Two Rural Legacy Areas Covering Talbot Land Are in Line for $2.29 Million in State Preservation Grants

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND — Two Rural Legacy areas that include land in Talbot County would receive a combined $2.29 million to buy conservation easements under a Department of Natural Resources request on the Maryland Board of Public Works agenda for Oct. 29.

The Eastern Shore Heartland Rural Legacy Area, which spans Caroline, Dorchester and Talbot counties, would get $1,097,926.49. The Tuckahoe Rural Legacy Area, in Caroline and Talbot counties, would get $1,188,068.83. Both grew out of the Agricultural Security Corridor, which the board designated across five counties in 1998 and split into three separate areas in January 2020, according to the agenda.

The program buys conservation easements from willing property owners, working through local governments or private land trusts as sponsors. In both Talbot areas, the agenda says the money would protect forests, farmland, wetlands, historic sites and endangered species habitat, and would support farm production of grains, hay, dairy, beef and poultry.

Across Maryland, the department recommends $21,087,542.38 in 19 grant awards for fiscal 2027. That total combines fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 appropriations with $3,282,532.38 in unspent money from prior years that the Rural Legacy Advisory Committee and Rural Legacy Board voted to redirect.

Elsewhere on the Shore, the Foreman Branch area in Queen Anne's County would get $1,975,774, the Nanticoke area in Dorchester County $1,468,968.72, the Dividing Creek area in Somerset and Worcester counties $1,392,709.78, the Fair Hill area in Cecil County $1,377,844.32, the Quantico Creek area in Wicomico County $937,298, the Harriet Tubman area in Dorchester County $909,822.50 and the Bishopville-Showell area in Worcester County $325,000.

The grants do not name any farms. The department says it will bring individual contracts to buy conservation easements to the board as specific deals come together.