Windy Hill Farm East of Trappe Is Permanently Conserved, With 139 Acres of Forest Along a Choptank Tributary

TRAPPE, MARYLAND — L. and Annette Gannon and Alexis Brooks have permanently conserved 285 acres at Windy Hill, a small community just east of Trappe, through an easement arranged with the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, the group said in a news post dated Nov. 2.

The easement was funded through the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Rural Legacy Program, which is paid for through Program Open Space, according to the conservancy. It protects 140 acres of prime farmland, including conservation reserve program buffer strips.

Another 139 acres of deciduous forest, managed under a forest stewardship plan, surround the farm's grain fields. The conservancy said the forest provides 100-foot-wide buffers along 3,900 feet of Ash Bridge Branch, a tributary of Miles Creek and the Choptank River. About 122 acres of the farm lie within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.

Many of the farm's trees are more than 100 years old, the conservancy said, and they shelter Delmarva fox squirrels and vulnerable forest interior dwelling bird species. Six acres of impoundments offer rest and food for migratory waterfowl.

"Windy Hill Farms provides these many ecological benefits in concert with more than 2,039 acres of protected lands that all lie less than one mile away," said Steve Kline, the conservancy's president and CEO. "Connectivity like this is critical in order for easements to have the greatest possible impact on wildlife, cultural preservation, healthy agricultural and economic systems, and community climate resilience."

Landowner J. L. Gannon said the family chose the conservancy "because they had worked with other local landowners and because of their attention to detailed calculations for the environmental value the easement represented."

The easement also protects almost 8,000 feet of scenic road frontage and 3,100 feet of scenic water frontage. Several of the nation's top plein air painters captured the farm's autumn views during the conservancy's 2026 Forever the Forest alumni invitational at the Avalon Foundation's Plein Air Easton Festival, the group said.