HAGERSTOWN – Under Maryland’s Rural Legacy Program, Washington County will protect a 173.5-acre farm on Shepherdstown Pike in Sharpsburg, which may prompt owners of its neighboring properties to also pursue permanent easements and protect the environmental and rural aesthetic value of the area.
The new easement adds to a large block of similarly preserved properties in the area, bringing the county’s total of protected land to more than 42,000 acres through the state program.
Easements protect the land from future development, ensuring it remains available for agricultural use, open space or environmental conservation. They preserve farmland for food production, protect natural resources, maintain rural character and safeguard historical or scenic areas. They prohibit subdividing the land for housing, commercial development, or altering natural features like forests, wetlands, and streams.
In deciding what land is eligible for preservation, the county uses a points-based ranking system based on the characteristics of each applicant property, and the system weighs heavily toward proximity to other permanent easements is the largest category.
“A property that is contiguous to another permanent easement stands a far better chance of procuring a conservation easement than one that is further away,” County Rural Preservation Administrator Chris Boggs told LocalNews1.org. “The idea is to preserve land in large blocks, which not only makes farming easier and more efficient, but also provides a major ecological benefit and minimizes the potential for the overdevelopment of our rural areas.”
Funded by the state Department of Natural Resources and administered locally by the Rural Preservation office in the County’s Planning & Zoning department, the Rural Legacy Program is a linchpin of the county’s land preservation strategy. The program has accounted for the permanent preservation of over 9,400 acres, nearly a quarter of all permanently preserved land in the County.
Boggs said that in recent years the County Commissioners have stepped up funding to boost the government’s commitment to rural preservation. In 2024, commmissioners approved a $1.5 million contribution from the general fund, an additional $100,000 for an Agricultural Innovation and Equipment Grant program financed through the hotel rental tax fund to promote agricultural business growth and development.
And for the last three years, the county has provided three separate $1.33 million commitments to the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program’s 60/40 Match mechanism, the first years it has been able to commit the full 40 percent match of $1.33 million for that program, he said.
Other tools the county uses to preserve land with agricultural, historical and environmental significance include the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, the County’s Installment Purchase Program, local forest conservation easements and federal programs such as the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and Federal Scenic Easements.
It also works with nonprofit and land trust organizations including the Maryland Environmental Trust, Antietam Battlefield Trust and Mid-Maryland Land Trust.
With a total of 42,500 acres now preserved, the county has already reached 85 percent of its long-standing 50,000-acre goal, which is also delineated in its new Comprehensive Plan 2040.
“The original idea was to answer the question of just how much agricultural land is required for the county to be sustainable through local agricultural production,” Boggs said. “And not just about sustaining our dietary needs, but also the agricultural economy and rural heritage that our county cherishes.”
Farm owners interested in participating in the program must submit applications by Jan. 31 each year, with easement offers typically extended the following fall. Owners of protected farmland can still sell their property, but the land would still be subject to the restrictions of the easement.
