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Maryland Environmental Trust
Quarterly News
2026 Summer's End Edition
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Land Trust and Partner News: Staying Connected and Informed |
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MET News and Updates
Key updates, upcoming events, and announcements
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Is It Time to Renew Your Land Trust's Cooperative Agreement?
Don't wait until the last minute! Start the process to renewal your land trust's Cooperative Agreement today.
The Cooperative Agreement defines how the Maryland Environmental Trust and land trust organization work together. By establishing clear roles and shared goals, the agreement helps us work together more effectively to advance local land conservation.
The Cooperative Agreement template is available on MET's website. For more information or to renew your Agreement contact Michelle at michelle.grafton@maryland.gov.
Update Your Contact Information
Did you recently move, switch email addresses, hire new staff or elect a new board chair? Keeping your contact details up to date helps us stay connected.
Updating your information only takes a few minutes:
- Head over to MET's Contact Us survey.
- Select Partner if you are a land trust, local government or other conservation partner.
- Fill out the quick form and choose Update contact information.
That's it- just a few clicks to update your organization's information anytime. Visit our Contact Us survey now to update your information. Thanks for helping us keep our records complete!
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Keep Maryland Beautiful Program
Grants that support hands-on projects to protect, repair and steward our local environment
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 Applications are Now Being Accepted Online!
The Keep Maryland Beautiful grants are offered annually to volunteer groups, nonprofit organizations, communities, and land trusts in Maryland to support environmental education projects, community stewardship, and the protection of natural resources in urban and rural areas. This year’s program includes community stewardship grants for volunteer groups, nonprofits, local governments, and schools; assistance, leadership, and capacity building grants for Maryland’s land trusts; and grants for nonprofits to implement forestry projects on agricultural land.
Explore More:
The deadline to apply is December 1, 2025. Continue reading below for details on each grant category.
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 Land Trust Assistance
These grants support Maryland land trusts to build organizational capacity, advance the implementation of national Standards and Practices, grow public support for conservation and enhance the long-term stewardship of protected lands.
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 Aileen Hughes Award
Nominate a representative from your land trust or another Maryland land trust for the 2027 Aileen Hughes Award! This grant recognizes a Maryland land trust leader who demonstrated outstanding work in land conservation.
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 Community Stewardship
These grants support community-led initiatives to enhance Maryland's environment, inspire stewardship, engage residents in hands-on restoration, advance environmental education, and develop innovative solutions to local environmental challenges.
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 Agricultural Tree Planting
These grants support cost-effective reforestation or afforestation projects on qualifying Maryland agricultural lands to increase tree canopy and forest habitat, improve soil and water quality, provide livestock shade, and reduce emissions and summer heat.
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Partners in Action
Highlights, big announcements and tools from conservation partners
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Maryland’s State Wildlife Action Plan
The tagline of the 1990s television show Captain Planet told kids weekly, “the power is yours!” Just like the adventures those cartoon characters faced every week, Maryland’s State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) is a real-life Planeteer challenge: How should we as Maryland citizens work collaboratively to protect rare species and keep abundant wildlife from becoming rare in the future? Natural Heritage Program staff and community stakeholders across the state have been working tirelessly to tackle this challenge. We are proud to share that a final draft is complete!
Every ten years, all fifty states and the District of Columbia are required to update their SWAP. The plan is meant to serve as a non-regulatory guiding document for conservation efforts concerning the state’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need – including all shapes and sizes of wild animals and plants – and the habitats where we find them. Read more.
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New DNR Tool Helps Direct Better Marsh Restoration and Protection
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources released a new decision-making tool to help land managers and conservation organizations target restoration and protection of marshes in the state. The new Marsh Resilience Portfolio is a feature on the department’s Maryland Coastal Atlas mapping tool that provides data on marsh areas. The portfolio lays out information about a marsh’s health as well as its benefits for protecting habitats and communities. The information provided by this tool will better direct restoration efforts to marshes that can safeguard communities from flooding and other coastal risks over time. Read more.
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ESLC Receives Funding through DNR’s Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust to Fund St. Michaels Waterfront Park
Eastern Shore Land Conservancy is bringing more meadows, restored wetlands, and native plants to a new public waterfront park in St. Michaels! Project funding, through Maryland DNR’s Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, will support ecological restoration work at a former industrial waterfront property located right on the public nature trail in St. Michaels. These conservation-focused improvements are part of a broader vision for a new public waterfront park that will include a mix of passive recreation, gathering spaces, and access to the water for the entire community. Read more.
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Educational Opportunities & Events
Resources, practical guidance and training opportunities
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Building Relationships with Landowners Across Generations
October 29 | Registration fee
Conversations with landowners are rarely shaped by conservation goals alone. Family history, life experience, communication preferences, economic realities and generational values can all influence how landowners think about trust, legacy, stewardship and the future of their land. This professional development webinar will introduce generational intelligence as a practical lens for acquisition and stewardship staff working directly with landowners and families that are interested in conservation or own conserved land. To learn more about this webinar visit the Land Trust Alliance's website.
ArcGIS Fundamentals for Land Trusts
November 4 | Membership required
Geography is a foundation of land conservation. ArcGIS helps land trusts bring together geographical, environmental, social and operational information to connect knowledge across disciplines, reveal important relationships and patterns, and turn those insights into real-world decisions. Learn how desktop GIS can mature into internal collaboration and, over time, a connected system of systems that supports planning, stewardship, science, communication and collaboration. To learn more about this webinar visit the Land Trust Alliance website.
Understanding Rights of Way for Land Conservation Practitioners
November 17 | Registration fee
Land trusts and landowners aren’t the only ones interested in having rights to conservation properties. Individuals, businesses and public entities like power companies can hold rights of way, which are easements that grant access and more without ownership. During acquisition, title work should dig up any existing rights of way, but it can be tricky to understand what these documents mean and what decisions to make. Stewardship gets even trickier once rights of way holders want to start using or accessing the property. To learn more about this webinar visit the Land Trust Alliance website.
New Guidance for Digital Recordkeeping
November 18 | Registration fee
Land trusts are increasingly managing conservation records in digital environments, but doing so responsibly requires more than simply scanning documents or storing files in the cloud. Just like paper recordkeeping systems, digital systems must ensure that conservation records are complete, secure, protected and accessible for long-term efficiency. The Land Trust Alliance has developed a guidance document to support a practical approach to designing and maintaining a digital-forward recordkeeping system that protects permanent transaction and stewardship records. To learn more about this webinar visit the Land Trust Alliance website.
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More News for You
Stories and publications from across Maryland's conservation network
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Learn More About Our Work
How we conserve, steward and support Maryland's open spaces every day
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Protecting Land Forever
From the forested mountain tops of Garrett County to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland boasts an ecological diversity and scenic beauty rivaled by few states in the nation. For 59 years, Maryland Environmental Trust has worked alongside landowners and local land trusts to permanently protect these valuable natural resources with conservation easements. Together, we’ve permanently protected more than 140,000 acres across the state through over 1,100 conservation easements. To learn more about our conservation easement program visit our website at dnr.maryland.gov/met/Pages/land_conservation.aspx
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Land Trust Assistance
Maryland Environmental Trust partners with local land trusts and conservation partners to advance environmental protection and connect local groups with state and regional resources. For land trusts with Cooperative Agreements we offer technical assistance to strengthen land conservation and easement stewardship activities—including monitoring resources, model easement documents, record-keeping guidance, Land Trust Roundtables and Keep Maryland Beautify mini-grants. To learn more contact us or visit our website at dnr.maryland.gov/met/Pages/landtrusts.aspx
Contact Us
Do you have questions about your co-held easements? Is it time to renew your Cooperative Agreement? Has your contact information has changed? Are you interested in learning more about our work? We're here to help. Submit your questions online at mddnr.info/ContactMET or use our QR code.
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Maryland Environmental Trust | Protecting Land Forever |
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