ESLC Celebrates 330th Conservation Easement
Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) is grateful to announce the closing of Mr. Robert Lawson’s 161-acre conservation easement in Griffith Neck, bringing ESLC’s permanent protection in Dorchester County to a total of 13,329 acres. “ESLC is grateful to Mr. Lawson and to Maryland DNR for this meaningful contribution to Eastern Shore conservation,” commented ESLC President and CEO Steve Kline. “We are delighted to share that our 330th conservation easement will establish and maintain a significant riparian buffer protecting the Nanticoke River watershed and Chicamacomico River from non-point pollution.”
The Lawson’s permanent easement was made possible by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). The conservation practices included in the CREP program will perpetually improve the property’s surrounding water quality, protect its natural resources, and provide wildlife habitat. “One of the wonderful things about the CREP program is that it offers so many benefits at various scopes both on and off the farm,” said ESLC’s Enhanced Stewardship Manager Larisa Prezioso. “On the farm, CREP provides grassland mosaic habitat that compliments the existing marshland and forest. We know from various State and Federal research efforts that species like American woodcock and turkey nest in the area, making grassland habitat super important. Off the farm, the habitat benefits the water quality of the Chicamacomico River, enhances local air quality, and provides a corridor for species migration.”
The Lawson family has farmed corn, beans, sunflowers, and barley in Griffith Neck for more than 100 years, starting with Mr. Lawson’s great grandfather Samuel A. Lawson. “I love the woods, the ponds, the marsh, the rivers, the bays,” Mr. Lawson reflected. “This farm is special to me, my grandfather, and father. It meant a lot to me to keep the farm. It’s just beautiful down here. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. To look out in the field and see the deer and all the wildlife. You just can’t see that in the town, in the city. It makes you feel like you’re alive.”
Next spring, Mr. Lawson and his son will sow crimson clover and a mix of warm season grasses, continuing to enhance the land’s wildlife habitat and other ecosystem services. Bordering the Chicamocomico River—a one-time ice-skating route for the Lawsons from the farm to Bestpitch Ferry—the property includes creeks, tidal marshes, wet woods, forest, and perhaps most importantly grassland, an increasingly rare habitat that is essential for carbon sequestration, water and air filtration, soil conditioning, erosion prevention, and the needs of our declining bird and insect populations. Already home to a great diversity of wildlife including foxes, otters, Delmarva fox squirrels, deer, rabbits, eagles, raccoons, kingfishers, sika deer, fireflies, and monarchs, the farm’s CREP practices will welcome an even greater biodiversity of flora and fauna from now until forever.
To learn more about CREP, conservation easements, and whether your property may qualify, please contact ESLC’s Director of Land Conservation David Satterfield at dsatterfield@eslc.org.
