Maryland Environmental Trust

The Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) is quasi-public statewide land trust established in 1967. Staffed with funds from the Department of Natural Resources, it is directed by an independent Board of Trustees. This unusual structure has resulted in the protection of over 100,000 acres of privately-owned forest, farm, and open space land across the State of Maryland with permanent, donated easements. MET has helped form 52 local land trusts around the state and runs the Maryland Land Trust Alliance to network them. The Trust's focus has historically been the process of acquiring and maintaining donated conservation easements. The expertise of the MET staff in this area is extensive and their website http://www.dnr.state.md.us/met/index.html contains everything a landowner would need to consider donation options and get started through the process.

Staff contacts at MET are organized by geographical region:

Central Maryland (Carroll, Baltimore, Harford, Cecil, Montgomery, Howard counties)

Western Maryland (Frederick, Washington, Alleghany, Garrett counties)

Southern Maryland (Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Calvert, St. Mary's, Charles counties)

Eastern Shore (Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, Worcester )
TOPICS IN THIS SECTION
Maryland Environmental Trust
Local Land Trusts
Tax Benefits
Easement Donation Process
Appraisal Guidelines
Maryland Historical Trust
Professional Landowner Advisor
IN THEIR OWN WORDS

What motivates landowners to protect their land? Hear what landowners say about why they donated or sold a permanent conservation easement on their land.

"Our easement means a great deal in terms of our interest in the farm -- we really value the open space and are very much interested in protecting it. It also fits into a larger puzzle: Our 286-acre farm boarders Sugarloaf mountain and when we put it under easement, we invited a bunch of neighbors in to discuss the MET program. As a result two of our neighbors put in their farms in easement and that added something like 1,600 acres to the total picture, all adjoining. The complete picture has meant a lot to us to know that this patchwork of open space will be protected."

Law B. Watkins, Montgomery County, Maryland. MET Easement recorded in 1976.
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Maryland Environmental Trust
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Crownsville, MD 21032-2023
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The Maryland Land Conservation Center
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Maryland Environmental Trust
with help from a grant from the Abell Foundation.
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