On Thursday August 17, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and Skip and Barbara Watson hosted U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen for a tour of Waterloo Farm in East New Market, Maryland. Several bay conservation partners also attended, including representatives from Choose Clean Water Coalition, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Waterloo Farm’s conservation and wetland protection efforts (including impoundments, native plantings, protected woodlands, and vegetative buffers) will be replicated across Dorchester County by ESLC and essential partners through Chesapeake WILD funding, which includes $500,000 in federal funding that the Senator fought to secure to protect habitat migration corridors between Blackwater and the Nanticoke River Watershed.
Through strategic landowner outreach, ESLC and the Chesapeake WILD project will permanently protect 300 acres, benefiting the long-term resilience of wildlife populations and critical ecosystems throughout Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore.
“What this shows is that this requires a team effort,” said Senator Van Hollen. “It does require everybody working in the same direction. If we’re going to address all the issues and if we’re going to protect the Chesapeake Bay, which is a global treasure, we have to make sure here in the bay, which is an extra sensitive area ecologically, that we have a program specifically targeted on the Bay and that’s what Chesapeake WILD is all about.”
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.