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November 2025 | Land Trust eNews
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Maryland Environmental Trust Spotlight |
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 Mark Your Calendars!
MET is excited to be a panelist on the Framing the Future: Maryland's Protected Lands Dashboard webinar on Thursday, November 20. This webinar will bring together representatives from the Maryland Departments of Planning, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, and Maryland Environmental Trust. Participants will learn how Maryland established ambitious land conservation goals in 2023 to conserve 30% of the State by 2030 and 40% of the State by 2040, as well as how we are doing in meeting these goals. Register online to join this free webinar.
Land Trust Roundtable Recap
MET held a Land Trust Roundtable on November 6, 2025. The Roundtable, Easement Planning and Landowner Engagement, brought together 26 individuals representing 18 land trusts and conservation partners who work across Maryland. The event provided an overview of MET’s easement review process, as well as interactive mapping tools that can be used to analyze parcels, identify lands with high conservation value, and build out the Deed of Easement’s conservation attributes. The Roundtable also explored opportunities to collaborate on future conservation and joint outreach projects. More information is available on our event page for Land Trust Roundtables.
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 Keep Maryland Beautiful Grant Program Includes Assistance Grants for Maryland’s Land Trusts
The Maryland Departments of Natural Resources, Transportation, and Agriculture, along with the Chesapeake Bay Trust, are partnering to accept applications for this year’s Keep Maryland Beautiful Grants program. These grants are offered annually to support environmental education projects, community stewardship, and the protection of natural resources in urban and rural areas.
Applications for funding will be accepted through December 1. Keep Maryland Beautiful grants include: community stewardship grants for volunteer groups, nonprofits, local governments, and schools; assistance grants for Maryland’s land trusts; and grants for nonprofits to implement forestry projects on agricultural land.
Also, don't forget to nominate a representative from your land trust or another Maryland land trust for the 2026 Aileen Hughes Award! The Aileen Hughes Award is presented annually to an individual representing a Maryland land trust who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in land conservation -- including, but not limited to, executive directors, program staff, and board members. Funding is awarded to a land trust on behalf of an individual and their good work, rather than to the individual themselves.
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Lunch & Learn: The Land Remembers: Piscataway Stories of Continuity
December 11 | Free
Join Anjela Barnes (Piscataway), Executive Director of the Accokeek Foundation, for this virtual Lunch & Learn, as she shares the story of Piscataway Park as a living cultural landscape and a place of ancestral connection. This presentation traces the park’s preservation journey from early land trust efforts in the 1950s to its designation as the first national park established to “preserve historic vistas.” Learn more.
Caught Holding the Bucket — Navigating a Complex Encroachment Issue
January 22, 2026 | Online webinar
Third-party encroachments can put land trusts in complicated and expensive enforcement situations. This is especially true when state laws and conservation easement restrictions are violated on land owned by the land trust. This webinar will discuss the steps taken and lessons learned from successfully resolving a seemingly minor third-party encroachment that evolved into a complicated, multi-year remediation project and a lawsuit. Learn more.
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Tools, Tech and Tutorials |
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 MET's Land Trust Toolbox
The Land Trust Toolbox is an online directory featuring resources, services and tools from Maryland Environmental Trust State and other State and governmental partners. The tool is designed to connect land trusts to resources, data, and mapping tools that support daily programming.
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 Changes to the Maryland Land Records Website
On November 17, an updated version of the Maryland Land Records website will be released,
along with a new URL. All users will need to create a new account (previous accounts cannot be migrated). Please read the Archives' Upcoming Changes to Maryland Land Records Website page for more information.
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 Restoration of the Chesapeake Bay
With over 40 years of history, the multi-jurisdictional effort to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem has yielded some positive outcomes. The 10 "lessons learned" from this restoration effort can provide understanding and guidance for ecosystem restoration efforts elsewhere.
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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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