BOZMAN -This Eastern Shore estate, with its breathtaking waterfront, was supposed to be preserved forever, a natural gem that thousands of schoolchildren could visit to learn about the outdoors. That's what Jean Ellen duPont Shehan said she wanted when she donated her wealthy family's hunting preserve to the National Audubon Society 12 years ago.
It is easy to see why she felt that way. Even on a frigid, wind-swept day, the land teems with wildlife. A reclusive wild turkey scuttles away into the brush as a car rolls down the lane. Hawks swoop over grassy meadows in search of mice. Geese and ducks hug the expansive shoreline.
Audubon officials call the 950-acre tract glorious and impressive. But its future is in doubt. Pinched for funds like many nonprofits, Audubon says it must sell the place because the group can't afford to keep it up.
Shehan had been paying Audubon roughly $500,000 a year to maintain the property and as rent so she could continue to use part of it. But her health and finances have eroded, and the annual payments she had been making have dried up.
Audubon would like to sell the sanctuary to the state or to Talbot County so that the public could continue to enjoy its natural charms and access to Broad Creek. But governments are hard up, too, these days. If necessary, Audubon officials say, they will try to find a private buyer who will agree not to develop the land. But that might not be possible.
No one saw this coming, says Jacqui Bonomo, Audubon's executive director for Maryland and the District of Columbia. "There's just a convergence of a lot of negative factors right now, so we're trying to play the hand that we've been dealt."
The sanctuary's uncertain fate worries neighbors and those concerned about the inexorable loss of open space in Maryland.
"At the very least, we really would like to ensure that the open space remains," said Beth Jones of the Bay Hundred Foundation, which works to preserve the history and environment of the Talbot peninsula on which the sanctuary is located.
Others worry that tens of thousands of public and private dollars have been spent enhancing property that the public may lose the chance to enjoy.
A state Department of Natural Resources official says his agency has been approached about acquiring the land, but that funds are scarce and the Audubon tract is not a priority.
