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December 2024 | Land Trust eNews
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Maryland Environmental Trust Spotlight |
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Land Trust Easement Monitoring Reports
If your land trust coholds easements with MET, there is less than one month left to complete your annual monitoring visits for CY2024. The deadline to submit your monitoring reports to MET (for coheld easements) is just around the corner. For more details about annual monitoring requirements please contact Michelle at michelle.grafton@maryland.gov.
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Southern MD Woodlands Established as National Wildlife Refuge
It’s official: Southern Maryland has its own national wildlife refuge. On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland celebrated the first 31 acres of woods, donated by the Nature Conservancy near Nanjemoy in Charles County, that will eventually make up a much larger refuge.
The area, known as Southern Maryland Woodlands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), supports delicate species like northern long-eared bats, forest-interior songbirds, box turtles and several species of salamanders. Read more.
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Dan Murphy: Taking a Landscape Approach to Conserving Wildlife
In recognition of his outstanding leadership, dedication, and contributions to the mission of the Coastal Program, National Wildlife Refuge System, and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dan Murphy, Supervisory Coastal Program Biologist at the Chesapeake Bay Field Office, received the Meritorious Service Award.
Mr. Murphy began his career with the Service more than 30 years ago as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist. Although he loved working in the field on individual wildlife projects, Dan inherently knew that to make greater gains in wildlife conservation he needed to pursue larger scale initiatives. Read more.
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Conservation by Design in Land Use Planning
Recording | Free
Conservation by Design enables municipalities to work with developers to create attractive neighborhoods while preserving natural resources, respecting cultural features, and enhancing community character. It can be used to supplement other land protection efforts in a simple, cost-efficient way by complementing programs to purchase land or development rights or to transfer development rights. Learn more.
Online | Free
The Edible Trail is what might be called a food forest, or a forest garden. It’s an example of agroforestry—a range of practices that incorporate primarily native fruit and nut-bearing trees and shrubs as well as herbaceous species and fungi into the landscape. Taking ideas from both forestry and sustainable agriculture, agroforestry aims to create multi-purpose areas that benefit people and the environment. Learn more.
Allies in Amphibian Conservation: Leveraging Partners for Success
Recording | Free
From frogs to salamanders, amphibians are secretive but essential to our health and the function of our ecosystems. But despite their critical role, amphibians are facing a crisis: Over 40% are threatened with extinction. How can we reduce that loss? Learn more.
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Tools, Tech and Tutorials |
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 Statewide Eyes
The Statewide Eyes initiative brings community science to invasive species management. Do you hike, ride, bird, camp, fish, or otherwise recreate in state parks, forests or wildlands? Lend YOUR eyes to help Maryland’s biodiversity! Maryland has over 1200 rare, threatened or endangered native species in the state.
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 Thinking Spatially
This online course is designed to lead users through four lessons that focus on the main elements of GIS, the MD iMAP Program and ArcGIS Online. The course requires an ArcGIS Online account to complete. This course is intended for those individuals with little or no knowledge of GIS, the MD iMAP Program, or ArcGIS Online.
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 Trees on the Move
When thinking of the term migration, the mind envisions seasonal bird journeys or perhaps historical human movement around the globe. However, scientists at the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station are studying another type of migration—the movement of trees and how that relates to climate change.
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Share Your News
If you would like to share relevant conservation news, success stories, announcements or events with Maryland's land trusts and conservation partners through this publication, please contact Michelle Grafton by the first of each month at michelle.grafton@maryland.gov.
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