153 Acres Near Oxford Permanently Protected in Talbot County
Talbot County, MD - More than 153 acres of farmland near Oxford, Maryland have been permanently conserved thanks to a new easement from Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.
The conservation completes full protection of a 213-acre farm owned by Herschell B. Claggett Sr. Sixty acres of that property were already protected through a USDA Wetland Reserve Easement.
This is the tenth conservation easement for Claggett, a longtime ESLC supporter who has protected land across Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, Kent, and Cecil Counties. Three of those easements have been completed through ESLC.
The most recent easement was funded through a Maryland DNR Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Permanent Easement. That program protects active farmland while also keeping waterways clean by pulling select field edges out of production and turning them into streamside buffers and wildlife habitat.
On Claggett's farm, 86 acres of grain fields are now surrounded by eight acres of grassland buffer strips. Those strips filter nutrients before they can reach Island Creek, a tidal tributary of the Choptank River that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. About half of the easement falls within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.
ESLC President and CEO Steve Kline credited landowners like Claggett for the water quality improvements showing up across the region.
"The notable water clarity we are seeing on Island Creek, the Choptank River, and across the Eastern Shore is inextricably tied to healthy land stewardship like the field buffers, cover crops, forest conservation, and other soil health stewardship and sustainable agriculture practiced on this property and hundreds of others protected by ESLC," Kline said.
The easement also protects 450 feet of shoreline on Island Creek and 3,700 feet of scenic road frontage along World Farm Road. Corn and sunflower fields on the property are managed using cover crop rotations and reduced herbicide use.
Forty-eight acres of mixed forest provide habitat for forest interior dwelling birds, known as FIDS, including tanagers, ovenbirds, and wood thrushes. Many of these species migrate north in the summer to nest and breed on the Eastern Shore. They also benefit local farms by eating beetles, aphids, and caterpillars.
With this easement, ESLC has now protected 4,111 acres of FIDS habitat in Talbot County alone.
Claggett reflected on what conservation means to him as both a farmer and a wildlife manager.
"Our role as wildlife managers or farm managers is to facilitate a stable population and harvest what we can justifiably harvest," he said. "That's what conservation is all about, really. I believe we're here for a reason and we need to manage what renewable resources we have the best we can."
Claggett said he remembers when the first no-till planter was used on the Eastern Shore. Now it is used on every property he has conserved. He said he hopes the work continues to make a difference.
"I'd like to think this easement is going to help," Claggett said. "And I think it has."
Eastern Shore Land Conservancy was established in 1990. Its mission is to conserve, steward, and advocate for the rural landscape of Maryland's Eastern Shore.
