Visitors and residents of the Eastern Shore of Maryland know this region’s fall foliage is both uniquely vibrant and remarkably fleeting. Our bald cypresses guard the wetlands with a blaze of fiery burnt orange just as white oaks and maple trees turn the color of goldenrod, persimmon, and deep cabernet. Then just as the color begins to run out, our American hollies and towering loblolly pines take a step forward in their persistent deep green. Luckily, this year’s spectacle will last longer than usual—in more ways than one.
The Eastern Shore’s beautiful woodlands are currently being captured by award-winning plein air artists for Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and Plein Air Easton’s upcoming 2026 Alumni Invitational, “Forever the Forest.” This year’s competition, painted in the fall and set for exhibit during the 2026 Plein Air Easton Festival, showcases Eastern Shore woodlands that ESLC has conserved forever through perpetual conservation easements.
ESLC has conserved more than 21,600 acres of forest since its founding in 1990. But the same amount of forest acreage it took 35 years to protect is lost to other uses every year in the state of Maryland. Conservation of our existing forest is essential. “These woodlands provide clean air, clean water, and biodiversity,” commented ESLC President and CEO Steve Kline. “When managed responsibly, they also provide our region with essential economic benefits.”
Forestry is the fifth largest manufacturing industry in Maryland, supporting 18,000 jobs and a $2.5 billion impact on our state economy. Wood from Maryland forests becomes lumber for homes. Our trees become furniture, paper, fuel for wood stoves, poles for fishermen’s pound nets, and even substrate for mushroom farms and animal bedding for poultry and livestock. Sustainably managed forests are integral to our landscape and fundamental to our history and culture.
“Forever the Forest” paintings will be on display in July 2026 during the Avalon Foundation’s 22nd PAE Festival, the largest and most prestigious juried plein air painting competition in the United States. During the festival, ESLC and Plein Air Easton will host a free preview reception and award ceremony—an excellent opportunity to get a first look at the artwork, meet the artists, and learn more about ESLC’s conservation work.
ESLC is grateful to the Avalon Foundation, and to all the photographers and painters who have devoted time, energy, and talent to this next invitational. And we are especially grateful for the generous support of Bruce Wiltse and Bill Davenport.
To stay updated on this competition, event details, and ESLC’s forest conservation work, please subscribe to ESLC’s biweekly newsletter at www.eslc.org/subscribe.
Established in 1990, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s mission is to conserve, steward, and advocate for the unique rural landscape of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, forever a special place of diverse and abundant natural resources and thriving rural communities.
Mary Smith says
Forestry in Maryland isn’t the economic engine this piece makes it out to be. Modern logging runs on heavy equipment, not jobs. A few people in feller-bunchers harvest huge areas, while the profits head straight to corporate landowners and timber investors. Local workers see little benefit, and most small landowners are shut out.
This piece tries to sell “conservation” as economic development, when in reality it is used to exclude real human opportunity and diversity. Zoning and easements keep out trades, shops, and small industries that could actually sustain local families. The result? Few jobs, poor residents, isolated seniors, drug addiction, long drives, and a county economy stuck in mud while a few big players pat themselves on the back for “saving” the land.