There are a few clues, beginning with human activities, such as forest management and wildlife management.
Example of wildlife management: White-tailed deer almost became extinct at the start of the Twentieth Century, only to be reintroduced in the 1920s. In the last few decades, their numbers have soared, and as a result, tick numbers have also exploded, since the ticks now have plenty of food on the hoof.
Forest management: Before the colonists arrived, the indigenous population managed the land through controlled burning of the forests. This practice favored such fire-resistant trees as oaks at the expense of fire-sensitive trees, such as maples.
Recently the Nature Conservancy has undertaken controlled burns on some of its Maryland properties. These properties, in the western part of the state and in the Delmarva region, have since experienced better control of invasive plants, reemergence of natives, and greatly reduced tick populations.
Similarly, the Audubon Society’s North Carolina chapter staff undertakes controlled burns on its 3,000-acre Donal C. O’ Brien Jr. Sanctuary on Currituck Sound near Corolla. From late winter through early April they burn a third of its marsh grass in a yearly rotating pattern that allows wildlife to shift to other parts of the property. They consider the burns essential in providing food, shelter, and nesting material needed for birds to survive. The practice mimics nature’s renewal cycle aided by lightning strikes that ignite the grasses.
Since cures for tick-borne diseases currently range from difficult to impossible, it makes sense to reduce risk of acquiring these diseases through such practices. Strategic burns are much more beneficial than eradicating ticks by pesticides, which are expensive and devastating to nearby forest and aquatic dwellers.
“It’s time to consider reducing tick populations using an ecosystem approach with a combination of wildlife management and controlled burning in our fields, brushlands, and forests,” says Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust President Frank Allen. “As an asthmatic, I believe that controlled burning is one of the few forms of combustion that should have a place in our communities.”
Frank Allen is President of the Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust. For more information on the controlled burns in Maryland, visit: Nature Conservancy. For more information on the Audubon Society’s North Carolina chapter burn program, visitPine Island Audubon Center. For more information on ticks and tick-borne diseases, visit: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the addition of 413 acres, PTLT has closed on its newest conservation easement.
The property belonging to the Greenwell Catholic Trust on Jones Wharf Road in the Huntersville Rural Legacy Area contains numerous wooded tracts and abuts tidal water and open waters at the mouth of Cole Creek on the Patuxent River. Farm fields account for nearly 40 acres of the tract while the rest of the property is forested. Open nontidal and tidal wetlands occupy 14-plus acres. Approximately 15 acres of the forested portion is part of larger block of riparian forest. Several woodland trails along ridges and side slopes allow hunting and waterfront access.
In mapping the area’s hardwood forest and wetlands, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources determined the Greenwell tract as likely forest interior dweller habitat. The DNR gave it at Tier 4 level status within the Biodiversity Conservation network of the Natural Heritage Program, which means it’s of significant conservation value. In 2000, the state agency had mapped the wetland riparian portions and concluded them necessary for networking large vital blocks of forest and woodlands, called “hubs,” as part of its Green Infrastructure assessment program.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of the conservation of such a large block of undeveloped land with large contiguous blocks of woodlands—largely free of invasive plants—and of wetlands,” says PTLT President Frank Allen. “With the completion of this easement PTLT has now protected over 10 square miles.”
Phil Hayward, staff writer
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