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Local Land Trust Receives Award The Allegheny Highlands Conservancy (AHC) was one of seven land trusts awarded a Janice Hollman Grant at the annual Maryland Land Trust Alliance Conference held on June 6th at the Howard County Conservancy on Mt. Pleasant Farm in Woodstock, Maryland. The Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) presented AHC with a grant of $4800 to further Janice Hollman’s vision of strong and vibrant local land trusts. Ms. Hollman helped found both the Severn River Land Trust and Arundel Conservation Trust, and served on the Severn River Commission. Nearly 40 land conservation organizations participated in the all-day event at the education center on the beautiful 300-year-old 232 acre farm. The public is invited to learn more about the Allegheny Highlands Conservancy by attending their Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, July 16th at 7 pm in the CAOS Building at Garrett College. Among the topics to be covered will be a new outreach effort by AHC and MET to connect with landowners in Garrett County. AHC has several purposes: to protect and conserve land, water, and natural resources of the Allegheny Highlands region; to promote the preservation, protection and stewardship of forest, scenic, natural, wildlife, recreational and agricultural land and water resources; to partner with the community to conserve working rural farms and forests; to serve as a conservation information resource for landowners and land managers; and to provide a forum for community understanding and support of land and water conservation issues. For more information including how to become a member visit www.AlleghenyHighlandsConservancy.org The Allegheny Highlands Conservancy is a 501c3 non-profit charitable organization. Donations are deeply appreciated and may be sent to AHC, PO Box 333, McHenry, MD 21541. For additional information about this meeting or becoming a member, contact Kevin Dodge at 301-387-3328 or info@AlleghenyHighlandsConservancy.org
LOCAL LANDOWNERS HONORED ─ The Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) hosted conservation professionals from land trusts throughout Maryland at the Maryland Land Trust Alliance Conference on June 6 at the Howard County Conservancy In Woodstock, where two Garrett County landowners received a state award. Sisters Kathryn Weise and Carol Bartram received the Dillon Award for Outstanding Conservationist Landowner, created from an endowment from sisters Alberta and Louise Dillon, who bequeathed their entire Garrett County property to the MET in 1984. Weise and Bartram were selected for the award this year for their easement donation of property to the MET, a move which will preserve approximately 125 mostly wooded acres of property near Deep Creek Lake. Pictured from left above are Kathryn Weise, their mother Virginia Weise, and Carol Bartram. Kathryn Weise is also pictured below looking over the property with land preservation colleague Robert Lewis, a Garrett County resident who serves on the Allegheny Highlands Conservancy board. The map that shows the 125 donated acres (in red), which are located just south of Glendale Road, overlooking the lake. Sisters Recognized for Placing Lake Property into Preservation Easement by Glenn Tolbert There are 120 acres of land along Deep Creek Lake that the laws say must be preserved in their current state. They will retain their feel of what the area was like before being “discov-ered” and developed. No one is allowed to build or in any other way make changes to this land. Preserved by efforts of the Allegheny Highlands Conservancy, the land is not a park for the public to tour or to visit, but is set aside to allow Mother Nature to have some lakefront property of her own. The conservancy is described as “more than a land trust.” It is a non-profit organization that works with willing landowners to conserve land by accepting land donations called easements. Landowners are allowed to choose their own particular vision for their land, such as allowing farming or timber harvesting. The conservancy also allows options whereby some sites may be designated for a home or a building to be built in the future, with the rest of the land designated as an easement. Dr. Kathryn Weise, a pediatric intensive care physician at the Cleveland Clinic whose family has been coming to the lake since the 1950s, says she and her sister Carol Bartram put the aforementioned 120 acres just off Glendale Road under the care of the program because of the “good feeling” of knowing that the land will be preserved for perpetuity. “We worked with state preservation organizations to set it up,” she said. “The value of the easements was ascertained by the value of the easements for the tax incentive part of the program. “One hundred years from now someone else will own the property, but the easements will still be in place,” she explained. Dr. Weise says hers is not a wealthy family, but has invested wisely over the years, first going into debt to buy a parcel of land at the lake and working a Christmas tree farm on the initial small piece of property. Because of its proximity to the lake, there is no question that the 120 acres is quite valuable, but as Dr. Weise pointed out, “Our goal has been to be able to preserve it and be able to afford to use it rather than to sell it for a lot of money, and this process allows that, while adding to the environmental stability of the area. If that also adds to the value of adjoining property, all the better. “Land is only worth what you sell it for,” she continued. “We didn’t want to sell it. So it felt good to both preserve open space in the very heart of an area that is being rapidly developed, and to get some relief from taxation.” The Dillon Award for Outstanding Conservationist Landowner was created from an endowment from another pair of Garrett County sisters, the late Alberta and Louise Dillon, who bequeathed their entire Garrett County property to the MET in 1984. This award for 2008 was presented at the 2008 Maryland Land Trust Alliance Conference, held June 6 at the Howard County Conservancy's Gudelsky Center in Woodstock, to Weise and Bartram for their easement donations at the lake. The sisters were accompanied at the presentation by their mother, Virginia Weise, whom they thanked for originally buying the property and presented with a bouquet of flowers. Alverta and Louise Dillon, who were retired school teachers, donated a perpetual conservation easement and then bequeathed their entire Garrett County property to the Maryland Environmental Trust in 1984. “Alverta and Louise were dedicated naturalists and enthusiastic about conservation and enhancement of the many resources found on their land,” stated Rebekah Howey of the MET. “Their generous bequest is maintained as an endowment to support the activities and mission of MET, in accordance with the wishes of the Dillon family. The Dillon Award is made annually by MET to a landowner for outstanding conservation.” The Weise/Bartram easement also protects a sense of family history, Howey explained, as the property has been in the Weise family for over 50 years and was passed down to Kathryn and Carol from their parents. The donation also slowed development in the Thayerville area of the lake, Howey explained. “Over-development of the Deep Creek Lake region threatens to undermine the area’s greatest asset ─ its natural beauty,” she added. “The similarities to the Dillon sisters, including the obvious Garrett County connection, the commitment to conservation, and the family history of the property, deserve special mention. The Allegheny Highlands Conservancy worked closely with MET to preserve this land and protect the natural resources in Garrett County,” Howey said. The conservancy board sees part of its role as helping to solve the dilemma facing many Garrett County landowners ─ how to hold on to their property with an ever-increasing tax burden, or selling it for increasingly attractive purchase offers. Because heirs may not be interested in farming and forestry, owners are torn between wanting the land to remain as it has been for generations, or subdividing it to sell for financial benefit. Dr. Weise says that anyone in such a dilemma may want to consider contacting the AHC president, Kevin Dodge, at 301-387-3328 or contact the conservancy via e-mail at info@AlleghenyHiglandsConservancy.org
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